I think this has been the single-most frustrating smoke I've encountered since purchasing my WSM just over 4 years ago. I did a couple of pork butts, although technically one is still going since it's not quite to 185. I tried getting 25-30 briquets lit in the wee hours of this morning and finally had to toss them and start over...fortunately the next batch got going OK. By 2am I was in need of rest and things seemed to be headed in the right direction so went to bed. I checked on things about 9am and found the lid temperature was only 170 so fired up some more briquets and got it up to 250. Both butts hit a pretty long plateau at 165ish. I finally resorted to foiling and pulled one off about 20 minutes ago, the other is still going. The only other time I've been into one smoke almost 19 hours was when I did 6 butts at once. This was my first long smoke with Royal Oak and I'm not sure it that played a part or not. I've had reasonably good results with it in the past. I suppose one positive aspect to the whole thing was the fragrant aroma in the backyard while I did some work on a landscape project.

I'm going to start pulling the one that's done momentarily and I'm sure after a couple of samples that all of the hassle will not seem like that big of a deal.