Amateur Barbequarian? 
Yes, I do use the minion method, and it works great! Also I mentioned I had heard about using sand, and didn’t think I wanted to mess with it, but you have me thinking of maybe trying it after all.
Nice link, thanks! I have a 3-panel hinged plywood thing I plan to use as a windbreak, similar to the pics in that link. If I can find something like the welder’s blankets relatively cheap to cover the plywood, I think it’ll work nicely.
Harbor Freight Welding Blanket. Not great for welding, fine for a smoker.
I have no problem at all with a gas grill, as I own one myself. There aren’t many charcoal grills on the planet that do a steak as well as a TEC (not the kind I have).
I’m not sure what that rant on tools was all about, though. That was kind of weird.
Once I went to sand, I never went back. It doesn’t evaporate, you don’t have to refill it, it’s relatively easy to clean up (just throw away the foil), and it holds temps rock steady, as opposed to water which evaporates and if you’re not paying attention, you can be BBQ’ing with an empty water pan and temps shoot up. (That said, you don’t have to be anal about temperatures. Just keep it in the ballpark as well as you can. I’ve successfully made barbecue on supremely inefficient, jury-rigged cinder block smoker where the temps ranged anywhere from 175 to 350, settling in mostly in the 250F area, and all the pork butts and brisket turned out fine.) The water is not really there to add moisture to the meat (and adding any flavorings to the water pan like juice or beer or whatnot is a waste of perfectly good juice or beer or whatnot, in my opinion. I have never noticed any difference in the final product.) Moist air does have somewhat better heat transfer, but I have not noticed using dry air having a negative impact on the final product (if anything, to me it seems to work better with a dry heat in terms of bark formation, but the difference is not hugely noticeable.)
This is exactly what they recommend on America’s test kitchen.
Echoing the others, it’s the wind, not the air temperature.
I’ve toyed with the idea of making a wind block contraption for my WSM but never got around to it.
The hinged plywood sheets trifold design is popular and seems easy enough.
While my first couple cooks were with water, I’ve since gone to a foiled clay flower pot saucer. It wasn’t hard to find one that fit just right in the water pan at Home Depot or Lowes or something. Dealing with the mess and hassle of the greasy postcook water will not be missed. And if you’ve ever left the used water in the pan for a couple summer weeks, you’re undoubtedly aware of the disgusting mushroom farm that results.
Learn From My Foolishness Storytime: My smoker blew over a couple years ago during a terrific thunderstorm. There were some grease trays inside with former contents spilled all over and ruined the cover (there’s still stains on the pavement, too). Laziness set in and I didn’t replace the cover for the rest of the summer. Fast forward to the following winter and I go set up the smoker. Finding it a bit heavier than expected, a quick check found five inches of solid ice in the bottom, right up to the vents. The goofy design ensures that any water on the smoker ends up dripping inside! My patio has a roof but is otherwise open so I guess some windblown rain accumulated or snow melted and refroze or whatever. I couldn’t budge the ice and was on a schedule so I came up with a brilliant plan: Turn the bowl section upside down and put the chimney starter on the bottom while the charcoal lit. Sure enough, I could see some water dripping, then pooling and, after maybe ten minutes, the sound of an ice block clacking on the pavement was a pleasure to hear. I remove the chimney and was horrified to find that the porcelain had flaked off and the steel was badly wrinkled from the intense heat. The damage done, I later drilled a small (3/16"?) weep hole in the bottom so at least water won’t pool anymore.
Like TriPolar, I have found that I tend to grill in the warmer months and smoke/BBQ in the cold.
Lately, the quality control on the Royal Oak lump has seemingly gone to hell. I routinely find matchstick-sized pieces of completely unheated wood and many larger pieces of blackish-brownish semiconverted lumps. They are easy to find in the chimney since they are flaming bright yellow and belching black smoke. It also smells like burning wet dog. I am worried now that it is smoking season. If a large piece of this crap goes unnoticed in the bowl, it could contaminate the cook with that poochy stench. I may try a bag of briquettes.
Do it! or a foiled clay flower pot saucer. You won’t go back to messing with water again. I promise. It’s so much easier throwing out foil versus dealing with a pan full of greasy water.
If you’re going to do water, by all means preheat the water before you dump it in. I’ve done that and it helps the temp come up faster.
I put a metal garbage can over the bullet smoker. I use this method year round. Protects it from the wind.
The BBQ turned out pretty well. It was frosty when I started at 4 am, but it warmed up to low 40’s and there was little or no wind so I had no trouble keeping it up to temp and I didn’t bother with a windbreak. In fact, I overcompensated too much at first and left the vents too open and the temps shot up in the 325 range. Took a while to get things down to medium/high smoking range, 250-275. The meat was ready hours early because I usually keep it 225-250. The tip about when it’s done too early, wrapping in foil after taking the meat out of the smoker and keeping in a cooler kept everything warm nicely, great tip there. The pulled pork was perfect but the brisket was a little dry, maybe because of the higher heat (not that anybody complained).
I tried the sand instead of water. It seems to keep things at a steady higher heat range than water. I think it would work well for BBQing in below freezing temps, but for warmer weather I might stick to water. Think it bears more testing. Does make for an easier cleanup than a bunch of greasy water!
Thanks again to all for the tips!
Brisket is always a tough one, especially if you were just cooking a flat. I usually do a whole packer cut–point and flat–and that seems to always work out better. Personally–and maybe this is just coincidence–but I find that the 275 range actually seems to yield moister meat than the 200-225 range. Now I don’t know if it’s just small sample size or maybe the less time overall it spends cooking, but that’s my personal observation. There are those who do brisket even higher–up to 325-350 (look up high heat barbecue brisket.) I don’t quite go that high, but the mid-upper 200s is my personal sweet spot. Experiment and see what works best for you. Lately I’ve been doing barbecue without a water pan with great results. It tastes different, though, as you have fat falling into the fire and making its own smoke, which gives the meat a bit of a hybrid smoked and grilled flavor. Personally, I like that flavor. Lots of experimenting to be had!
I’m new here but wanted to chime in about sand as well. I’m using sand for the first time ever as a heat sink at this very minute. The temps from my last cook were all over the place, but the temps using sand are incredibly stable … even in my leaky CharGriller.