Hello from Hemel Hempstead, UK

Hi! My name's Colin Irwin. Until this year I've been a 'British Barbecuer' - that is, I grilled meat on a succession of charcoal and gas barbies.

A few months ago I went on a business trip to a conference in Memphis, Tennessee and had my eyes opened to the delights of true barbecue. In one week I managed to go to Rendezvous, Interstate BBQ and a few places on Beale Street.

I came back all fired up (sic) with enthusiasm to reproduce the smokey, tender pork & chicken that I tasted in Memphis.

I've had a few failures but a lot of success. I've got a Costco gas barbecue with a huge grill area and a large hood. However, I found that it was using way too much gas and getting too little smokiness when I tried chips and pellets on it.

I decided to experiment with placing a pan of charcoal briquettes and oak/mesquite chunks on the left had side of the grill and place the meat on the warming rack. I found that all the smoke escaped out of the back vents so I placed a dampened towel over the back of the grill to slow down the rate of smoke escape.

This technique works really well but the charcoal loses temperature as the ash level in the pan rises and I end up using gas to maintain the heat.

Anyway, I came to a decision last week. A grill is a grill - what I need is a proper smoker. So, after some research online (including here) I decided to buy a Pro-Q Frontier (the Excel is too big for my needs, I think).

I'm sitting at home right now, waiting for City Link to deliver my Frontier. I can't wait.

Hi and welcome Colin!
The Frontier should easily do all you want and more.
Any questions, just post them in the "New to BBQ/ Smoking" and someone will be along to answer shortly.

Good luck with the Frontier mate. I'm sure you'll have a lot of success with it. The good thing about the Pro Q's is that they are very easy to get good results from and difficult to destroy anything on.

You'll probably find you get a lot of success very quickly, the fun bit will be trying to get it just as good as the grub you had in the US