The minced onion was too big to go through my injector (duh!) so I injected apple juice instead of my usual mix with rub.
I had a great fire all of this morning up until about 7am. The meat was just over 150F at the four hour mark. Then my fire started to get hot and I struggled to keep it below 300F. Yikes!! This grill leaks air like crazy - so even with the vents closed it was still rippin'. Time to get a recteq pellet grill?
I did my best to keep it mopped and the temps under control. Mopping isn't going to put moisture into the meat but it seemed to keep the bark moist.
Mop was 1/2 apple juice, 1/2 apple cider vinegar, 2T rub, squirts of ketchup.
It temped out at 200F around 11AM. A 10.5 hour butt cook is my fastest to date. I feared for the worst.
It wanted to fall apart coming off of the smoker. Clean pull on the bone after letting it rest.
There is probably 5-10% that I won't bring to the carry-in. It's too dry for my taste to serve. I gladly ate it for lunch.
The flavor is spot on classic bbq - nothing funky like my other rubs. It has a nice sweet smoky forward into pork flavor that finishes with medium heat. I would definitely do this one again but skip the granulated sugar. There were a few bits where the granulated sugar burned. I've never had that problem with 100% turbinado rubs. (A member warned me about that a year or two ago)
Edit: typo
I shredded it and included some of the tastiest burnt ends in the top left corner. Now off to the picnic.