Smoking de la mer

I'm pleased to report that we successfully smoked fish and seafood on the Weber Bullet. We ran for five hours, with the temperature steady between 150 and 170, never any higher. Here's the technique:
We covered the bottom of the charcoal chamber with a single layer of briquettes, with hickory chunks mixed in. It was more like a layer and a half, because I wanted the coals to fill the chamber; I didn't want any 'open' space, so to speak. Then we lit 15 briquettes in the chimney. When the briquettes were lit, I placed them over the charcoal (using the Minion method), but tried to keep them toward the center of the chamber, and not near the edges, so that all the heat would be below the water pan, and would be as indirect as possible.

After assembling the bullet, we placed the scallops and salmon on the lower rack, and the shrimp and halibut on the upper rack. Susan wanted things cooked a little more, and as we expected the upper rack to be warmer, we put her fish and the shrimp on the top rack. Also, we were interested in seeing if parchment paper would work, both to keep the fish from sticking to the rack, and and to lessen any mess. So we placed parchment paper over the lower rack, poking holes in the paper to allow additional smoke to pass through. On the upper rack we used one of those disposable screens, and folded it in at the edges, to prevent stuff from falling off, and also to allow the screen to fit easily into the bullet.

After we got everything assembled, I could already feel the heat from the fire, so at first I closed all air vents to only one-third open. Not enough air flow, so I quickly opened them, to one-half open. The bullet promptly came to 150 degrees, and stayed very steady. I probably could have stayed at 150, but wanted to see a bit more heat, so first I opened one of the lower vents all the way. Then after almost three hours at 150, I used the chimney to light a few more briquettes, and twice added 5 lit briquettes to the charcoal. Also, I periodically added some small hickory chips that helped generate additional smoke. I know the experts say you don't need a lot of smoke, but when smoking fish at low temps, I like to see smoke generated pretty much all the time.

The extra briquettes brought me up to 165 to 170 for about an hour, hour and a half. At the end, the temp fell back to 150. Seafood smoked for a total of five hours. Everything was great. Scallops and shrimp had that translucent texture, smoky flavor throughout, and sweet exterior from the brown sugar marinade. I thought the fish was a bit cooked, but Danny and Susan raved about it. Danny thought the halibut had the look and feel of smoked whitefish. (Of course, it lacks all the fat one finds in whitefish, and fatty fish are the very best for smoking.)

Anyway, we were pleased with the outcome, and excited that we could run the bullet under 200 for an extended period. An interesting observation when we were disassembling the thing later on. The charcoal in the middle of the chamber burned out, but there remained a ring of unburned briquettes all around the exterior of the ring. I guess when you use the minion method, the coals burn vertically, but don't necessarily burn laterally. So because I used only 15 hot coals to start, and added the additional hot coals to the middle of the chamber, the stuff around the edges never burned. That helps explain why the temp stayed low.