re: When do you add your wood chips/chunks for a low and slow smoke?

Can't say I notice "creosote" with lump charcoal, some S. American sourced lump may burn a little smokey early on. If you are using a mix of prior used lump and new lump I don't see that as an issue whatsover. If you are doing a low and slow you are better off closing the lid after 8-10 minutes and you have placed wood chunks, meat, etc in the cooker. Using an electric starter and cleaning the ash/debris out of the bottom grate for clear air flow I typical pull the starter at around 8 minutes and place wood chunk/s and additional lump in quantity to provide enough fuel with a decent margin of safety, ie can run a few hours past estimated finish time. Here is an example. You are right about waiting until the fire is raging to close and cook and it wastes your chunks and lump.

Existing lump from prior cook after clean out, this was after replacing a cracked firebox I kept cooking on for 4.5 yrs:




If you are using fire starters, chimney, whatever it is similar. Place the wood chunks on the glowing embers and add more lump on that. With the Primo I always place the meat on the grate first to avoid being smoked out by the chunks, you may have to do that last with BGE with no real divided firebox. No terribly right or wrong way to get it done, but I strongly prefer the first 45 minutes or so be at low heat, say 200, and letting a large blaze form defeats the purpose and takes more time. Hope this helps, best thing is make sure the bottom grate is clear and have good air flow which makes regulating the temps much easier.

I really do prefer high quality dense lump, like Wicked Good, mixed with less dense like BGE or Royal Oak lump which are both produced by RO, it keeps a consistent burn over a lonnngg time frame. Keep working at it, you'll find a happy medium/process and have good outcomes.

MOT - sorry if my suggestion turned out bad. When I first got my BGE and never having used lump before, I ruined several meats, etc. The main culprit was getting up to temp before getting a clean burn and placing the meat on the grill. The bad smoke would impart an undesirable flavor. My children would refer to the chicken as "burnt house chicken" because that's what it tasted like.

Maybe I over compensate but after learning what I was doing wrong, I've never repeated by misfortune again.

You can certainly get a roaring flame my way. But what's important is getting a clean burn (which I usually key off the color of the smoke).

If it seemed to take to long to 'cool down', I would suggest stirring the charcoals once/twice after lighting, then closing the lid (with some part of the cap open), and monitoring the temp. Continue to adjust the vents as req'd until you achieve your desired temp.

One the target temp is reached, open the lid, add in your wood (stir if needed), position plate setter, then grill, and finally place meat on.

I really enjoy learning from others hopefully they'll continue the discussion.