re: Smoking Boston butt

My big offset has tuning plates, just below the bottom shelves, which give off radiant heat. Fat cap goes down to protect the butt from the higher heat. My smaller offset runs hotter at the top and the meat is closer to the top of the pit steel than it is the bottom, so the fat cap goes up.

What I'm trying to say is that I use it as a protective barrier to the hottest part of the pit.

Fat cap up or down? Folks have been fighting over this for as long as they've been throwing meat on a fire.