My Kettle Pizza Setup / Results

[PuRowdy]

Okay so I got my kettle pizza in the mail and set it up.  I had also ordered 2 new stones, a 16" Fibrament for cooking on (http://www.bakingstone.com/order.php) and a 21" Cordierite Shelf (http://www.axner.com/cordierite-shelf-21roundx34.aspx) for above to hold the heat down.  When I did these first pizza's in the pics I was going with the basic setup of the kettle pizza and using my old stone (don't know what kind it is)

I totally burnt these pizzas inedible, the amazing thing was that it took under 2 minutes, my stopwatch was at 1:50 when I pulled the first pizza.  The top wasn't finished, just a total failure.  The second pizza I took off the brick after 1:30, it was still burnt, but not quite as bad, still nothing I was proud to serve.  The top wasn't close to being finished after 90 seconds so I held it on the peel off the stone to try and cook the top some more.

All in all it wasn't good, but I was cooking at insane temps, I'm guessing this thing was close to 1000 degrees. 

My thoughts:

I had way to much wood, I'm going to severely cut back on the amount I use.  The brick was way to close to the flames and the type of brick may have been wrong.  It was in direct contact with the flames which I think super heated it.  I didn't have a top brick when I did the first pizzas which I have now which I hope will help cook the top a bit quicker.  I have a new brick for the bottom to cook on, it has a metal tray it will sit in which I hope helps prevent it from super heating and burning it inedible in such a short time.

Making some doughs tonight, will report back later this week with results from the new setup and fuel.

Here are the pics from the first go.

http://imgur.com/a/oTepD

[buceriasdon]

You must lower your top stone down until the bottom of the stone is level with the front opening. You'll have to drill holes and use screws and nuts to support it. You don't have enough top heat and yes, you may have too much heat below. And buy a IR gun to measure temps with.

[pizzaneer]

What Don said. +1.

[PuRowdy]

Thanks for the info, I will look into drilling those holes and moving it down, gonna have to double check to make sure the new stone will fit all the way down but I don't see why it wouldn't.

I have an IR gun, I got one that had the highest max temp at my local Lowes, but I think it only goes to the mid 700's.  Will do some playing around and see what I can pull off.  Thanks for the advice.

[ccgus]

Did the Fibrament stone not come with a metal tray?  That'll be necessary, or you'll need some other buffer to keep the heat down on the bottom stone (plus, the fibrament folks say not to let it touch direct flame otherwise it'll probably break).

One thing I always did was put the coals in the back, along with the wood pieces (and they were short pieces of apple wood).  I also put a couple along the sides, which helped out.  I rarely put any directly under the fibrament because it just got too dang hot.  Here's some pics I've just uploaded which gives an indication of my setup (+ some results): http://shapeof.com/pizzalab/images/2012/marvin/

This next one is how I place the wood before the stones go on: http://shapeof.com/pizzalab/images/2012/marvin/IMG_3058.jpeg

[PuRowdy]

The fibrament did come with a metal tray.  Also realized for the first bake I had the bottom stone way to low, I had the grate in its original position lowered in the grill and not sitting on the lower wingnuts of the Kettle Pizza. 

I have raised it and have everything in place for the next bake, except that I haven't lowered the top stone.  I may try to do that this afternoon for tomorrow's bake.

Thanks for the detailed pics, appreciate it.

[PuRowdy]

Round 2

Been playing around with the setup a bit, getting closer, still need to lower that upper stone, but overall things are getting better.  Its definitely a bit tricking finding the right wood to use and how much to use, and the proper placement of the wood.  This time I had placed the charcoal and wood all around the bottom of the grill.  Ended up superheating the stone because flames were coming up over the edge of the metal tray and burning the stone.  I'm surprised it didn't crack but it didn't.  Had to let it cool down a bit as I think I would have run into issues cooking as hot as it was.

By the time I cooked the flames had died down and the stone had cooled slightly to something like 750.  Here are the latest pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/mRhWT

Having friends over tonight to watch the Colts play and have pizza.  Going to play around with the placement of the wood and see if I can get more stable results. 

[PuRowdy]

Here are the pics from last night, pretty happy with the results.

http://imgur.com/a/T1Nvt

[ccgus]

Here are the pics from last night, pretty happy with the results.

Nice!  Looking good.