[dtw]

Wow! That is a rough smoke session. Part of it may be opening it up every hour - smokers hate being opened. For butt/shoulder, I like to brine the pork in advance (24 hrs or more), rinse/dry, rub, toss in smoker, then leave it alone.

Last shoulder I did, I also had a problem with a temp plateau. Managed to get to 165 and hold it for a couple hours, so I just went with that. Got a little bit dry on the outside, but on the whole it was tasty and delicious.