Newbie Crisis--Need fast advice!!

[babyhewi]

Hey all-
Smoking first time on OBS w/Jim Beam biscuits and 7# butt brined overnight.  All seemed to be going well.  Filled pan 1/2 full with water, loaded biscuits, got temp to 225*, vent open full.  Kept watching for several hours-all well.  Left house for 1 hour came back and temp spiked to 240*.  Got it back down.  Kept eye on when smoke dissipated, knowing I would have to hand forward the last one (no Bubba puck yet).  Opened it and saw:  no water at all, two unburned pucks off to side on bottom of smoker and two more on conveyer belt (term?).  Quickly emptied burned pucks (one was partial) and refilled 1/2 way with fresh water and set pucks back up and put the other two in shoot.  Any idea what happened and/or what I should do?  I don't want to keep opening but still have one hour of pucks/smoke after it's been on for 4 hours.  HELP!!!
Thanks in advance,
Tara
PS just looked and its smoking and temp is coming back up.  didn't open door.

[babyhewi]

Update- I had vent half open.  Maybe that was problem.  Now wide open. 

[FLBentRider]

We should have told you that there will be two unburned pucks on the runway. That is normal.

Those of us that use "puck savers" or "bubba pucks" use three.

Pork butt is tolerant of the temp spikes.

No worries!

[babyhewi]

ok. but 2 fell off runway in addition. but thanks for reassurance!!!

[DTAggie]

Never have heard of that problem.  Like FLB said, the butt will be fine

[Habanero Smoker]

The two unburnt bisquettes indicates you had a problem. Hopefully it has corrected itself.

If you had one hour (3) of bisquettes left after 4 hours of applying smoke; how many bisquettes did you load?

Where the bisquettes that were on the side show any signs of being burned?

Where the briquettes in the bowl, completely black?

Try filling the bowl 3/4 full. I now that the manual states half full, but as what happened to you; it will dry out quickly.