Yeah, that much smoke means too much fuel, and it's not combusting fully. A good BBQ has little smoke because it's burning cleanly.
Beer is one of those things that I don't think I'll ever get why people drink today. It used to taste a lot better, but these days it seems it's all about how hopsy you can brew it, and that just makes it taste terrible :/. At least there's some beers that try to make them not taste like cat piss smells like, but they're few and far between, in my experience. If anyone's curious (and legally can have a beer), try a radler, and see if it suits your tastebuds; I'm partial to Schöfferhofer's Hefeweizen selection (if I have to drink a beer) since it's already a low bitterness 'weissbier', and the sugar from the fruit juice mixed in can make the bitterness disappear entirely (or incorporate it into its own flavour in the case of the grapefruit variety).