Which charcoal?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cuinrearview

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
1,154
Reaction score
7
Location
Delton, MI
I've been smoking with cheap charcoal so far and it seems to me like I have to refuel quite a bit and some white smoke is emitted when I do. I know that there's "premium" charcoal and lumps and what not. What I'm wondering is: is it worth it? What do you use and why?
 
I've been smoking for about 8 years now and have tried all different kinds and I keep going back to standard Kingsford. Works great and lasts.
 
I like True-Que available at Home Depots around the Southeast US. Works great in my Big Steel Keg. Royal Oak is pretty good too.

Or I use the Kingsford Competition briqs, get it bulk at Costco. It ashes a lot more than lump but starts faster, I use it when I'm just grilling more than smoking.
 
I've had a lot of problems using Kingsford. The "long lasting" part is what kills me: It takes forever to get the smoker to the right temperature. Even the regular non-long-lasting is too slow.

I've gone back to using the wal-mart brand. It's less dense, burns a bit quicker, but gets my smoker going much quicker too. Sometimes a bit too hot.

I probably should mix Kingsford + wal-mart brand together.

M_C
 
I have tried tons or different brands of both lump and briquettes and the only thing I ever use anymore is Stubbs Briqs. The only place I have ever found them is Lowes and it is $9 for I think a 16lb bag. They are great. Little ash, long burn time, and all natural so you don't get any of that nasty taste or smell that you get from most briqs.

I used to use lump for grilling and briqs in my UDS but now I use the stubbs for everything.
 
Red oak lump ftw. That's all I use in my egg for grilling, bbq ribs, butts, shoulders and making pizza at high temps. Every passionate grill person needs an egg.
 
We like to make our own. Have several apple trees that need regular pruning and uniform sized branches make excellent lump charcoal, as do fist-sized hunks of oak. Takes a kiln (modified 55 gal barrell, etc) and some time, but the charcoal is worth it. Several web sites have detailed instructions.
 
XL eggs are about $1K but you can get in under there for a large or even an XL if you get demo pricing from an eggfest. All in all briquettes are garbage compared to lump, even crappy cowboy lump from Sam's Club. Nakedwiz as posted earlier is probably the single most informative site on brands of lump and with info for who makes lump for others sold under different brands. RO makes lump for several different companies, Big Green Egg is one, I believe Kroger is another amongst many.
 
Thanks but there's no beating lump, IMO. I can get 18 hours out of a firebox (large BGE) of lump and an 8# bag of Royal Oak SH is under $5 by me
 
I use Stubbs and Royal Oak Lump, depending on what is available. My preference would be RO, but around here Stubbs is easier to find. I can't do Kingsford, especially for smoking. I don't care for the flavor imparted when fresh Kingsford briquettes are added.
 
Thanks but there's no beating lump, IMO. I can get 18 hours out of a firebox (large BGE) of lump and an 8# bag of Royal Oak SH is under $5 by me

I have gotten over 30 hours out of a bag of stubbs and there was still some left. Just saying, don't down it until you try it. It has all the benefits of lump and briqs without any of the downsides to either.
 
I have gotten over 30 hours out of a bag of stubbs and there was still some left. Just saying, don't down it until you try it. It has all the benefits of lump and briqs without any of the downsides to either.

I have gotten almost 2 full days out of a plain old bag of Royal Oak briquettes in a Spicewine insulated box smoker at a competition with a "U" shaped charcoal basket (modified Minion method) and a BBQ Guru. A lot of your results depend on the equipment you use.

basket1.jpg


basket2.jpg
 
That is an awesome idea. I have seen something similar to use with dust for cold smoking but never thought to do it on a full scale.
 
That is an awesome idea. I have seen something similar to use with dust for cold smoking but never thought to do it on a full scale.

It is just a basket that makes the Minion Method a heck of a lot easier and the charcoal last a very, very long time. The BBQ Guru helps alot too. We put a half a chimney of lit briquettes in the open bin at the front left of the basket, close her up and wait about 45 minutes for her to get up to temperature. For the rest of the cook the BBQ Guru does the work. At contests I laugh at all the guys with stick burners having to put a log on the fire once an hour all night long (although I have a Lang 84 deluxe also). We load the Spicewine up at about 7:00PM, put the briskets and the butts at 11:00PM and go to sleep for the night. At 8AM we wake up to start prepping ribs and they go on at 8:30AM. We have not missed a night's sleep at a contest since we got the Spicewine and use the basket and Guru.


BBQ Guru

digiqstuff.jpg
 
I am serisouly thinking about starting to do comps this summer and I just have no idea how someone in their right mind would try and pull it off on a stick burner.
 
I am serisouly thinking about starting to do comps this summer and I just have no idea how someone in their right mind would try and pull it off on a stick burner.

We started with a Lang 84 deluxe pictured below the Spicewine. It wasn't long before we realized this stick burner stuff was for the birds. My brother and I are pretty ugly so we need our beauty sleep. Then we discovered the Spicewine. The extra large Spicewine was $3500 when we bought it and we never looked back.


Spicewine=Good, go to sleep ugly, wake up not as ugly.......

700_P1010011.JPG



Stickburner=Lack of Sleep, ugly all the time.....

langsmall.jpg
 
I have been eyeing up spicewines, stumps, and superiors. I would love any of them but just can't part with the money. I will just stick to my army of UDSes for now.
 
I have gotten over 30 hours out of a bag of stubbs and there was still some left. Just saying, don't down it until you try it. It has all the benefits of lump and briqs without any of the downsides to either.

I'm not saying 18 hours for a bag, I'm saying an 18 hour cook without reloading. I can fill the firebox at least 3-4 times from nothing with an 8pound bag of lump.

I use Rock BBQ Stoker connected via wireless bridge to my home network. It's nice to get an email (tweets were nice to until Twitter changed the protocol) while I'm sleeping or out and I have a low and slow going
 
I buy GFS lump charcoal. Its made by Royal Oak and is by far the best charcoal I've ever used and I've tried dozens. Best part is that its only $12.99 for a 20lb bag.
 
The best good stuff I have found so far actually comes from walmart, the royal oak lump in the red bag. Pretty cheap, gets a good high temp when you want it, but can handle a low and slow as well. Not a lot of odd junk, lights easly.

I also like the wicked good weekend warrior, but its a little bit more expensive and sometimes harder to find. There is a site with reviews of different charcoals on a site call naked whiz. I don't use briquettes (or know how to spell it) since I use a komodo style grill (Bubba Keg)
 
pickles said:
Why would that prevent you from using briquettes? The inside of it is porcelein coated steel right?

BGE, Primo and some of the other komodo style recommend not using briquettes.
 
Why would that prevent you from using briquettes? The inside of it is porcelein coated steel right?

I think a big part of it is the ash production, you can use briquettes but if your doing a long cook (18 hours or so) they wouldn't work well
 
The cheapo Char-griller side fire-box smoker I have says in the instructions that for smoking, one should use hardwood logs, not lump/briquettes or chunks/chips. Says the logs achieve higher temps and you may not get hot enough with charcoal. I don't see logs at the grocery or Home Depot, does it really make that much of a difference? I didn't see anybody itt say they used logs.

I've just been using Kingsford and chunks and for anything other than short smokes ash build-up is a bit of a problem.
 
The cheapo Char-griller side fire-box smoker I have says in the instructions that for smoking, one should use hardwood logs, not lump/briquettes or chunks/chips. Says the logs achieve higher temps and you may not get hot enough with charcoal. I don't see logs at the grocery or Home Depot, does it really make that much of a difference? I didn't see anybody itt say they used logs.

I've just been using Kingsford and chunks and for anything other than short smokes ash build-up is a bit of a problem.

I have the same smoker. I generally start out with lump & chunks of wood, hickory usually. After a couple hours I switch to Ash. We have tons of Ash trees so it's cheap. I've modified the Char-Griller some (sealed with gasket, fire box basket, deflector & baffles, additional wheels) and it did make a big difference but still needs a lot of attention. It has made some wonderful Q up to this point but I just ordered the Ique 110 and anticipate better things will come with that. Cheers!!!
 
The cheapo Char-griller side fire-box smoker I have says in the instructions that for smoking, one should use hardwood logs, not lump/briquettes or chunks/chips. Says the logs achieve higher temps and you may not get hot enough with charcoal. I don't see logs at the grocery or Home Depot, does it really make that much of a difference? I didn't see anybody itt say they used logs.

I've just been using Kingsford and chunks and for anything other than short smokes ash build-up is a bit of a problem.

When I smoke it's low and slow, 230-240 is the range. That's hot enough, not sure what temps they are suggesting you smoke at?
 
When I smoke it's low and slow, 230-240 is the range. That's hot enough, not sure what temps they are suggesting you smoke at?

With the cheap offset smokers it takes a lot of fuel just to get to 225F and when you load them up it really takes a lot. This Q took 16 hours, 2 butts came off @ 10 hours but the rest were just stubborn. Cheers!!!

DSCN1797.jpg
 
Back
Top