Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I had not heard of the Barrel House Cooker before receiving the announcement in my email. After taking a good look online, there are three design features that appeal to me: the removable barrel, the central air intake, and the curved hanging rods. These are three shortcomings of the PBC. I love my PBC, but I'm placing an order for a BHC.
I have both, I caught the BHC on a walmart clearance for 90$. The BHC is easier to work and holds temp better. I have trouble with my pbc running cold. The PBC is sturdier and just looks cooler. Identical food I like them both
The detachable barrel means you can add charcoal easily, you can empty the basket without diving deep into a dirty barrel, and you can use it to sear directly over the charcoal basket. The indentations are reversed inward to create a natural shelf. Not using the vents to hang rebar means you can plug them w/o reducing hanging capacity. Hinged lid reduces chance of warping. It's a refined design. Good decision by PBC.
We have created the versatile Pit Barrel Cooker as the original vertical drum smoker and charcoal grill. Get your barrel smoker and charcoal grill today.
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
Reese Bobby from "Talladega Nights": "Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth." Translation -- you do your best, that's what matters!
Using a medium Green Egg, and yes, I have a Thermapen!
Well, they already had a settlement a year or two ago, and at that time BHC agreed to pay royalties to PBC going forward. I will make a guess that either they couldn’t make their royalty payments, or an option to buy them out in the future was part of that agreement from a year or two ago.
So are they planning on coming out with a new product or something? I mean something with temp control? Or is the 55 inch the only thing coming? Which I'm pretty sure is going to be expensive.
They are going to keep them separate entities and are currently selling off current stock, for now. As for new stuff, not sure if they even know that, or want to spill the beans on it.
PBC plans on rolling out a 55 gal in coated steel and stainless steel. They intend to keep PBC and BH separate and distinct brands while possibly sharing design features among each.
Now that the settlement appears settled, we'll be looking at Barrel House in the near future.
RobertC No. Even after the settlement was announced, the products were out of stock at the Barrel House website every time we checked. The situation was in a state of flux and we had no idea what the outcome would be. As it is already impossible to cover the thousands of viable grills and smokers on the market, we chose to not consider reviewing Barrel House until the dust had truly settled.
That's not what you said a couple of years ago when there was no shortage of BHCs. You said then that you were a fan of PBC and since there were so many other options you wouldn't review it. There are still lots of other options, so the number of options couldn't be it.
We wrote previously: "The Barrel House Cooker is a 14" diameter UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) that very closely resembles Pit Barrel Cooker, a company we admire very much. Indeed, Pit Barrel has taken legal action against Barrel House.
As there is no shortage of BBQ Equipment for us to review, we are sitting this situation out until litigation is complete."
Reading between the lines, it looks to be like a settlement out of court. But PBC gains overall if they also acquire BHC parents on their design.
We're all speculating here unless someone on the forum legitimately is a confidant of Glanville or the BHC folks. BHC is/was a subsidiary of MD Manufacturing of Bakersfield, Ca., a 60ish year old central vacuum system company,. If you look at the canister/vacuum housing of a central vac system you'll see a similarity to the small barrel design. I suspect that the known, at one time, potential manufacturing relationship that PBC once had with MD/BHC that likely resulted in the infringement suit, went full circle here. We're almost two years beyond the law suit settlement which didn't stipulate a buyout as part of the terms disclosed, so likely there's something else in play here. BHC wasn't as committed to marketing their barrel cookers anywhere near as passionately as PBC was. A common mistake that companies who branch out into products they're not intimately familiar with. They fall prey to the adage; "Build it and they will come.". Getting a new endeavor off the ground successfully is akin to a wheel barrow; it don't move if ya don't push it. As a sideline to their vacuum business they gave it short shrift and ultimately got bored/motivated with it not being a "pot of gold" or whatever they expected. Toward the end of last year they stopped sales from their own web site, cancelled dealer relationships, and only offered ship direct products through Amazon. That's the kind of thing a struggling company will do as a cost saving measure. Probably eliminated an employee or two from a "sales" department. If they tried to sell the subsidiary they likely learned that there proforma statements didn't support any kind of realistic sale price to attract viable prospects. Their best way out likely was this sale to PBC.
The capitalist in me laments the loss of a viable competitor, as competition usually helps with improving the breed. That said, it's possible that Glanville understands that some of the design features of the BHC are desirable from a marketing and maybe performance standpoint and this is a graceful way to roll them into his product line. Perhaps there's a PBC 2.0, or whatever, that will be an amalgam of the two. BHC doesn't have enough market presence to justify running as two separate entities, but at this time in the process Glanville isn't ready to reveal his plans in full. As Mr. Bones says, it will be interesting to see where the trail leads.
Last edited by Uncle Bob; April 1, 2020, 12:58 PM.
Yeah, I lament the loss of BHC too, well not really, reading why they went to court makes me glad I don't have anything for someone to rip off. Like a guy told me, "It ain't the cost of the patent, it's the cost of the lawyers to fight the people who knowingly infringe on your patent, cause they know they can possibly drown you in lawyer fees."
Seems like the BHC could not come up with an original design of their own, so they stole from PBC (per news reports of legal settlements) and from what it looks like a lot of what a WSM does. It appears now, Noah & the PBC team, own the rights to incorporate design features to better compete with the WSM and other barrel smokers.
When I was shopping for a barrel cooker, I looked at the BHC & PBC, the PBC felt like better quality. Of course, price point was a factor at the time or I would've gone with a Gateway Smoker. Alas, I'm happy with it and look forward to the future of PBC.
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