BGE Charcoal Question

[LA Pork Butt]

I have been cooking one the BGE since 2010 and when cooking low and slow have always followed the practice of stacking the large, followed by the medium and then topped with the small. While I know many don’t like Royals Oak I have had great success with its low ash characteristic. My only complaint was there often is a shortage of large pieces.

Now here’s is my question. While it produces more ash I have started using B&B because of their abundance of large pieces. Many are larger than anything I found in Royal Oak. Now I have more large pieces than I can use in low and slow with the three sizes. Will the low and slow fire burn okay if I just load the BGE with all large pieces? There will be plenty of air gaps, but I wonder if I run the risk of the fire burning out in a low and slow cook. Fogo users probably could weigh in on this one.

[Mosca]

Years ago I stopped paying attention to that stuff. All I do is dump the bag into the BGE until it’s as full as I want it to be. Sometimes it’s all big pieces, sometimes it’s rubble, sometimes it’s mixed.

[JCBBQ]

Yep. Same here.

[au4stree]

I use Jealous Devil, lots of big chunks, much like B&B. I recently burned a 10 hour cook on my KJ Big Joe III, still had plenty left over.

[LA Pork Butt]

au4stree was it mixed or all large? I have gone as long as 22 hours stacking charcoal. My concern was if I used all large would I run the risk of the fire burning out because of the large gaps created by using all large pieces.

[au4stree]

It seems like most lump brands, at the mercy of whoever handles it prior to me purchasing. I have noted more larger pieces in it vs my B&B. It also tends to burn a bit hotter. The way I set up my KJ, I don’t know if I would ever get a 22 burn time.

[Oak Smoke]

I may well have caught OCD from my wife. I still sort mine into 3 buckets. I also still build a fire with large on the bottom then medium, and lastly small on top. I’ve tried so many brands that I just stick with B&B. If I get a bag with lots of big pieces I always seem to have plenty of medium and small left from bags that weren’t as good. I just bought a bag of the premium B&B in the black bag. It was a nice mix of sizes, but not worth the higher price. I’ll just stick with regular B&B. Oh I should answer the question. I’ve tried all large pieces a couple of times. I had to use more than 1 starter square to get more than a couple of larger pieces lit. Other than that it worked great.

[LA Pork Butt]

I still sort, too. But, I use small and medium when I am grilling, so my stash of large is growing faster than my small and medium. Stacking makes sure you have good air flow and that the ash won’t clog your fire and shut it down. I was just wondering if anyone has experience with musing all large. I don’t fear ash clogging things, but I do wonder if large air gaps coupled with large pieces could cause the fire to extinguish.

[LA Pork Butt]

Spinaker can you help with this one?

[Spinaker]

You should be fine. You can always break up the big pieces. I avoid small pieces. You want medium, large and extra large they are the key.

[BBQandLove]

I found a source with consistently small pieces. It’s the best charcoal I’ve ever used, and the consistency is phenomenal, and it is so easy to get started.

[LA Pork Butt]

Do you use it for low and slow or for grilling? What is the brand name? I can see if it available in my area.

[BBQandLove]

LA Pork Butt, Pro Heat. Only available a few places in Ohio. I use it for low and slow and grilling.

[Spinaker]

To directly answer your question, Yes. You can certainly do a long cook with all large pieces, in fact, I would rather do that than use all small pieces.

In general, a good mix is really what you need. I find that Royal Oak only has small and maybe medium sized pieces of charcoal. So I choose to pass. (I’ve also found uncarbonized wood, metal and poly bag strings as well)

You want a mix that has some small pieces so the fire can easily jump from chunk to chunk within your firebox. That being said, for low N’ slow you want XL, L and M pieces for the majority of the charcoal load. These burn the longest, most consistent and prevent clogging of your fire grate.

Small pieces are fine for a hot and fast cooks. A load of charcoal with mostly Small pieces are not ideal when your fire is being left unattended for hours on end. As mentioned above, they tend to plug the fire grate or your charcoal basket.

I have found B&B to be very consistent, offering XL,L and medium pieces. Same with Jelly Devil and KJ XL. FOGO is my favorite but it is expensive.

Note: larger pieces are harder to start but they last much longer. Use a weed burning torch to light your kamado. You will never go back. My good friend and fellow Minnesotan, Skip taught me this years ago at his place.

[LA Pork Butt]

Skip I’ve wondered about the possibility of cracking the fire bowl, too. Similarity to you I think I am going to start using my chimney on my gasser slide burner to light charcoal.

[Skip]

My procedure for lighting is to put a chimney with charcoal on top of another empty chimney and then use the weed torch to light. I'm a little scared of the weed torch blasting hot air on my concrete driveway and cracking that...especially in cold weather. That's why I use the stacked chimney method.

[Spinaker]

The torch is so much more fun!!! 😂😂

[au4stree]

Something I thought of, I can’t get it regularly here, but B&B XL lump is really good too, priced in line with KJ lump, JD and Fogo. Have you tried or seen that bag of B&B before?

[LA Pork Butt]

I don’t recall seeing that bag. The B&B brown bag and the green bag give me all the large pieces I need.

[Spinaker]

Great stuff brother!

[au4stree]

Might be a good alternative, if you can get it.
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