Today I purchased a new Weber at the local hardware store. The staff person who helped me said Weber now has its own charcoal. It is supposed to burn at half the rate of other charcoal with the same heat. I passed on it for now because I want to calibrate the new cooker with charcoal I know (KBB). Has anyone in The Pit used the new Weber charcoal? If so, any quick reviews?
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Never heard of it. Sorry! -
I have not yet used it. Here's a Kingsford Long-Burning Charcoal Briquets & Weber 100% All Natural Hardwood Charcoal Briquettes Burn Test 2017 that you might like.Comment
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Interesting reading! Thanks for sharing the link. I am trying the "longer burning" Kingsford but can't make a quantitative judgement. It seems to work on a low-n-slow cook, but I'm also using a SnS so that helps with temp control. -
Reds Fan 5 I use a SnS XL in my 26" which holds about 1-1/4 chimney but I only fill it full when I'm doing a long low and slow cook. 1 chimney or less, depending on what I'm setting up to cook, works just fine for me.
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LarryO47 I'm doing the same as you. KBB works well for me at a very good price especially when on sale. KBB for my kettles and PBC, and Kingsford Professional or Royal Oak lump for my BGE.Comment
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It looks like really nice charcoal, but man, is it expensive. I dunno, let's see....1 bag of Weber charcoal vs 4 bags of Kingsford when it's on sale....hmmm....not a tough choice.Comment
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I use Rockford lump, but a buddy who buys Kingsford "regular" exclusively on sale bought a bag of Weber for $20 at Home Depot and liked it despite the price. He an experienced griller and smoker/cooker and is seriously considering changing to Weber. FWIWComment
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I may pick up a bag just out of curiosity.Comment
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I picked up a bag about a month ago for kicks & giggles and for the price I did not come away impressed. I would say it compares to Kingsford Professional, but the chemical aroma that comes off of the Weber charcoal was a little off-putting for me when compared to Kingsford. First off I had a devil of a time opening the bag for the first time. While I like the idea of having a water repelling resealable bag for charcoal, I about lost my mind trying to open the "easy opening bag". Once I was able to get the bag open without totally mangling it, I poured a few briquettes into my SnS for a reverse sear on some steaks while also roasting some asparagus. The first thing I noticed was how big the briquettes were. They reminded me of the old, old Kingsford when each briquette was a huge black, smooth pillow. Firing them up took about the same amount of time as Kingsford Professional, but put out a little more smoke and that's when I noticed the chemical smell coming off of them. Once they got to burning clean the smells went away and the food didn't come away with any funny chemical taste. All in all they performed like they are supposed to, but at $20/bag there are better options out there for me.
Disclaimer: The aforementioned was not a scientific exercise comparing Kingsford blue bag, Kingsford Professional and the Weber briquettes side-by-side-by-side. It was just an exercise to cure my curiosity so your results may vary.Comment
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Craigar do you mind me asking what weight the $20 tag applies to....Weber have the grooved briketts across Europe,they are a big seller but pricey......i always thought they copied Kingsnorths grooves,,,the "plastic" shower resistant bag is something of a gimmick IMO...... -
Hi GreenBBQ it was the 20 lb bag. $20 for 20 lbs. These briquettes were completely smooth with no ridges. We must have the old technology on this side of the pond. Ha! The one thing about the bag is I didn't like pouring out of the front...I made a huge mess. Then again I always do.
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Kingsford makes bad grills, they should stick to charcoal
Weber makes bad charcoal, they should stick to grillsComment
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I just got an email from Weber offering trial bags of this charcoal. I should get my 4lb bag in 6 weeks...Comment
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Chiefsilverback I hope your test goes better than mine. Good luck!
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Well, all told, I have 6 bags of Weber charcoal piled into Rubbermaid containers in the garage, and figured I'd best get busy trying it out. I've done two cooks with it only, so these are early impressions. Both cooks were done on the PBC.
Things I Don't Like About Weber Charcoal:
1. Takes for-friggin-ever to burn in the chimney until the topmost coals ash over--and this is with my short/wide CharBroil Halftime chimney, which is way faster than Weber chimneys. Takes 25-28 minutes for Weber charcoal instead of the 10-12 minutes on average for that same chimney with KBB.
2. I have yet to achieve consistency of temp with it in my PBC. I've done one short cook and one long cook with it so far. The long cook was a disaster from a temp maintenance viewpoint because I kept having to remove the meat and stir the coals to keep the temps up. The short cook went a little better, temperaturewise.
3. The ash! OMGoodness, the ash! There's so much of it that it clogs up the space under my PBC basket.
4. Its flavor is more smokey, somewhat, than KBB. I like the KBB flavor better, even though I'm a smoke flavor hound. It did not appear to burn with more smoke in the PBC, though, as compared to KBB, but that's a subjective evaluation. I did not add wood to either cook.
5. At the end of the cook, after the fire has burned out, I have maybe 20% of the original number of coals left, either partially burned or untouched. I've never ever seen that amount with KBB or Kingsford Professional. Plus all of the partially or unburnt coals are clustered in one portion of the basket, usually furthest away from the PBC vent. I think the buildup of ash under the basket prevents a complete burn of the coals in the basket.
6. The price is too high, unless purchased on super duper sale (which I did).
Things I like about Weber Charcoal:
1. Hmmmm. Ask me later. I'm keeping an open mind until I use it on my WSCGC with/without the SnS.
2. Oh, I do like the resealing feature of the moisture-proof bag, once I wrestled the darn thing open. That "tear easy strip" was anything but tear-easy. More like swear-easy.
Stay tuned.
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; December 2, 2017, 07:58 AM.Comment
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I’m not finding the same issues as you fzxdoc. I actually seem to have an easier time controlling temps in my WSM and I find it produces less ash. Of course, I had been an occasional WSM user before but been really into it lately so it may just be my skill that’s improved!
The main reason I started using it is it seems to produce less smoke when it lights which I prefer on long cooks. I just got a few bags at a "new lower price" of $11.99 at Lowe’s. Not sure if that’s temporary(it didn’t say "sale") but it’s a much better choice at that price I will say.
I still use KBB for grilling though.Comment
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Well, that's good to hear, Psinderson , because I really want to like Weber charcoal. I'm eager to see how it does in kettle and kamado experience on my WSCGC. I'm leaning toward the notion that the volume of ash from the Weber impedes air flow in the PBC during long cooks which affects temp stability, but have to do more cooks with it on the PBC to be sure.
FWIW, according to the experiment in the link that fuzzydaddy gave us earlier on this topic, Weber produces the same percentage of ash as KBB (18.6%) but more volume (5 cups KBB vs. 6 cups Weber).
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; December 2, 2017, 09:19 AM.Comment
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It’s probably just me then. Since I own everything Weber there might be some bias there too. 🙂Comment
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I'm a big Weber fan too, Psinderson . That's one reason why I want Weber charcoal to work. Plus the bags are still on clearance at my local Lowe's.
KathrynComment
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Used the sample they sent for a couple of 2 zone cooks on a WGA and wasn't overly impressed or disappointed either. Really wanted it to dazzle me with performance but in reality it lost out to my Walmart rule (which applies to cooking, ammo, toothpaste, and tequila). Stick with what can be found at any Walmart, anywhere. KBB works consistently and may be the most consistent thing in our lives.
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