Kingsford to B&B briquette conversion rate

[jhapka]

I’m branching out and trying some B&B briqs this weekend. The SnS lighting instructions say start with 12 lit briqs and the PBC says start with 40. The B&Bs seem to be larger and burn differently than KBB from what I hear. Any B&B users use fewer briqs to get things going or just follow instructions?

[Old Glory]

No offense but do you really need to be that precise?

If you think you do, you could weigh them.
12 KBB weigh XX.
Weigh out XX B&B and it should be the same amount of fuel or very close.

[jhapka]

None taken. The SnS I’m not too worried about but I know the PBC’s behavior over long cooks is very sensitive to the number of coals you start with. I’m a cheapskate so I’m trying to cut down on as much trial and error as possible.

[RobertC]

1 KBB briquette weighs 25 grams, so here are 18 KBB per pound, so 12 KBB = 2/3 lb.

[Huskee]

I agree with Old Glory, but also my gut says try 10 B&B briquets in the SnS, more will light as the kettle's coming up to temp regardless of how many you dump in fully lit, so it's not that precise of an endeavor. I get that it's fun and scientific minds like numbers and data though. You just need to get to your cruising altitude, so if you're aiming for 225F, 6-15 briquets would get you there, 6 much slower and 15 much quicker. 9 or 10 might be a good place to start.

[TNPIGBBQ]

Be cautious is my advice, I don't own an SnS but on the PBC I use 15-25 lit KBB briquettes to get B&B going. Probably would cut that down to 10-15 were I actually lighting the B&B themselves. Same goes for Weber or any other large high quality briquette. The burn profile is dramatically different than KBB. They don't burn out quickly enough to even things out along the way like you can with KBB. Or at least that's been my experience.

[DurhamBuckeye]

Could you elaborate on your lighting procedure with B&B on the PBC?

Do you light 15-20 KBB in the chimney, burn until they start to ash on top, then pour over basket full of B&B? And after that, what do you do?

I am picking up some B&B this weekend and have my lighting regimen down with KBB, but never used B&B.

[TNPIGBBQ]

@durhambuckeye

Stick them in the chimney, let them get mostly ashed over, give the chimney a good shake to knock the ash off the coals then toss them on, spreading evenly with a rebar.

I do 5-7 minutes with the rebar in and the lid off. My cooker runs hot though. Then add meat and probe and go from there.

[DurhamBuckeye]

Thanks TNPIGBBQ

[Huskee]

I think we need our resident expert on B&B Jerod Broussard to weight in here!

[Jerod Broussard]

I think I dropped down to about eight. But one thing to keep in mind, it takes a bit longer to get these things well lit.

[Huskee]

The freight trains of briquets.

[jlazar]

Would you recommend KBB for starting and B&B for the snake.

[kelton]

For my PBC I only use 25 instead of 40 because they are so big. I haven't used it in my SNS for smoking yet, but I"d probably only start with 5 or so and go from there. What I think would work is placing the 5 in a chimney starter and that way it's sure to catch and then pour it into the SNS next to the unlit charcoal with some wood placed close to it. That would work.