I’ve not tried lump charcoal since a bad experience with Cowboy lump and a July 4th cook 10 years ago where all my burgers were bursting into flame due to the lump cooking so much hotter than the KBB I was used to. Anyway, around Thanksgiving I was at Academy and picked up several bags of B&B to try - I got their regular oak lump, the hickory lump, and the char-logs. Impressions on each below.
B&B Char Logs:
I used these in the fire box of my small offset to smoke two 19 pound deconstructed turkeys for Thanksgiving, with a couple of chunks of hickory wood. The char logs are really just extruded charcoal briquettes of varying length. They light readily, and burn well, and are pretty well suited to a small offset or other smoker that can handle larger pieces of charcoal. I don’t think they are anything I would ever burn in my kettle though, as the pieces are 3-4 times larger than a briquette, maybe bigger, and just are not well suited for use in the SnS for example. Ash was fairly minimal, and overall I was pretty pleased.
B&B Lump:
I’ve used most of a bag of the hickory lump now, and was very impressed. I used this in the offset firebox along with hickory chunks to smoke 6 racks of baby/loin back ribs for my son’s birthday. Lighting the lump in a full size Weber chimney, it lights up much faster than I am used to with briquettes. It burns very cleanly, and I was able to get through a 6 hour rib cook with only adding more to the firebox once per hour, maintaining the cook around 250 the entire time. Ash was very minimal compared to any other charcoal I’ve used before. While there were a few large chunks, most of what was in the bag was moderately sized, not much powder or tiny pieces, and I feel this would work in my kettle with the SnS.
All in all I am favorably impressed with the B&B products. They light quickly, and burn with minimal ash -the lump more so than the char logs. I will try the B&B briquettes next, as I am on a search for a replacement for the Weber briquettes that I cannot find locally anymore. I will most certainly buy the lump again, but think I will pass on the char-logs.
B&B Char Logs:
I used these in the fire box of my small offset to smoke two 19 pound deconstructed turkeys for Thanksgiving, with a couple of chunks of hickory wood. The char logs are really just extruded charcoal briquettes of varying length. They light readily, and burn well, and are pretty well suited to a small offset or other smoker that can handle larger pieces of charcoal. I don’t think they are anything I would ever burn in my kettle though, as the pieces are 3-4 times larger than a briquette, maybe bigger, and just are not well suited for use in the SnS for example. Ash was fairly minimal, and overall I was pretty pleased.
B&B Lump:
I’ve used most of a bag of the hickory lump now, and was very impressed. I used this in the offset firebox along with hickory chunks to smoke 6 racks of baby/loin back ribs for my son’s birthday. Lighting the lump in a full size Weber chimney, it lights up much faster than I am used to with briquettes. It burns very cleanly, and I was able to get through a 6 hour rib cook with only adding more to the firebox once per hour, maintaining the cook around 250 the entire time. Ash was very minimal compared to any other charcoal I’ve used before. While there were a few large chunks, most of what was in the bag was moderately sized, not much powder or tiny pieces, and I feel this would work in my kettle with the SnS.
All in all I am favorably impressed with the B&B products. They light quickly, and burn with minimal ash -the lump more so than the char logs. I will try the B&B briquettes next, as I am on a search for a replacement for the Weber briquettes that I cannot find locally anymore. I will most certainly buy the lump again, but think I will pass on the char-logs.
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