Starting your stickburner

[6th Borough BBQ]

I normally start my stick burner using logs with Weber cubes underneath and after about an hour tend to be ready to go with a descent bed of coals. It takes awhile but has worked well and produced great results. I also have a flame thrower of sorts that is hooked up to a propane tank but haven't used that often as the setup takes a bit more time and is a bit risky using at 6am when I'm normally starting and half asleep.

I was considering trying lump coal tomorrow stated via a chimney to create my coal bed, and then switching to logs from there. Anyone have experience trying this method? Any advantage/disadvantage I need to be aware of? I was thinking If I did it this way It would be easier to start with he perfect coal bed vs. the other methods.

Also, if there is some other great method I"m not aware of, please let me know. Thx!

[flht01]

I use a chimney with either lump or kbb, whichever is handy for a coal bed. Let it get started good and dump it in the firebox along with a split. By the time you've got tbs all the aftertaste of the starter lump/kbb will be gone. It's a simple and quick way to get an evening cook done on an offset.

[Nightrayne]

For me, it depends on what I am cooking. My firebox can handle a full size log and I have a heavy duty expanded metal grate across the entire bottom that is raised to give me about 3 inches of clearance for ash to fall through:

1. Low and Slow stuff: I make a "box" by putting a full size split on the left and right of my fire chamber and a full load of unlit kingsford at the front. Then I dump a full chimney starter load of lit kingsford in the back and put a piece or two of large split wood on top at an angle and let it all start burning with the door open. About 10 minutes later, I shut the door and start dialing in the temperatures til it gets set well. Vents are usually mostly closed.

2. High temp fast stuff like chicken: I make the same box sides of split, but then only put a lit load of kingsford in. Only one stick at a time on top and I try to use the smallest diameter pieces I have. firebox vent stays wide open, and I control things with my stack vent. This allows me to get a very small, but very hot fire so I can smoke closer to 325.

cheers,

[Steve R.]

A chimney starter of of lit charcoal and a couple of splits does save some time. That's my go-to method.

[DWCowles]

I have never and never will put charcoal in my Lang. It's a stickburner and that's exactly what it's going to get. That's just me though. 😎

[Nightrayne]

=P

I was that way for a long time, but I got tired of having to wait so long to get a good bed of coals. I rarely have the undivided time to just sit and cook on the weekends - I am always multitasking with 100 other things and chasing kids.

[6th Borough BBQ]

Uh oh. So I'm at risk of going to the dark side if I put something other than sticks in my Lang?!

[PaulstheRibList]

#StickburnerCode

[ComfortablyNumb]

Directions that come with the KBQ are to use lump charcoal with the chimney, which is referred to as the 'Quick and Dirty Method'. The alternative is sticking an electric charcoal lighter under the wood in the firebox, referred as the 'Slow and Lazy Method'. I use the cheapest lump available and a Weber chimney. A few sheets of newspaper and it's going in a matter of minutes.

[Spinaker]

This is the only time I get the Royal Oak out.

[vandy]

I am with you Spinaker, that is the only reason I have a bag of Royal Oak on hand, once I run out of that I will probably just use regular charcoal to get it fired up.

[EdF]

I do the same as ComfortablyNumb (with a KBQ), except I got some kind of firestarter thingies as a freebie with the BBQ Dragon. Logs on and pretty much ready to go in 20 minutes. Part of that is thanks to the KBQ smoke cleaning design.

[Stevo]

i start my stick burner with a chimney of lump charcoal. Then add in splits and they get going quickly. I think I'm usually ready to start cooking about an hour after the splits go on. Get the fire up and burning hot, then let it die down and start maintaining at ~275 for my pit...

[Stevo]

although my stick burner has been lonely since I bought my pellet burner.

[DWCowles]

Fire that stickburner up!

[Steve B]

Yeah what DW said. Fire that mother up.

[Huskee]

I used to use a torch then I got tired of standing there with a torch thinking of all the fuel I was burning through. Now I use about a half chimney of charcoal and once it's well-lit lay it down in a line and begin piling my logs on top in twos, perpendicular to each tier (forming a rising box) about 3 maybe 4 tiers high. I like to let the bottom ones burn down to coals and the top & middle ones I'll remove once they're black and crackly and save. If I have time I'll repeat this until I have 6, 8 or a dozen pre-burnt logs to use through the cook. My logs are about 10-12" long and usually quarter split.

[bbqncigars]

My Klose horizontal stickburner gets started with a Weber chimney full of charcoal and a 1/4 log, but it's got a home-insulated cook chamber and firebox (1" thick ceramic fiber blanket under an aluminum flashing shell). Usually takes 1/2 hour or so to get it over 220 degrees F.

[edible hen]

I usually start with 2 splits with a line of Kingsford Pro in between them for regular smoking startup. For cold weather startup/high temp smoking(poultry), I will cross stack 2 more splits as shown in the picture. This usually get me up to to 240+ in about 45 minutes to an hour.

[cmiller0711]

I start up with newspaper and small 3"-6" sticks. Then I have small chunks that I throw in roughly 15 3"x3" chunks that I have pre-cut. By the time those are done I have a good bed of coals and my cooker is right around 225 around an 1hr - 1hr 1/2 in. Then I just feed it logs after that and hold temp.

[rat88]

1/2 a chimney of kbb is usually my goto unless I dont have any, then it is kindling jenga with a little help from the air compressor to make a forge (I now have an air dragon for that duty). I only use that method for weekend cooks due to the extra added time to get the heat to settle in and a bed of coals going. I always wanted to try heating with hot coals only, but never got around to it. I have a fire pit close to the cookers and the big vertical has a pull out fire box I could burn the logs down in. I may combine this with the Liquid smoke experiment so I wont have to worry about temps and over smoking the meat

[Oakgrovebacon]

I have been using a "weed burner torch" attached to a 20lb propane tank - some small sticks (1-2") with splits on top. About 10 min and hot fire, hot smoker (300-350 range) shut off the burner and slide the intake dampers to about 1/3 open. Within 20 more min. Close dampers down some more to get about 240deg grate temp. I have had pit at cooking temps within 20 min on several instances with torch lighting method and very dry wood. Sorry I do not have a picture of this at this time. It does work very well.

[PaulstheRibList]

My Favorite way is as follows:

1. Get out the Kindling Cracker and a straight split. Break the split down into a bunch of small pieces.
2. Arrange the small pieces as a lattice inside the firebox. Put a smaller split or two on top of the lattice of small sticks.
3. Light the Weedburner and put it on the fire. Keep the weedburner on there for 1-2 minutes. If you pieces are small, 1 minute. If they are bigger, could use 2-3 minutes.
4. Your pit is hot and your coal bed will be ready for long term action as soon as those small sticks burn down.
5. Using this method, my giant Myron Mixon 72xc is at 250 degrees in...FOUR (4) MINUTES!

I know I took some pics of this in the Mixon, but I can't find them. I took a video of this on the Jambo, but there are a couple of audio and lighting quality prob's, so I just pulled a couple of shots from it.

[EdF]

Slick!

[PaulstheRibList]

Oh, wait, I found a better video of using the weedbuner to light the Jambo!

https://youtu.be/FSRQ2pxUFIA

#StickburnerForever

Here are the coals 18 minutes after 1st light: