Mark Welte
TVWBB Member
Last weekend I tried out the box of extruded coconut lump that I ordered from Kamado. The box was a little lighter than advertised at 15 lbs but overall I was impressed with the quantity of charcoal. I was doing an overnight cook with two pork butts and a brisket. The temp was 32 degrees when I started.
The WSM charcoal bowl will hold an entire box of coconut lump. This is a pretty good load of charcoal and I stacked the charcoal on end with all of the holes in the center of the lump facing vertical. I saved a couple of pounds for a friend so overall I probably had 11-13 lbs of charcoal in the pan. I lit the coconut by lighting some BGE lump in a Weber chimney. When it was going I poured it in the middle of the coconut charcoal. This was my attempt at the Minion Method with this stuff and within an hour the smoker was up to temp. One addition that I did add to the mix was a BBQ Guru to control the draft in the smoker. I placed the meat on the smoker, set the temp for 235, and went inside for a while. I checked on the smoker one last time to make sure everything was still going and turned in for the night. I awoke the next morning at 7:30 and went out to check on everyhting. The Guru was chugging along with the blower kicking on every couple of seconds to maintain temp. The temp that morning was 20 degrees and the wind was blowing slightly.
I checked the charcoal (9 hours lit) and to my surprise there was still about 1/2 a bowl of unlit charcoal. We continued to cook for another 8 hours at which that time we pulled the meat. The smoker still had enough charcoal in it that I felt I could have maybe pulled off a 24 hour cook. The coconut lump did not produce much ash at all and what it did was a fraction of what Kingsford would produce. In all of my previous cooks with Kingsford I had to add about a chimney's worth of charcoal at the 12 hour mark. At an elevation of 5500 feet the Kingsford does not seem to produce as much heat as it would at sea level. The coconut lump also had a sweet smell to it when it was lighting and did not smell anywhere near as bad as Kingsford.
Overall I was very impressed with this stuff. For long cooks this is the stuff to use. It is dense and burns a long time with little ash. The biggest drawback for this stuff is its price. At $13 a box for pallet quantities it can get pretty expensive. But when comparing it to other charcoals it may not be a bad buy if you can split a pallet with someone in you area. Overall if a person is willing to spend the money and can get a hold of it from Kamado it is a great charcoal to use in the WSM. The Naked Whiz has compared it to some of the other lumps on his site. He has some pretty good info for anyone looking for the "best" lump charcoal available.
Naked Whiz Lump Database
Mark
The WSM charcoal bowl will hold an entire box of coconut lump. This is a pretty good load of charcoal and I stacked the charcoal on end with all of the holes in the center of the lump facing vertical. I saved a couple of pounds for a friend so overall I probably had 11-13 lbs of charcoal in the pan. I lit the coconut by lighting some BGE lump in a Weber chimney. When it was going I poured it in the middle of the coconut charcoal. This was my attempt at the Minion Method with this stuff and within an hour the smoker was up to temp. One addition that I did add to the mix was a BBQ Guru to control the draft in the smoker. I placed the meat on the smoker, set the temp for 235, and went inside for a while. I checked on the smoker one last time to make sure everything was still going and turned in for the night. I awoke the next morning at 7:30 and went out to check on everyhting. The Guru was chugging along with the blower kicking on every couple of seconds to maintain temp. The temp that morning was 20 degrees and the wind was blowing slightly.
I checked the charcoal (9 hours lit) and to my surprise there was still about 1/2 a bowl of unlit charcoal. We continued to cook for another 8 hours at which that time we pulled the meat. The smoker still had enough charcoal in it that I felt I could have maybe pulled off a 24 hour cook. The coconut lump did not produce much ash at all and what it did was a fraction of what Kingsford would produce. In all of my previous cooks with Kingsford I had to add about a chimney's worth of charcoal at the 12 hour mark. At an elevation of 5500 feet the Kingsford does not seem to produce as much heat as it would at sea level. The coconut lump also had a sweet smell to it when it was lighting and did not smell anywhere near as bad as Kingsford.
Overall I was very impressed with this stuff. For long cooks this is the stuff to use. It is dense and burns a long time with little ash. The biggest drawback for this stuff is its price. At $13 a box for pallet quantities it can get pretty expensive. But when comparing it to other charcoals it may not be a bad buy if you can split a pallet with someone in you area. Overall if a person is willing to spend the money and can get a hold of it from Kamado it is a great charcoal to use in the WSM. The Naked Whiz has compared it to some of the other lumps on his site. He has some pretty good info for anyone looking for the "best" lump charcoal available.
Naked Whiz Lump Database
Mark