I'm a fairly new user if an 18.5 as well and have experienced the same thing as you with the KBB. I tried Stubbs and have had MUCH better results. They burn longer and produce much less ash. I did a butt that took 14 hours and didn't have to touch the coals once using the minion method.
To share my experience, I bought some pink butcher paper off amazon
and did a 7.5 pound bone-in pork butt yesterday and I wrapped it in the paper at 165 till finish (took it off at 200). I let it sit for 45 min and the thing literally melted when I pushed on it, it was moist and tender and the...
Cant say much about Royal Oak, but I bought a bunch of bags of the Stubbs charcoal the same weekend, they were on sale for 7.99 a bag at Lowes. Im pretty blown away at the performance of this charcoal. They burn much much longer and cleaner than KBB and produce very little ash. This will be...