The Weber charcoal is AWESOME! It burns hot & long. I haven’t found another brand that burns as consistent and as long in the briquette form as Weber. I won’t go back to Kingsford or Royal Oak. TOO MUCH ASH for me! Makes me wonder what is going into my food. The ash waste, eats the galvanized plating off my ash bucket. The price you see at Lowe’s now for the 20lb. Bag of Weber briquettes is the everyday low price of $11.99 a bag. Puts right in line with the others and it is a vastly superior coal in all ways. It does take a little longer to light, but when it does, it is all that and more! I am doing a brisket cook tonight for some good friends for their Super Bowl party, (I’ll grill for anyone, but I only BBQ for those I love & care for. It’s just too much work!) Using Cowboy brand Lump Southern Style 100% Oak/Hickory, minion method with Weber charcoal to start them. I’m thinking I probably won’t need much smoke wood and should burn very clean, is the big plus. I’ll post how it went after it’s all said & done. Blessing to all Go Pats!
Update: It’s 8:00am here in Sacramento and a few things I wanted to note. 1st, the lump charcoal worked well and I was able to hold temps down to 225 to 250, all night long which surprised me. I have heard that its difficult to keep temps down with lump. Started the brisket at 9:15pm yesterday, set up with my Thermoworks Smoke and we were chugging along nicely. I got up at 6:00am, and it was still ok. Not long after however, my temps started to drop to the upper 180’s, brisket was still at 150 where it had been for several hours so I decided to take some action. I saw I had plenty of coals but there was not enough lit to keep them going. So I added some Weber briquettes in the ring and some lit with the fire starter to boost the base. (Maybe 25 briquettes in all, wanted to make sure I had plenty for the duration of the cook) I wrapped the brisket in butcher paper and put the WSM back together and Temps now back up to a more realistic 275 to 300 to finish the cook. Will be headed to church soon and am confident everything will be lining up just the way it should be and have plenty of time for the brisket to rest, in the paper and foil pan, covered in towels in a cooler for at least a couple of hours. Thoughts: on low temps, lump will fizzle out sooner on longer overnight cooks. Maybe a mix of Weber briquettes and the Cowboy Lump? Hmmm? Stay tuned!
Final update: Well, 12:00 Noon in W. Sac and getting home from church, and alerts, buzzers going off on the TW Smoke base unit & receiver! It was just as I had planned & expected it to be. Grill temp was reading 246deg. & meat was at 201deg. PERFECT!! Couldn’t be more pleased with the results. One thing that I didn’t mention before, I did some WSM mods when I first joined TVWBB (THANK YOU CHRIS). I replaced the OEM hood thermometer with a Tel Tru 2.5” BQ225 for more accurate readings and what I found testing it against the Thermoworks Smoke registering at the grill, IT WAS SPOT ON!! It didn’t vary by 2 degrees. Very impressive. And for those who think you might want the bigger dial and the longer shaft thinking it will give you a better read, save your $$. The 2.5” fits on the stock bezel of the WSM hood, it looks good and is extremely accurate.
What have I learned? First, YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN get that clean burning blue smoke on your WSM. Here’s how you do it. I learned that Cowboy brand Lump (Southern Style) burns very clean and consistent exactly what I was trying to accomplish, although you can get 225-250 regular temps, it will fizzle out on an overnight cook.
Weber briquettes? Best briquettes by far. 100% hardwood, you can even hear them crackle a little when lighting, (I like that, believe they are what they say they are) they burn hot, CLEAN & long. VERY LITTLE ASH!! Going forward & after much experimenting, for long cooks, I am going to mix the 2. Going to put a layer of Weber briquettes on the bottom of the grate, fill it up the rest of the way with the Cowboy lump, create the hole in the middle for the minion method, light about 15 Weber briquettes to get the party started! This should give me the best of both worlds. The clean burn & flavor of the hickory/oak of the lump, and complete, even burn temps, with super clean results with the addition of the Weber briquettes. I won’t go back to Kingsford or Royal Oak. No offense to the die hards out there. I get it. For me, the ash and the eating of the galvanized coating of my ash can, along with the heavy smoke they create, is not what i’m Looking for. I hope this helps with some of the nu-bs and experienced bbq’rs as well. Bottom line, is Weber briquettes with the new everyday Lowe’s price point, is the only way to go. They also carry the Cowboy brand/Southern style Lump charcoal as well. $15.99 for 18lbs.
Rich Smokey blessings to everyone!