Burn Times/Best K


 
M

Morrey Thomas

TVWBB Super Fan
My question relates to charcoal and finding a briquette that gives me the longest burn time.


My recent cook almost made it to my goal with the setup as follows:

22.5 WSM
10 cfm fan
Guru Digi Q DX
Maverick ET 73
Kingsford standard briquettes
Foiled clay saucer in H2O pan
Fan damper half open, WSM top damper half open

I loaded 6 butts on at 9pm. Three weighed 10 lbs each on the bottom rack. Two were 5 lbs each on top rack, other was 7 lbs also on top rack.

Guru set at 225 pit. Goal is to pull butts at 195 internal, foil and rest in Cambro.
Cooked in recessed area of a sheltered barn, no wind, temp 80, moderate to mod high humidity. Balmy but still night. Loaded full 20 pound bag into ring. Lit off with 15 coals Minion method. Used six hickory chunks about palm sized staggered through coal mound. WSM got up to temp within 35 min.

Pulled two smaller butts at 6am. Internal temp got a bit ahead of me (Yep..I was asleep) but at 200 internal they were ok. Pulled the third butt at 730am and was at 195.

Other three butts were large and two got pulled at 11am after checking with Thermapen. One was 197, other was 195.

Last butt for some reason was at 185 and the center muscle was resistant to Thermapen pen push. I decided to keep it on another half hour of so. Guru started running constantly. Temp never could get up to speed. Coals were spent.

Has anyone used coals with really good long burn times? I thought 20 pounds would do the trick. I realize I was loaded with meat and that has effects. I use a clay saucer foiled in pan for stability. I only opened the lid for pulling the done butts, so I was not in and out of the cooker often.

I am searching for tricks to extend the cook time including the best burning K for this need. I got caught short time time and had extra K to get me thru.

Thanks
 
Morrey,

The new "hardwood" K should burn hotter, which means it should last longer for the same amount of weight. You may want to give that a try.

There are other briquettes, which are far better than K IMO, but they are more expensive. One example is Wicked Good Charcoal briquettes. They are not cheap, but made from real hardwood and burn much hotter than K and are very dense, so they should burn for a very long time. I have not used them, but have used their lump, which will last forever. (full ring of their lump in my 18 WSM went for 20 hours with last 4 hours at 350 and still had a lot of charcoal left) Also, their briquettes only have a starch binder so the reviews on their briquettes have also said their ash production has been very low.

Hope this helps!

Kg
 
Keith;

I will try to locate Wicked Good Charcoal in my area. I haven't seen it on store shelves, so finding it may be an issue. Kingsford standard briquettes are available at Sam's Club which is only a few minutes from me. I will call a specialty grill store today to see if Wicked Good is avail. I saw other posts stating Wicked Good was a top choice. Thanks for the input. The search is on!
 
Morrey,

On Wicked Good Charcoal (WGC), you may be able to buy it locally in SC, but not sure. There are not many places that carry it, but you can check if any local distributors exist through their website (www.wickedgoodcharcoal.com). You can order it online from their website as well. Shipping is not cheap, since you can only order 6 11 lb bags of briquettes in one shipment (unless you order a pallet). There are a couple of places that are within 45 min of me that sell it, but for what they sell it for, you can have it shipped to your home within a day or 2 for the same price or less.

The downside to WGC is the price due to shipping. There are other hardwood briquettes available that may be near you that may be less, so you may want to try them. But I will tell you that my experience with WGC (lump at least) is that it lasts for a very very long time. I am not exaggerating by saying that when I used K before, I would use at least 2 bags, if not 3, for the 1 bag of WGC 22lb lump I use now. So even though it appears to be a lot more money, I think you will find it really is not much more.

Good luck,
Kg
 
You are helpful Keith, and I appreciate your good info. My local grill superstore owner tried to sell me on the Big Green Egg charcoal telling me it was the best stuff in the world. I dont believe that after reading reviews and he is selling what he has in stock. I am ordering 66 pounds (max FedEx amount) of the Wicked Good for a test. If it meets my expectations, I may order a pallet and split costs with some folks in my area who know good charcoal. Thanks again Keith.
 
No problem Morrey. You may know about this site, but I found it very useful for reviews on charcoal so I would pass it along in case you haven't seen it. Here is a link to one of their webpages that has some briquette reviews:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/productreviews.htm

And here is a great page on lump reviews:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag

I wish I lived closer to you as I would go in on the pallet order with you!
icon_smile.gif


I hope the briquettes work out for you. The naked whiz website gave it a good review. And here is a good comparison on them with the new K Competition briquettes.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/produ...sfordcompetition.htm

Good luck,
Kg
 
Morrey: also on the Big Green Egg charcoal, you may want to read the review in the lump link I provided above. IIRC, it is the same as Royal Oak lump (just branded BGE) and you just pay a higher price for the BGE name. Still good charcoal as RO was rated very high, but you can buy RO for much less.

Good luck,
Kg
 
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