charcoal conspiracy theory - I know what happened to Weber Briquettes


 
John K BBQ

John K BBQ

TVWBB Wizard
OK, I don't really know what happened to Weber brand briquettes, but I did try a bag of Jealous Devil Briqs and they look, feel, and burn a lot like the Weber brand used to. Maybe Weber Briqs were really "private labeled" Jealous Devil briqs and the contract ran out??

Has anyone else tried the JD Briqs? Don't they remind you of Weber Briqs?
 
I can‘t say that JD and Weber aren’t the same. What I can share is that Weber briquettes are alive and well in Canada and are manufactured by Royal Oak. I will typically find their classic “ridge” charcoal pieces in the Weber bags from time to time.
 
Bradley Mack said:
I can‘t say that JD and Weber aren’t the same. What I can share is that Weber briquettes are alive and well in Canada and are manufactured by Royal Oak. I will typically find their classic “ridge” charcoal pieces in the Weber bags from time to time.
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When I wrote Weber (a while back) asking them to continue to offer their charcoal in the US, part of the response was to check out Royal Oak, that they make really good charcoal right here in the US. That to me was the proof that Weber was made by Royal Oak, but I have never found a Royal Oak product that is close to Weber.
 
Very interesting comments here - I agree, Royal Oak being the manufacturer of Weber Briqs makes more sense than JD, and now that someone mented it, I think based on memory the JD briqs do smell differently than the Webers used to. I wish I had some Weber Briqs so I could do a side by side but just don't have em'
 
Michael Richards said:
When I wrote Weber (a while back) asking them to continue to offer their charcoal in the US, part of the response was to check out Royal Oak, that they make really good charcoal right here in the US. That to me was the proof that Weber was made by Royal Oak, but I have never found a Royal Oak product that is close to Weber.
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How do Royal Oak briquettes compare to KBB?
 
Chris Allingham said:
Same in many Euro countries. Weber has been in and out of the US charcoal business twice since I started barbecuing with my WSM in 1997.
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I have to wonder if it’s due the large R.O. offerings across the U.S. Here in Canada (at least where I live) we have access to R.O. Classic ridges briquettes and their lump, which is packaged in a blue bag and also contains the phrase “Star Grill” under the R.O. Logo. It’s the cheapest lump I’ve come across, but have yet to try it.
 

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I have used many varieties of RO, in there brand and in re-branded bags. All have worked very well, with no real differences that I was able to tell. However, the several bags of Weber that I tried all had an odor when burning that reminded me of lighter fluid. So much so that I checked over the bags thoroughly to make sure that it wasn't Weber's version of Matchlight. I am the minority here for sure, but the Weber briquettes were never impressive to me. That said, if they are/were made by Royal Oak, it must be some very special or different formula, because the smell of RO and the smell of Weber were very two different things, at least to my nose.

Charlie
 
I've used the Royal Oak Stargrill lump for ever. Have experimented with a couple of other brands of lump but never saw any real advantage of using it. The RO lump is cheaper and works fine for me. As for the Weber briquettes just recently got a bag of it for my kettle to play with. Seems ok so far. I'm really surprised it is not available in the States. Doesn't show on Weber US web page, but is on Canadian. This is one of the VERY FEW cases where we can get stuff that the US can't:) Intrigued to know what the reasoning is, to much competition possibly and they don't move enough in States. Who knows?
 
Royal Oak is kind of inconsistent with their branding and labeling, it seems to me. The brown bag stuff from Walmart has worked out well for me. Occasionally, they'll have a red, white, and blue bag that isn't as good. I don't care for the regular red bag that much. It could all be the same product and it's all in my head. I guess Kingsford does that with premium/professional/competition or whatever is going on there. I'm just incapable of understanding the subtleties, I guess, or getting older. I have a meltdown every time I try to find the Aggie game as sports networks are going the same route. I thought I had Fox Sports but I had FS1 and FS2 which are not the same. I had ESPN 1, 2, 3 and the OCHO but not ESPNU last week.
 
Jeff Boudman said:
How do Royal Oak briquettes compare to KBB?
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I find that the RO takes a little longer to get up to temp, not sure why. Also runs just a tad colder, which just means my vent settings are more opened with the RO than the KBB. The RO has a bit of a stronger smell when first lighting too. Other than that, I don't really worry about which one that I have, I use whichever I have and whichever was on sale. They both make really good food.

Charlie
 
What is hard to find now (at least here in Switzerland, same for France I'd say), is the Weber Charcoal. The packs I bought this year (3x11 kg) were disappointing: no large chunks, many small pieces which made the lighting process very hard (lot of smoke, poor air flow in the chimney), and the overall temperature lower than usual. I don't know, maybe they are selling the last packs, maybe it's just a storing problem. But now, I struggle to find large chunks of good charcoal.
As for briquettes, I don't know how I could live without my faithful Weber briquettes. I still have to find a decent contender. Last time I tried decent briquettes made from olive trees, but they don't last very long compared to the Webers.
 
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