Charcoal in the UK


 
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paulbelfield

TVWBB Member
Good Morning,

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere but I recently moved from the US to the UK. Of course I did bring my WSM with me and I did manage to bring a small supply of Kingsford charcoal with me.

Now I am running out and I need to find charcoal in the UK that is comparable to the Kingsford.

Anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks,
Paul.
 
Thanks for the information, where are they available from? Like B&Q Focus DIY or do I need to go to a special BBQ shop?

Thank you,
Paul.
 
Hello James,

I moved from San Francisco to Trentham which is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent. I went absolutely everywhere on Friday and Saturday trying to track down these bbq beads and could not find them anywhere. It could be the time of the year and perhaps I will have more luck finding them as we get closer to Summer.

Sill not to be put off at my first bbq of the season using lumpwood which is a little harder to control but in general I think the WSM is such a well engineered cooker that you can get away with lower quality fuel.

Anyone else used lumpwood?

Paul.
 
Your timing is probably a little early - the "sheds" (B&Q / Homebase et al) usually have some pretty good own brand briquettes by now (they vary year on year) and often stock Heat Beads too - I thought they were Australian but perhaps the brand has been bought up by Weber.

I came across some Weber ones on the web (from a google ad at the bottom of this forum) Weber heat beads but have never used the company.

In terms of composition there was thread on here a long time ago where the Big K brand briqs were discussed and the manufacturer confirmed the composition as charcoal plus some starch binder. I believe some brands put other things in too!

You'll find many on here that use, and prefer lump, I use both but prefer lump once I find a decent source. Take a look under the mods section for double charcoal grate-ing.

Be warned the self same sheds clear out the charcoal pretty early on, especially if the weather is poor.

All the best and welcome to the UK!
 
Well I was shopping one day in the Tafford Centre on the outskirts of Manchester and in John Lewis they had Weber BBQ beads. Picked up a bag and I used them last weekend. They are a pretty good product. Actually I was surprised about how much they are like Kingsford. They lighy easily and the burn time seems comparable to Kingsford.

I agree about using lump since it is readily available here in the UK. The problem I have with this is that the pieces are all different sizes, so in a bag of lump you get about a dozen large (~8-10" chunks) and then a ton of small rubbish. The small stuff burns away in no time.

So anyone know where to get good quality lump from? and if so then can you recommend and brand that you have used in the WSM? and that comes in predominantly larger chunks?

Paul.
 
I'm a fellow q' head in the UK wondering the same question!

You can get heat beads about the place, but I wondered what members think of own-brand stuff you can get from the B&Q/Homebase/Tesco/Sainsbury's of this world.

Any recommendations?
 
Hi Mark

In my experience the Homebases/Tescos and so on change their charcoal each year and just have it own labelled so I usually buy a bag or two and try it before I commit to a bulk buy. In the past I've had good experiences with both Homebase and Tesco, avoiding the instant light.

I've bought clearance lump from Homebase but made sure to choose the non-squashed bags, I think it was about August time. One other thing I've done is a big charcoal order from tesco.com much to the amusement of the driver - costs a fiver for delivery and you don't get to make sure the bags don't get squashed but worth it in my book as long as you've tried a bag first.

On another note my wife added a bag of briquettes to our last grocery order from Tesco.com and they claim to be eco friendly as they are made from waste cotton trees! I'm not complaining even if they are rubbish, I'm just over the moon she ordered some.
 
Hi James,

Thanks for that, I just had visions of the Tesco delivery guy carrying 10 bags of charcoal up to your doorstep!

I also noticed that both Sainsbury and Tesco are selling cotton-wood charcoal - which it claims have the same burning characteristics as normal charcoal.

As far as I know, you can't get Kingsford over here - maybe we UK Q heads should band together and import a palette of the stuff - should see us through the winter!
 
UK Charcoal Update!

My local Tesco Extra has heat beads for £3.97 for a 4KG bag.

This compares to the Weber branded version which I've previously bought for £4.99.

The shelf ticket on the heat beads read 'discountinued' so I guess Tesco have bought a one-off job lot from somewhere and when they're gone they're gone!

I availed myself of a few bags...
 
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