Mike Willsey
TVWBB Member
Sure SP, glad too share my experiences with making lump charcoal. It took me a few years to get it right. Maybe I can save someone else what can be a long learning curve!
First off, An open invitation for anyone visiting or living around my area. To participate in making a batch of lump! Just give me a holler!
Right now, the wood that I'm using is coming from an oak tree that I had cut down on my land. But to me the wood is not critical. As once it has turned into carbon, carbon is carbon, even if it came from pine 2x4's. The wood is split as you would standard fireplace wood and seasoned.
I have found the following technique to give me the best results. A drum in a drum, indirect. It gives the best quality lump, large pieces and consistent. Before, too much came out as thumb size.
OK, take a 55 gallon barrel, the kind with the removable lid, and another barrel that will fit inside of it, but still allow you to place the lid on both barrels. And so you can build a fire under and around the inner barrel. (I resorted to using a 20-gallon trash can for the inner drum.)
The 55 gal. drum needs to have an opening cut out of its lowest side, about the length of a keyboard and twice as high as a keyboard is wide. This is where you load wood under the inner barrel.
Support/raise the inner barrel with bricks stacked under the inner drum or run rebar through the outer drum, as high as it will go but keeping in mind that you'll want to be able to put the lid on the outer drum.
Take the inner drum and drill 6 holes about 3/8 inch big, equally around the perimeter of the inner drum about 1/4 the way down from the top, line the bottom of the inner barrel with brick the best you can.
Load up the inner drum, which is already placed inside the larger drum. As much wood as you can fit in packing as tightly as you can. Then place the lid on the inner drum.
Next, load kindling and trash logs/wood around and under the inner drum. Use what ever you have, even pine as the only important thing is that you get a hot fire going.
So, get your fire going, it will take about one hour of steadly adding wood under and thin sticks around the inner drum, to get a decent bed of coals under the small drum. (lid is off the big drum this whole time)
By this time you ought to be able to start seeing flames actually shooting out of the small drum! This is the gassing off of the wood loaded in the small drum as it "bakes".
You will continue to add wood, but at a much slower pace, under and around the small drum, just enough to keep the flames shooting out of the inner drum. Until finally you see them starting to die down, perhaps you'll see 3 out of the 6 holes lit up and the others have no flame. About 2 more hours.
At which point you place the lid on the outer drum, which helps retain as much heat as possible. Then you walk away from it and let it sit there until the next day where you will find your fresh lump ready to go. Probably enough to fill a 33 gallon trash can 1/3 of the way full.
I have some web links on my MSN group that have pictures of other folks making lump in a variety of ways.
I use a plastic 33 gallon trash can to store my lump in. Thats all folks!
Regards, Mike Willsey (Piedmont)
Please visit my MSN Group: "The Practical Bar B Q'r", A great barbecue resource; Filled with links and down-loadable documents on building or buying a cooker, recipes, and links to other great bbq sites. Free membership to all!
http://groups.msn.com/ThePracticalBarBQr/newwelcome.msnw
First off, An open invitation for anyone visiting or living around my area. To participate in making a batch of lump! Just give me a holler!
Right now, the wood that I'm using is coming from an oak tree that I had cut down on my land. But to me the wood is not critical. As once it has turned into carbon, carbon is carbon, even if it came from pine 2x4's. The wood is split as you would standard fireplace wood and seasoned.
I have found the following technique to give me the best results. A drum in a drum, indirect. It gives the best quality lump, large pieces and consistent. Before, too much came out as thumb size.
OK, take a 55 gallon barrel, the kind with the removable lid, and another barrel that will fit inside of it, but still allow you to place the lid on both barrels. And so you can build a fire under and around the inner barrel. (I resorted to using a 20-gallon trash can for the inner drum.)
The 55 gal. drum needs to have an opening cut out of its lowest side, about the length of a keyboard and twice as high as a keyboard is wide. This is where you load wood under the inner barrel.
Support/raise the inner barrel with bricks stacked under the inner drum or run rebar through the outer drum, as high as it will go but keeping in mind that you'll want to be able to put the lid on the outer drum.
Take the inner drum and drill 6 holes about 3/8 inch big, equally around the perimeter of the inner drum about 1/4 the way down from the top, line the bottom of the inner barrel with brick the best you can.
Load up the inner drum, which is already placed inside the larger drum. As much wood as you can fit in packing as tightly as you can. Then place the lid on the inner drum.
Next, load kindling and trash logs/wood around and under the inner drum. Use what ever you have, even pine as the only important thing is that you get a hot fire going.
So, get your fire going, it will take about one hour of steadly adding wood under and thin sticks around the inner drum, to get a decent bed of coals under the small drum. (lid is off the big drum this whole time)
By this time you ought to be able to start seeing flames actually shooting out of the small drum! This is the gassing off of the wood loaded in the small drum as it "bakes".
You will continue to add wood, but at a much slower pace, under and around the small drum, just enough to keep the flames shooting out of the inner drum. Until finally you see them starting to die down, perhaps you'll see 3 out of the 6 holes lit up and the others have no flame. About 2 more hours.
At which point you place the lid on the outer drum, which helps retain as much heat as possible. Then you walk away from it and let it sit there until the next day where you will find your fresh lump ready to go. Probably enough to fill a 33 gallon trash can 1/3 of the way full.
I have some web links on my MSN group that have pictures of other folks making lump in a variety of ways.
I use a plastic 33 gallon trash can to store my lump in. Thats all folks!
Regards, Mike Willsey (Piedmont)
Please visit my MSN Group: "The Practical Bar B Q'r", A great barbecue resource; Filled with links and down-loadable documents on building or buying a cooker, recipes, and links to other great bbq sites. Free membership to all!
http://groups.msn.com/ThePracticalBarBQr/newwelcome.msnw
