UK Charcoal


 
D

David S UK

New member
Hi all

Just got myself a 14.5" WSM and have a pork shoulder in there as we speak. It came with Weber's own brand charcoal, but I'm struggling to get it to stay at 250f. One of the suggestions on the main website is regarding different brands of charcoal burning at higher temperatures etc, and it recommends a brand that isn't available in the UK. Does anyone have any recommendations from this side of the Atlantic?

Cheers
 
I have been using the Weber Premium Briquettes (white bag with red trim) with good results. Use the Minion method with almost a full basket of briquettes and half a chimney of lit briquettes keeps the 22.5" WSM going all night no problems at all. A good friend of mine uses restaurant lumpwood from Booker Cash & Carry with good results as well.

Also try not to use cold water in the water pan. I always fill it up using boiled water from the kettle (takes 3 kettles to fill). Make sure that the bottom vents & the lid vent are fully open until you reach required temp, and partially close the bottom vents one at a time until the temp stays steady. You may need to adjust the bottom vents through out the cook. The temperature will be more unstable if raining or windy as the WSM is not insulated, so you may need to play around with things until you get it right.

How are you monitoring the temperature? Calibrate your dial thermometer with boiling water (should read 212F/100C).

Make sure that the fuel you buy has not been subject to damp storage as this will not help.
 
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Hello and welcome!

I've tried a few different fuels in my wsm and I'll try to give you a run down on each:

Briquettes -
Aussie heat beads - burn hot, slowly and are very high quality. Probably the best briquettes you can get in the uk, really quite expensive though.

Weber - haven't tried these personally, but they're supposed to be good quality, though second to heat beads from my reading.

Supagrill Wonder Briquettes - quite new on the market and again haven't tried these yet, but labelled as restaurant grade and have good reviews. Not as good as heat beads/webers. Will be trying these next I think.

Lump wood -
Big K restaurant grade - probably the highest quality and most consistent large chunks of any brand. Lights quickly, burns hot, a great fuel all round. Downside is you have to buy two bags online and have to pay for delivery, so not the cheapest.

Bookers blue bag restaurant grade - good fuel and cheaper than big k (£10 for 12kg), downside being that you get a fair few smaller pieces at the bottom of the bag

Those are the main decent ones i can think of off the top of my head. Hope it helps.
 
James Mundy said:
Bookers blue bag restaurant grade - good fuel and cheaper than big k (£10 for 12kg), downside being that you get a fair few smaller pieces at the bottom of the bag
Click to expand...

I bought some of the Bookers restaurant grade charcoal to try and must admit the lumps are much bigger than you would get in your standard lumpwood bags. Straight out of the bag, I found that the larger lumps didn't burn that well and without a blower setup took a bit of extra effort with the dampers to maintain a constant temperature. On the next burn, I broke the large lumps down to around a medium apple size (smaller than a fist), and they burnt a lot more consistent with less damper adjustment required. Couldn't get on with using the lumpwood in a chimney to start off as the lumpwood would crackle & hiss as the gases escaped and a full chimney soon turned in to a third of a chimney before the coals were ready to be put in to the WSM. I would definitely still use briquettes as the starter coals.

I also bought some of the Supagrill briquettes in the bright red bags (I am sure they are Supagrill but without checking I could be mistaken) at the same time from Bookers and these are next on my agenda to burn once the bag of lumpwood or the Weber briquettes I have remaining are used.

I haven't tried the Heat Beads yet, but have read good things about them.
 
Thanks for the info and welcome guys. Interesting you say Heat Beads as the manual says unequivocally that they should not be used. Given no real consensus I shall just have to experiment and just use the thing more often. Did a couple of chickens at the weekend which were very nice and moist, but didn't get good skin. Will have to up the temperature I think.
 
David - I use the Weber 4hr briquettes in my 37cm/14.5in WSM - and they last for ages using the minion starting method
easily 9/10 hours on a ring full
 
It's in webers interest for them to only recommend their own fuel, use whatever works best for you. Over on http://bbbqs.com/Forum/ heat beads are rated very highly, I've used a few bags and they are very good. But just too damn expensive.
 
I don't think it's anything about Weber wanting to sell their own fuel - they don't even sell charcoal in the States.

According to the FAQ's on Weber's US website, the reason they don't recommend heat beads is that they burn hot enough to possibly damage the porcelain finish of the bowl.
 
Dave Weaver said:
I don't think it's anything about Weber wanting to sell their own fuel - they don't even sell charcoal in the States.

According to the FAQ's on Weber's US website, the reason they don't recommend heat beads is that they burn hot enough to possibly damage the porcelain finish of the bowl.
Click to expand...

The manual also states that lumpwood should not be used either, but I know plenty of people (myself included ) that use lumpwood with no problems at all - & Weber sell lumpwood in the UK as well!

From what I can make out, Heat Beads burn no differently to Weber's own Premium Briquettes!!! If Heat Beads could damage the porcelain finish, then technically Weber's own (and any other briquettes) could as well.
 
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