What is everyone's favorite charcoal?


 
JohnTakahashi said:
The informal count of personal favorite charcoal has been very interesting. The most popular top 5 are.
1 KBB 14 votes
2 Jealous Devil 11 votes
3 B&B Briq 6 votes
4 Royal Oak Briq 5 votes
B&B Char Logs 5 votes
5 Royal Oak Lump 4 votes
Weber Briq 4 votes

Thanks for sharing it was very interesting and fun!
Please continue to share your favorites.
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that's a great running tabulation. thanks for doing this.

personally, i burn the following:

KBB - of which i'm now out of and not planning on restocking to my stash
KPro - 6.5 bags left and will use these till they run out
B&B Briq - just bought some from Ace today
B&B Char Logs - just bought some today from Ace for my longer cooks and (HAF briskets)
Cowboy Briq - have come to like the flavor these impart on chicken, beef and shrimp and they produce less ash than KBB and KPro which I'm happy about
Jealous Devil 20# bag - just ordered 10 bags (friend's discount) and this will be my goto for daily cooks as I want a cleaner burn and less ash to clean up.

I have become less interested in KBB and KPro due to an off smell the partially burned coals produce (kinda smell like cat pee/ammonia-like) and the heavy burning smoke smell produced on chimney lighting. I experienced neither of these issues from my most recent Cowboy bags purchased from Costco.
 
Brett-EDH said:
that's a great running tabulation. thanks for doing this.

personally, i burn the following:

KBB - of which i'm now out of and not planning on restocking to my stash
KPro - 6.5 bags left and will use these till they run out
B&B Briq - just bought some from Ace today
B&B Char Logs - just bought some today from Ace for my longer cooks and (HAF briskets)
Cowboy Briq - have come to like the flavor these impart on chicken, beef and shrimp and they produce less ash than KBB and KPro which I'm happy about
Jealous Devil 20# bag - just ordered 10 bags (friend's discount) and this will be my goto for daily cooks as I want a cleaner burn and less ash to clean up.

I have become less interested in KBB and KPro due to an off smell the partially burned coals produce (kinda smell like cat pee/ammonia-like) and the heavy burning smoke smell produced on chimney lighting. I experienced neither of these issues from my most recent Cowboy bags purchased from Costco.
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Wow that's quite a stash. Does each brand have a certain application?

I like running B&B briquettes in my kettle w/ slow n sear and JD lump in my Akorn. I use Cowboy briquettes for grilling hot n fast items in my Jumbo Joe.
 
Mario said:
Wow that's quite a stash. Does each brand have a certain application?

I like running B&B briquettes in my kettle w/ slow n sear and JD lump in my Akorn. I use Cowboy briquettes for grilling hot n fast items in my Jumbo Joe.
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Mostly, yes.

I've long used KF (various iterations) for BTUs only, flavoring them with wood chunks for different cooks. I've come to not like the flavor KF imparts compared to other coals.

Cowboy is a great alternative to KF with substantially more flavor and less produced ash (hardwood briqs).

I'm new to B&B briq and plan to use it as BTUs and on simple cooks/proteins ( steaks, chops, burgers, links, lamb racks, char siu and generic seafood cooks (think fish tacos).

The B&B logs will be for heat on long cooks (butts, ribs and briskets) and when making pizzas due to their composition, heat output and durability over time.

Jealous Devil is also new to me and I will contrast it against B&B briqs for flavor/heat. I hope to use it on nice steaks, tomahawks, lobster tails, salmon and jumbo shrimp cooks due to its price. I am seeking a very clean burning wood and my reading and video searching indicate this should be a good solution. I also plan to layer different wood chips/small chunks into these cooks for more complex flavor profiles (think maple, apple, cherry and other sweet/fruit wood flavors).

We make our own burgers in house, grinding our own meats and making various blends. We haven't bought store bought ground beef in many years now. If you don't grind your own meat, you might want to try to. The flavor is dramatically different than retail ground beef, which is kinda made of mystery meat parts. A quality coal/briq/heat source will help impart a more natural (oak/hickory) flavor that really enhances burgers and steaks.

So while I have a vision and goals, we shall see how this all falls out. Since getting my E6 Kamado and selling my WSM 18, my cooks have really changed. I haven't used my gasser since June now and am finding the E6 to be an incredibly versatile, reliable and easy to use cooker. It's everything I was seeking to blend in both grilling, searing and slow cooking.
 
I've narrowed the brands of charcoal I'm using down to 3.

They are

KBB - 4 18lb bags left.

KPro - 9 18lb bags left

Royal Oak Classic/Ridge - 1 20lb bag, 2 18lb bags and 2 16 lb bags.

So I'll need 3 twin packs to get through until next Memorial Day. That's the good news.

Not sure what I'll do this upcoming Labor Day weekend.

KBB? As another member mentioned earlier in this thread, there have been no significant sales on KBB this year, so I may not restock.

K-Pro? We'll have to wait and see if Costco has it on sale. I just got their Sept sale flier and it's not listed in there at all. Possible they may just put it on sale over Labor Day Weekend only.

Royal Oak Classic? I may go with this if Bi-Mart has it on sale
and I think they will.
 
I’m small time compared to you guys! LOL I have 2 bags of Fogo super premium
1 bag of B&B char logs, 1 bag of B&B briquettes, 1 bag of KJoe big block, 2 bags of Kpro. 😢 I’m still trying to find a favorite.
 
So I’ve used the B&B char logs for two cooks so far; spare ribs and Mexican chicken tonight. They hold heat well and are very consistent across the logs and ash is much less than Kxxx. On flavor, I find they need some enhancement which is good because I projected using them as pure heat source, long burning and planned on adding wood chunks to those cooks. Their flavor is a mix of oak and I believe hickory. What’s nice is they’re not very pronounced, almost a neutral bbq flavor.

Hope this is helpful to anyone seeking to employ B&B charlogs in their arsenal. And they’re not smoky when lighting them which is another improvement over Kxxx.
 
Brett-EDH said:
So I’ve used the B&B char logs for two cooks so far; spare ribs and Mexican chicken tonight. They hold heat well and are very consistent across the logs and ash is much less than Kxxx. On flavor, I find they need some enhancement which is good because I projected using them as pure heat source, long burning and planned on adding wood chunks to those cooks. Their flavor is a mix of oak and I believe hickory. What’s nice is they’re not very pronounced, almost a neutral bbq flavor.
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B&B char logs are not always easy to come across for me, but I have been able to consistently keep a bag or two in my small stash over the last few months. I strongly agree with all you have share above. For those reasons they have become my go to for long smoke cooks, but I do not use them for short or faster cooks. They are so very mild, but I feel like that has allowed me to add more wood chucks especially because I love peach and pecan wood for my cooks. With the smoky flavors coming almost solely from the wood not the wood and charcoal, I feel like I get a whole depth from the peach wood that I don't get when I use other charcoals.
 
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Michael Richards said:
B&B char logs are not always easy to come across for me, but I have been able to consistently keep a bag or two in my small stash over the last few months. I strongly agree with all you have share above. For those reasons they have become my go to for long smoke cooks, but I do not use them for short or faster cooks. They are so very mild, but I feel like that has allowed me to add more work chucks especially because I love peach and pecan wood for my cooks. With the smoky flavors coming almost solely from the wood not the wood and charcoal, I feel like I get a whole depth from the peach wood that I don't get when I use other charcoals.
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Fully agree. With these Charlogs I’m planning on trying some layered smoke, say starting with an applewood early in a cook and finishing with a cherrywood or other sweet wood. Some of my reading lends me to believe that smoke is another dimension that can add complexity to proteins, more so than just smoking early in a cook and even blending two woods early in a cook. Think of it more like a finishing sear when crusting a quality steak. More to come when I get this going.
 
I've tried a bunch of different ones. The Charcoal I liked best was the Weber briquets, but they are no longer available. I now use B&B briquets as they are about as close as I've found.
 
Thanks to great input I'm am changing from KBB and KPRO to B&B briquettes and trying Blues Hog Briquettes.
 
I'm still using the CharBroil branded lump that I bought a few years back. I bought a bunch. It's mostly small pieces but it works well for me. But that's not why I posted. The reason I switched to lump was the last bags of Kingston BB I got were so dirty and smoky. I might have gotten a batch that was bad or maybe it got wet at some point, I dunno. The BB was all I ever used for years, used to stock up at the Memorial Day sales. But I was getting tired of all the ash as well so I said goodbye to the Blue Bag. I still use their hardwood briquettes sometimes fwiw
 
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Home Depot is showing KBB 2x20" on "sale" for Labor day. First time that I've seen for a long time. Only $3 off, but full 20# bags. for those that still use it.
 
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