British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all, hoping you can help, I have been using a Weber bbq chimney starter doohickey after seeing it on TV, and have been relatively happy with the results, however recently I've been thinking that the charcoal briquettes I've been using have burned out awful quickly. I'm just talking about straightforward grilling..steaks, chicken thighs, burgers etc, nothing fancy. The BBQ I use has an ash bucket underneath that can have vent holes opened or closed, plus there's a vent in the lid too. Generally, after I've emptied the chimney out I close the lid for a minute or 2 and it rarely seems to get above 200c according to the thermometer in the lid, and I think I got about 1/2 an hour max last time I used it before the coals got too cool to cook over... and I've tried all sorts of combos of vents open/closed and it doesn't get much higher. Is it the briquettes I'm using? i don't go for fancy briquettes. just whatever I can get from the supermarket or garden centre. I'm bbqing next week for about 13 people so need a lot of heat over a sustained period of time to cook everything...so what I'm asking is, what is the best brand of briquettes to buy? (am going to be using 2 chimneys next week...)

I find both Heat Beads and the Weber briquettes last a good amount of time. Couple of things: lid thermometers are rarely that accurate, you could always test yours in some boiling water to see. Unless I'm cooking steaks or pizzas I generally don't want my BBQ to be much hotter than 200C. If I'm grilling I always cook with all the vents open

Hi there

I've found that if I have the vents fully open on my MasterTouch that the coals obviously burn out far quicker. I generally just have them open a tiny amount to let the air in but not give the coals too much oxygen and I can get a good few hours out of a single chimney starter. I am using either BigK briquettes or SupaGrill briquettes though

A lot of the temps you see mentioned are in Fahrenheit, have you got them mixed up ? 200c is hot !

Thanks all, the lid thermometer displays in F and C and it's definitely registering about 200C with the lid closed...I feel that by the time I've opened the lid to slap on the steaks, the temp has dropped dramatically...did steaks a couple of nights ago and while initially there was a great sizzle when I put the steaks on, within a couple of minutes I could hold my hand over the coals comfortably...which is what made me think it was the quality of the briquettes. I've got a digital surface read thermometer I use for chocolate making, i'll dig that out and see what temp they're at this weekend when we grill again.

I'll have a google and see if there's anywhere locally that sells BigK or Weber charcoal. I have a Makro card and see that some people on here recommend restaurant charcoal...my local Makro sells Fuel Express restaurant charcoal or briquettes...how is that in comparison to BigK etc?

cheers

Sx

Another vote for Weber or Supagrill bricks here, I find they give much longer and more consistent heat than the rubbish Fuel Express lump I got from the garage.

If it helps, I got the Supagrill bricks at my local Tesco filling station, they don't sell them in the store though. And Webers you can get at most garden centres or Homebase sells them.

The other alternative is using lots and lots of quick burning charcoal Just keep topping it up.

I would try putting a chimney worth of unlit coals in the grill and add 3/4 of a chimney worth of lit coals on top of that.
As for coals (someone else already mentioned) Tesco petrol station have supagrill briquettes and lump wood but the actual store has their own brand with tiny bricks in it.

Hi All
After trying to get a 7ft by 4ft concrete pit up to heat I found the Lildl King of the Grill briquetes the best value by far.
£2.89 for 7kg, I used one starter of lit and a load of Apple splits mixed in a wheelbarrow to pre heat them, then lit up 2 whole bags and chucked them in the pit, chucked the splits on top and kept repeatng the process. I used 8 bags of Charcoal @ 7kg and 3 wheelbarrows of logs, started at 12 Fri/Sat night and the pit was still being used as a holding cabinet at 10pm Sat night.
Bloody Hard work, but this Charcoal is good.
Pic's of my Pit and the cook on my FB page( Sorry Tech Type Idiot, other people have to post pic's for me).
Give this stuff a go, it's a steal at that price.

Si

When I used to use briquettes I found the BigK and Supagrill ones to be the best, avoid the instant lighting stuff like the plague though!!