A friendly alternative to lumpwood charcoal

[Eddie]

Last week a company contacted myself to see if I would carry out a test cook on an friendly alternative to restaurant grade charcoal. The company was Bridge brooke heating http://www.bridgebrooke.co.uk/index.html
and their product was barbies restaurant grade charcoal http://www.bridgebrooke.co.uk/barbies-e ... rcoal.html

These were my findings:

The restaurant charcoal was presented and packed very neatly inside a cardboard box which is very good as it would save on breakages. The mixture of pieces inside was very good as I could use the smaller pieces for the chimney starter and the larger one placed around the basket.

When lighting the chimney I found it quite difficult due to the density of the product and needed to light it a couple of times as the heat logs had trouble igniting, I waited a good 40 minutes until the chimney was fully alight, before I could start the BBQ pit using the minion method.

The BBQ did not take too long to get up to the required temperature, and I left it overnight with the aid of a Pitmaster IQ. The amount of charcoal that I used was 5 kg.

After 6 hours of cooking the pit temp was still up to my desired temp and to my surprise, when I looked to see if I needed to replenish the basket, this wasn’t necessary, unlike my usual restaurant grade charcoal!! At this time I would normally need to fill the basket again, but the Heat logs seemed like they had a lot more life in them.

After 10 hours I placed 5 medium pieces into the pit as the temp just started to drop below my target temp.

Finished cooking after 13 hours, as you can see from the pictures http://s1147.photobucket.com/albums/o55 ... =slideshow that the additional logs that I placed on the 10 hours mark had only just started to kick in and started to give off some heat. I probably would have got away without adding 5 more heat logs to the pit. But as this was the 1st time I had used them, I didn’t know how the pit would re-act?

Sealed off and shut down the vents of the pit and had still heat logs left.

During the cook and after the smoking period had finished I couldn’t smell any unpleasant odours, unlike with household named brickets. I was extremely happy with how the heat log continued to burn, burn and burn and for such a long time. I was so impressed with your product that I would even move away from the conventional restaurant grade lump wood charcoal and use these in a competition.

Regards

Eddie

[keith157]

Nice review Ed, great pics as well. I'll have to think about finding a stockist. I don't suppose they gave you any idea of retail price?

[JEC]

Nice and comprehensive review Eddie. How does it compare price wise to Big K lump, also was there much ash?

[KamadoSimon]

Interesting - one of the things that concerned (concerns) me about Big K is the environmental / air-miles aspect of their lumpwood. But looking at these guys website, the price is going to be an issue....

[Steve]

Great review Eddie.

The same guys are sending me a box too so I'll add to this thread with my feedback when I've had a go with it.

[Pecker]

So what we have is wood and sawdust compressed together into uniform shapes and turned into a sort of mini-brick charcoal.

You know, I'm sure there's a name for those.



Steve W

[keith157]

Found this whilst trying to find a local(ish) stockist (in case I want to try some). I know they sell it by 10kg boxes but can't find any difference in the product description on the company's website between the boxes & bags. How does the price compare with other quality reastaurant charcoal?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20KG-BARBIES- ... 2ebe1ff839

[Eddie]

Nice review Ed, great pics as well. I'll have to think about finding a stockist. I don't suppose they gave you any idea of retail price?

I asked as well, the price that has come back is £10.99 per 10kg box plus next day delivery £7.00. He has also mention that BBBQS members can get a introductory discount for 2x10kg for £25.00 by using code BBBQ1. I know its not much, but it somethng. Ordering it though a person called Kevin Monk and that this offer will be open untill 30/09/12.

Eddie

[Eddie]

Great review Eddie.

The same guys are sending me a box too so I'll add to this thread with my feedback when I've had a go with it.

At the moment they have responded to my review and have thanked me for my efforts over the weekend. Like with any new product on the market they have to do some market research and see what potential customer may think of their product. I was just amazed with how little I needed to use.

Eddie

[Eddie]

Found this whilst trying to find a local(ish) stockist (in case I want to try some). I know they sell it by 10kg boxes but can't find any difference in the product description on the company's website between the boxes & bags. How does the price compare with other quality reastaurant charcoal?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20KG-BARBIES- ... 2ebe1ff839

£4.99 cheaper at the moment with there introdutory rate.

Eddie