British BBQ Society Forums

What kind of charcoal is best to use in a WSM ?

And how do I know how much I need to use ?

I live in the north west and noticed these guys are not that far away from me, does this look like the right stuff ?
http://www.liverpoolwoodpellets.co.uk/o ... rcoal.html

If you are interested in big quantities, Direct Charcoal in the Peak District do deliveries. Their restaurant grade is £7 for a 12kg bag, which is a steal, and it's great charcoal. Dunno what their min order or delivery charges are like cause I live nearby.

Sorry I should have also said, to answer you more completely....

The consensus round here seems to be to use Heat Beads (expensive but very, very good) or restaurant grade lumpwood charcoal.

How much to use depends on how long a cook you want, but it's better to overfill than underfill if using the minion method, as you can shut your smoker down at the end of the cook, which snuffs the fire leaving unburnt fuel for the next cook.

Make sure you put enough in your chimney starter to get it going. I use a full chimney on my 57cm cooker.

I'm a big fan of Big K Restaurant Grade Lumpwood (ACH15) - Not cheap, but I've not seen better lump wood charcoal - Huge lumps too!

My teammate bought has restaurant grade lump wood from Liverpool wood Pellets - Very good as well, although the pieces aren't as big.

Having used Big K RG, I would say it is equal in quality to DC's charcoal, but around twice the price. Someone did question me on the source of DC's charcoal, but neither BK or DC use FSC wood. Ultimately I go for what's cheap because I'd rather spend the money saved on decent meat, but that's just my preferred choice.

I'm sure Ed will chip in soon, as he's the expert on all things Big K, but I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that Big K products are all FSC compliant - I can't find the post though.

Direct Charcoal sound good though and a keen price - I'll have to check them out.

Only one of the Big K range is FSC charcoal, if you check their consumer range page, you can see they sell the FSC bags as a "superior quality" charcoal, as opposed to their standard. They don't make FSC claims about any of their restaurant grade charcoal - and they certainly would if it was FSC graded. All FSC graded products proudly carry the black and white logo and are always marketed as such, the ethical kudos can warrant a bigger markup.

There's a garden centre near me that has a bunch of faded-looking Big K bags of charcoal (I'm guessing they're last year's stock) on clearance at £1.49 a bag. I guess I should swing by and scoop them up.

Have a good feel of the bag first. Often, old stocks of charcoal get chucked about and you end up with a bag of dust and pieces so small they fall through ash grates, chimney starters etc. Make damn sure that it hasn't been abused by feeling all over the bag to make sure you can feel big solid lumps throughout.

Good tip, cheers.