Best bbq briquettes?

[HotJambalaya]

Bought some Weber briquettes, used a kettle got it all going, but they just dont seem particularly hot.

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong (Im a gas bbq person) but the heat output was feeble.

Whats the best stuff to get that lasts a while and gives serious heat?

[Magic919]

I found the Aussie Heat Beads were pretty good.

[Gandahar]

I think, after many years, that quantity is better than quality unless you are doing something over low temps for many hours.

If you are doing a standard BBQ then use loads of cheap ones. With extra you can reduce the temperatures by putting new ones on top also.

It's more down to the persons skill in tending them rather than which is best.

[HotJambalaya]

Gandahar said:

I think, after many years, that quantity is better than quality

That had crossed my mind too, but I got a stupid kettle, which really doesnt fit enough a huge amount in

[scottri]

Why briquettes? Lump wood tends to burn hotter - something like Big K restaurant grade will easily get hot enough.

Air flow is more like likely a bigger issue. Have you got the vents open?

[HotJambalaya]

scottri said:

Why briquettes? Lump wood tends to burn hotter - something like Big K restaurant grade will easily get hot enough.

Air flow is more like likely a bigger issue. Have you got the vents open?

yeah, everything openable was open, coals were glowing, just feeble. Quite possibly not enough as mentioned, blowing on them, fanning got a glow, but can't say it was massively hot.

Happy to try anything, not stuck on briquettes

[scottri]

Do you have a chimney starter? They are great for getting the fire going in the first place.

Keep an eye out for Ozy Heat beads as someone else said or Big K. You can find it in the Range if you have one local or some of the big supermarkets are doing Big K now.

Or quite often garden centres or wholesalers like bookers have restaurant grade stuff.

[scottri]

By the way i lot of people rate the weber charcoal so fuel might not be your issue....

What BBQ have you got and does it have a charcoal grate in the bottom?

[48Valves]

I use either Aussie Heat Beads or Weber briquettes for long slow cooking.

BigK restaurant grade charcoal for direct grilling. Especially good for doing steak directly onto the charcoal

[Phud]

48Valves said:

I use either Aussie Heat Beads or Weber briquettes for long slow cooking.

BigK restaurant grade charcoal for direct grilling. Especially good for doing steak directly onto the charcoal

Agree with the above.

I have a smokey joe, which I find needs well lit briquettes to work well as the vents I think don't give enough draw to help partially lit briquettes.

[LordHaveMurci]

1st couple of times I used my Weber this year I struggled to get the temp up, I wasn't leaving the briquettes in the chimney long enough.

[LeadFarmer]

Try leaving the briquets in the chimney starter, place a grill over the top, then chuck on a steak. The heat from the chimney starter gets searing hot.

[Pete Franklin]

I use Lumpwood for everything. Big k standard stuff is pretty good all-rounder and easy to get hold of from actual shops. Just feel the packs to get the one with the bigger lumps. I can easily keep my kettle going for 5hrs on a single indirect load and my kamado will go over 24hrs lownslow on a single load of this stuff. Why bother with foul smelling briquettes? And both get silly hot if you open them up with a decent load

[HotJambalaya]

To answer a couple of questions:

I'm using these weber bbq briquettes https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weber-8-kg-Charcoal-Briqu...

in a weber bbq, using a weber kettle, with the underneath of the kettle stuffed with newspaper and firelighters and all air holes are open.

I guess I'll try leaving them in the kettle longer to see if that helps, though it does seem to get the kettle pretty hot.

I'm curious though, for people with larger surface area bbqs (which mine isn't) is a kettle any use? you wouldnt really get enough charcoal out of it to cover the surface area of the bbq? so what do you do once its all lit?

[LordHaveMurci]

HotJambalaya said:

To answer a couple of questions:

I'm using these weber bbq briquettes https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weber-8-kg-Charcoal-Briqu...

in a weber bbq, using a weber kettle, with the underneath of the kettle stuffed with newspaper and firelighters and all air holes are open.

I guess I'll try leaving them in the kettle longer to see if that helps, though it does seem to get the kettle pretty hot.

I'm curious though, for people with larger surface area bbqs (which mine isn't) is a kettle any use? you wouldnt really get enough charcoal out of it to cover the surface area of the bbq? so what do you do once its all lit?

I have a 57cm Weber & the standard chimney starter, never struggled with volume of charcoal to be honest, I tend to use indirect cooking a lot so normally only have coals either side with a tray in the middle. If cooking for longer you can always pop some unlit coals on top of the lit ones.
You don't have the smaller chimney do you?!

[Tony Angelino]

Pete Franklin said:

I use Lumpwood for everything. Big k standard stuff is pretty good all-rounder and easy to get hold of from actual shops. Just feel the packs to get the one with the bigger lumps. I can easily keep my kettle going for 5hrs on a single indirect load and my kamado will go over 24hrs lownslow on a single load of this stuff. Why bother with foul smelling briquettes? And both get silly hot if you open them up with a decent load

what's your method for 24 hours on the Kamado please? Just took delivery of one on Friday and am interested in this sort of thing. First cook put nowhere near enough lumpwood in and it didn't get above 300 before fizzling out. Second attempt I almost filled the charcoal basket and used 3 natural fire lighters and in 15 minutes the dial was at 900, so had to choke it down to get it to about 200 and then managed with a bit of tinkering to keep it at this for 7 hours or so before it went out.

[RVVUNM]

I have been using Weber long life briquettes for a couple of years until recently when they stopped selling them. The new Weber ones are OK but need topping up especially when I use my smokey mountain. This weekend however on my 57 I used some from Lidl as an emergency measure, never again. I cook indirectly and normally have a decent fire for 3-4 hours, the Lidl st only gave me 2 hours. just goes to prove you get what you pay for.

[calibrax]

Lumpwood will burn hotter than briquettes. So unless you are slow cooking, I would switch to lumpwood. And you really should get a chimney starter, that way you won't need firelighters which often taint the food with a chemical flavour.

Edited by calibrax on Monday 4th July 15:24

[dmitsi]

I bbq a lot and use the aldi ones, very good and very cheap. Never had any issues with temp control or long slow cooking.

[LeadFarmer]

I bought a bag of Weber lumpwood over the weekend, not had chance to use it yet though