Yup. Well ok, maybe technically used briquettes one other time almost a decade ago. Don't know what brand and with a ton of lighter fluid, in a thin layer across the bottom of one of these stupid things
Only had a propane grill at the parents after then, and just recently got back into charcoal the last year or so, but have been buying lump because if nothing else I like the idea of it being a step closer to cooking over a legit wood fire.
But having read about walmart backyard bbq black bag being royal oak, and seeing a 16lb bag for $5 instead of an 8lb bag of lump for $7... Figured I'd give it a try.
Next up was ribs in the wsm anyways...
So far not bad. The lack of heat is actually kinda nice, too often you have to choke the lump out to keep temps down, which makes wood chunks smolder too much. Can give way more air with the briquettes.
Not too much smoke from them, or bad odor... A little bit more of the classic BBQ/briquette smell obviously but fairly minimal. Pretty pleased with the minimal smoke when lighting them up.
Not the picture forum, as I started this mostly about briquettes... But what the hell... What kind of monster doesn't like pics of ribs?
Getting ready... Yeah just a snack for me, so cut the rack in half.
Noticed the briquettes are slower to rise and fall in temp then the lump, but not too hard to get settled in. It wanted 250, so it can have it. After reading Aaron Franklin's book been trying closer to 265... but what ever I let it have its 250 for the first couple hours.
With water bowl, that was basically 1 vent wide open, wide open exhaust on my 14.5
Cranked it up to 266 by opening a second vent up to halfish and poking the coals a little.
Definitely seems like the extra ash chokes the coals up a little, as I have seen some minor temp drops with time. Will be curious to see the ash pile after.
Where we're at now... Color looking good. Time to wrap... I dunno tempted to just not wrap. Naw I'm gonna wrap, its late. Some Dr. Pepper I think.