If you can order and pick up at Lowes (not sure they are as flexible as Home Depot with this) then you are good to go!
I didn't even bother checking Lowes but I am biasted against them hahaa. It's just a me thing as I personally try to avoid everything Walmart/Sams/Lowes related since I can't stand the parent company after having worked for Walmart in college and seeing first hand how crappy they are to their employees. Again, it's "me" thing though. I don't cast judgement or expect anyone to abide by my experiences or beliefs lol.
Ok back on topic.
Lowes site offers CookinPellets 100% Hickory in 40lb bag. I have and use that and have not even gotten through half of it in 3+ years. It's good to go.
I personally find using 100% hickory on smokes causes everything to taste more like bacon to me (just a "me" thing) . I like bacon to taste like hickory smoked bacon but not everything else to taste like the bacon, HOWEVER I do like having some hickory on my pork and chicken so I always blend my pellets on those smokes to be no more than 65% Hickory.
This works perfectly for me and I usually blend it with Pit Boss Competition blend (Maple/Cherry/Hickory) so that it's about 65% hickory overall as I believe BPCB is 50% Maple, 25% Cherry, 25% Hickory.
Why Pit Boss Comp Blend??? Because its SUPER INEXPENSIVE and burns well. It's mild alone but when I blend to get 65% Hickory overall, it's good to go for long pork butt smokes or for burning 2 rows at once on a 5hr rib smoke or on faster chicken and turkey smokes.
If you want to pick up any other 100% bags you have some options as well with Kingsford.
Know that 100% Cherry does NOT like to burn on it's own and you will likely have to blend it with another wood that does like to burn well.
I personally have fallen in love with Maple as my middle of the road wood flavor that isn't too strong, tastes fantastic, AND will blend well with other woods. Kingsford has 100% Maple.
Most people lean on Oak as their middle of the road and blending wood because it burns very well and the flavor is middle of the road. I'm soooooo burnt out on Oak though since it's used everywhere around here in TX on BBQ as it's so readily available.
If you buy Bear Mountain Oak then you should get 100% Oak.
I've never used Black Cherry but have regular Cherry. I'd strongly caution buying the 40lb of CookinPellet Black Cherry simply because Cherry doesn't want to burn and stay lit on its own, and I doubt Black Cherry is the exception. If you buy 40lbs of cherry you will have it FOREVER since you must blend it all the time. I would recommend you get the smaller 20lb bag of Kingsford Cherry so you could hopefully reduce the footprint of storing it and you may actually use it up at some point in your lifetime hahaha.
I LOVE all this different wood talk and flavor discussion so please feel free to ask anymore questions you may have. I personally have a ton of 100% woods so I can blend and mix and make my own combos and I loved learning the pros/cons of each wood and it's flavor.
So far I have on hand bags of 100% of the following:
- Mesquite
- Hickory
- Maple
- Apple
- Cherry
- Pecan
- Alder
I have great uses for all of them except the Pecan. To me it very underwhelming and will be a blend only pellet for me.
Keep the discussion going please! :D