Brinkman verticals and lump

[bigsteve]

Anyone use lump in their ECB? Haven't tried it yet. Wondering how it works out, and if you can stack up lumps unlit minion style? How often do you have to tend to it?

 

[tasunkawitko]

steve - i used cowboy brand and also kingsford lump last year with my ECB - everything seemed fine - temps might have been a little higher but no other real issues. it seems that good charcoal briquettes (kingsford or western family are the ones i've used with best results, but royal oak would also fit in here) you are able to maintain a consistent temperature, whereas with lump it seems you have to babysit it a bit. no big deal, as it builds character, right?

one positive is that being from hardwood, you certainly get some sweet-smelling burning, and i do believe that improves the flavor of the meat.

those are my experiences. i got some green bag royal oak (they finally have it up here) and am looking forward to trying it.

 

[billbo]

Before I did the mods on mine I always used bricks. Of course I was doing it completely wrong but still managed to eat the stuff.

My first run after mods I used Cowboy. The temps spiked too much, but again that probably is my fault. I loaded too much lit at first. I think I know what I should be doing now charcoal wise, so no more excuses for me.

I am going to give bricks a go this weekend and see what happens. I may switch back & forth for a while and see which is easier to work with. Sounds like a good experiment to me! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[bigsteve]

I bought a bunch of Kinsgford Blue at Sams' a while back. In the meantime I tried RO bricks. The RO was cheaper, but I used more, so it was about a wash price wise. I liked the RO better though. As I run low on Kingsford I guess I'll try some lump and some more RO.

Ah the heck with it. I'll keep the rest of the Kingsford for hurricane season and buy some lump this week.

 

[pinkmeat]

If you have the one from like Home Depot (two doors and water pan), it's not bad at all. Just get a $10 grill wok for your charcoal basket. Then only use one of intake vents on the bottom, leaving the tops open all the way the entire cook time.

Let's say you leave the lefthand vent open and keep the bottom right one closed....

Fill the wok halfway with unlit coals and push them to the righthand side of the wok. Then add your lit coals on the left side. With the intake air coming in from left to right it will gradually burn left to right across the wok. Then when you need to add coals, just push everything that is lit to the left and add unlit to the right as needed. Hope that helps. It's the best minion I created using the Brinkmann Vertical.

 

[billbo]

Today I started out with Kingsford blue. It took off great and burned at a nice range of 225-235. It was a bit windy today so the first pan full burned down in about 3 hours with no fiddling. Not bad.

When I reloaded I threw in Cowboy lump after I had scraped all the hot stuff to one side and cleaned the pan out of ash. The Cowboy took off and went to 240 before you could blink!

From what I have found the bricks make temp control easier. I think I will be using bricks from now on. They seem to keep more of an even keal. I found 25lbs of Kingsford blue for $15.00 at BJ's. Not sure if that is a good deal or not, but I now have a bunch!

Did ribs and chicken with apple smoke. Sorry, no Qview, my camera is broken. Gotta get a new one. Bummer.

 

[sumosmoke]

My first smoker was an ecb and after reading stuff on SMF I used only lump charcoal in my smokes, unless I was desperate and then threw some briquettes into the fire. I've never used Cowboy, only Royal Oak (which can be found at most Super Wal-Mart's).

 

[bigsteve]

Did you light them all up at once? If you did minion, how many lit coals did you fire off?

BJ didn't give you any discount on the charcoal. That's about what you pay at supermarkets around here. I won't tell you what Kingsford Blue costs at Sams club.........

 

[chrome]

All I ever use is lump in all my charcoal smokers.
Royal Oak, it's about all I can find close.

 

[irishteabear]

I only have a couple of smokes using charcoal to my credit, but I have been happy with the results using RO lump. I have seen other brands of charcoal around and will probably give Cowboy charcoal a try next just to see if there's a difference.

 

[billbo]

I strated out with only 12 lit bicks from the chimney and used the minion meathod. I used the side to side meathod. I piled up the bricks 3/4 the way in the pan and dropped in the lit in the open space. Worked pretty good.

Maybe the RO lump burns cooler but that Cowboy really takes off!

 

[defuseit]

Im new here. Trying out a ECB and Im gonna try this with ribs today using the 3-2-1 and your advice on one inlet vent open, one closed and shifting it in the grill wok i purchased. I am new to smoking and have always grilled. Fingers crossed!