what brand of pellets to get for the AMNPS?

[echinacea]

i read a lot of reviews on brands complaining of weak taste or wood diluted with other wood.

i know lumberjack is said to be good but its expensive.

 

[daveomak]

I've used a few brands for a test...   Todd's pellets have the cleanest flavors from what I can determine...   It's all I use now....

EDIT...   when you consider I usually smoke 20-30#'s of meat per session, the cost of the pellets adds about 3-4¢ per # of meat.... 

 

[dward51]

Todd's pellets are first rate, however you can use any food grade pellet (but like, Dave said, flavor and smoke quality can vary).  Just make sure the pellets are "food grade" as they also make pellets for wood stoves that use different binders that will produce some real nasty smoke (this is the stuff that usually comes in 40 or 50 pound bags and is not sold in the grill area of home depot and lowes).

Another thing to look at is the pellet composition. Some brands use a cheaper hardwood as a base and only a percentage of the flavor wood.  So a cherry pellet may be 80% alder and only 20% cherry.  The better brands are 100% smoke flavor wood.  Don't confuse this with the blends like Todd's Pitmaster's Choice as it is made to be a blend of cherry, hickory, and maple and is really a good blend.

 

[echinacea]

i came across the brand that goes with the smoke ring and they are 30% charcoal pellets, said to be able to produce a proper smoke ring on an electric.

ill try them when i can

 

[westby]

I have used Todd's pellets and they are great.  I have also used Lumberjack and their was no noticeable difference.

Todd's pellets can get a little pricy, but are first rate.  Not sure why you think Lumberjack are pricey - you should be able to find them for around 25 bucks a 40 lb bag.  I get them for 11-12 bucks a bag, but buy in bulk (use them in my pellet grill as well).

 

[worktogthr]

Todd's Pellets are great!  If you like hickory or a blend and have amazon prime, Cookin' Pellets are affordable and good quality.

 

[mneeley490]

Yep, Todd's pellets are all I use. He has quite a variety of them now.

 

[echinacea]

i got some smokedaddy pellets in the mail....hickory, apple and cherry to try them out. my first two times with the amnps and it was amazing! constant thin blue smoke for hours on end. since i havent used pellets before i dont know how much the 30% charcoal helps but it worked fine.

now i wanna try some of todds, lumberjack and bbqdelight

 

[cjclemens]

I was just having this debate in my head, as well.  I was going to order some pellets from A-Maze-N, but then I looked at price vs. the big bags of pellets you can get at the farm store, so I had to do some research.  As mentioned before, the bulk pellets might be 20% flavor wood and the remainder is Alder or Oak.  The A-Maze-N pellets are 100% of the flavor on the label.  That probably wouldn't bother me much, if I was running a pellet grill. However, the A-Maze-N pellet smokers are all about adding flavor, so I'd rather have 100% flavor wood in them.  What really sealed the deal for me, was getting an e-mail from A-Maze-N this morning.  Right now, they're running a 20% off fall sale on their pellets.  Between that and the free shipping deal, I got 60# of top-quality pellets for just a shade over $1/lb.  That might seem really expensive, but those pellet smokers only hold about 1# of pellets.  That makes it about $1 per smoke.  Not that pricey at all.

 

[westby]

Don't get me wrong - I love Todd's products and use many of them.  With that being said, there are plenty of 100% flavor wood pellets out there with no fillers.  I currently use Lumberjack 100% hickory and the Lumberjack MHC blend (33% each of maple, hickory and cherry).  As mentioned earlier, I use these in my pellet grill and in my tubes as supplemental smoke. 

 

[dparker]

I used my new AMNPS for the first time this past Saturday on some cheese curds, so take this newb experience for what little it's worth...but I used these and was pretty happy with the results:

 

[uzikaduzi]

i don't have much experience yet with my AMNPS and i have only tried 2 brands of pellets cookingpellets (hickory) and smokehouse (alder). they both tasted the way i would expect the respective wood flavors should taste and both seemed to burn fine. i read a few reviews here of people drying their pellets in the microwave or the oven because they wouldn't stay lit... i live in south texas so it's generally pretty dry, but it did rain the week i got them and the first time i tried them and both stayed lit the whole time.

i have only used it 4 times to date so take all of this for what it's worth.

 

[cjclemens]

Don't get me wrong - I love Todd's products and use many of them.  With that being said, there are plenty of 100% flavor wood pellets out there with no fillers.  I currently use Lumberjack 100% hickory and the Lumberjack MHC blend (33% each of maple, hickory and cherry).  As mentioned earlier, I use these in my pellet grill and in my tubes as supplemental smoke. 

I just looked up the Lumberjack pellets on Amazon. With the sale A-Maze-N has going on, they come in a bit cheaper than the Lumberjack pellets...Just FYI.

 

[wild west]

Don't get me wrong - I love Todd's products and use many of them.  With that being said, there are plenty of 100% flavor wood pellets out there with no fillers.  I currently use Lumberjack 100% hickory and the Lumberjack MHC blend (33% each of maple, hickory and cherry).  As mentioned earlier, I use these in my pellet grill and in my tubes as supplemental smoke. 

. I use lumberjack pellets and can get them locally here for about 70 cents per lb canadian. I havnt tried todds so cant compare but if i can just go pick up great pellets when i need them im a happy smoker

 

[paprika pal]

I like to use Lumberjack Pecan, I have not tried Todd's.  I can get lumberjack here in Nebraska for about a $1/lb. 

 

[westby]

I just looked up the Lumberjack pellets on Amazon. With the sale A-Maze-N has going on, they come in a bit cheaper than the Lumberjack pellets...Just FYI.

The last time I bought bulk (bought a ton), I got them for $11 a 40 lb bag or 27.5 cents per lb.  I've still got about 200 lbs.

 

[cjclemens]

The last time I bought bulk (bought a ton), I got them for $11 a 40 lb bag or 27.5 cents per lb.  I've still got about 200 lbs.

That's a darn good deal. I want to upgrade to a pellet grill in the near future. I'll have to look into a bulk buy before my usage starts to increase. In the meantime, my little AMTS can't possibly burn enough pellets to justify storing that much.

 

[trevor decker]

I live in Central Alberta/Saskatchewan Canada and the local guys only carry either Traeger pellets or Louisiana Grills pellets. Does anyone know their composition, plan on using them in my AMNPS that I just ordered?  Thank You.

 

[uzikaduzi]

From memory, neither have as good reviews as other brands mentioned in this thread... but maybe their cheaper price makes up for that?

I looked at both on amazon and I specifically remember Louisiana saying they had a lot of wood dust per bag.

I have no experience with either

 

[dr k]

I live in Central Alberta/Saskatchewan Canada and the local guys only carry either Traeger pellets or Louisiana Grills pellets. Does anyone know their composition, plan on using them in my AMNPS that I just ordered?  Thank You.

I googled Traeger and called them a couple years ago. They say it's two thirds Oak or Alder depending on which coast they are made on and one third the wood on the bag. I have their Pecan and Apple with good flavor results.
-Kurt