Giving royal oak another shot

yzzi

So I finally decided to give Royal Oak one more try. I've been using wicked good and Publix brands for the last year and a half. I even decided to just dump the bag in, which is something I haven't done before. I definitely notice more of a smokey smell and lots of small pieces. We'll see how this goes...

rholt

Good luck to ya. I still haven't found a "go to" lump that I plan to stick with yet.

yzzi

I don't think I cook as much as most people on forum but I've had one bag of wicked good last an entire low and slow plus 6 to 8 regular cook after that before I do a clean burn. I'm curious to see how long this bag of royal Oak will last.

Skiddymarker

Lump is not an exact science. Same brand can vary from bag to bag. I've had some bags of RO that are incredible and others, well not so much. I've always just dumped. Good luck!

lousubcap

@yzzi-was your WGWW in the old bag or the new blue labeled one...reason I'm asking as I am into my third bag of the new (cheaper) packaging of WGWW and the contents are poor to be kind.  None of the big pieces and probably 30+% is smaller than a half-dollar and lots of fines and dust.  Definitely bad enough to cuase me to go back to generic RO as the upcharge isn't worth the drop in quality.  FWIW-YMMV-

yzzi

It's probably the old bag. It's not blue at all.

Powderhound

Tried a bag of it tonight on my MBGE and it worked well.  It definitely burns faster than Wicked Good.  Tried the Cowboy and that stuff is NASTY!! 

SWVABeanCounter

The 17.6 lb bags are still on sale at Wally World for $10.  Got a few more yesterday.  Think I'm good thru winter.

JRWhitee

I bought some last week and did a low and slow for 10 hours and still had plenty of lump left. I was happy with it, some good size pieces as well.

hondabbq

Unfortunately I don't have any variety around my parts. Only RO in the blue bag. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but I have done a 15hr cook and still had enough for 2-3 "quick" cooks afterwards. I get my smoke flavor, it gets to temp in good time, ash is ash. It seems fine to me.

Little Steven

hondabbq said:

Unfortunately I don't have any variety around my parts. Only RO in the blue bag. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but I have done a 15hr cook and still had enough for 2-3 "quick" cooks afterwards. I get my smoke flavor, it gets to temp in good time, ash is ash. It seems fine to me.

Costco sometimes carries Basques, Nature's Own. Really good lump, all sugar maple

hondabbq

Little Steven said:

hondabbq said:

Unfortunately I don't have any variety around my parts. Only RO in the blue bag. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but I have done a 15hr cook and still had enough for 2-3 "quick" cooks afterwards. I get my smoke flavor, it gets to temp in good time, ash is ash. It seems fine to me.

Costco sometimes carries Basques, Nature's Own. Really good lump, all sugar maple

I am a regular Costco buyer, I have never seen any lump in Winnipeg at a Costco.

The Naked Whiz

hondabbq said:

Little Steven said:

hondabbq said:

Unfortunately I don't have any variety around my parts. Only RO in the blue bag. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but I have done a 15hr cook and still had enough for 2-3 "quick" cooks afterwards. I get my smoke flavor, it gets to temp in good time, ash is ash. It seems fine to me.

Costco sometimes carries Basques, Nature's Own. Really good lump, all sugar maple

I am a regular Costco buyer, I have never seen any lump in Winnipeg at a Costco.

Yep.  My local Sam's club has never had anything but Kingsford briquettes, despite some carrying lump.

WalrusBBQ

I love RO, only brand we use. 

JRWhitee

The Costco in Alpharetta GA does not carry any lump either.

Charlie tuna

My Sam's Club in North Florida carries "Best Of The West".  I think the bag is 20 pounds and cost about twelve bucks --  they haven't sold much of it, and the bags are beat up pretty bad.  I bought a bag when they first got it in the store ---  found it was made from mainly "tree limbs" and some up to 6 inches in diameter.  A few of these big tree limbs would not burn, they were like cement!  I ended up throwing the balance away because i just didn't want to get caught depending on it for a long cook. 

Maizeandbrew18

Can you get Lazzari?  I've had great luck with it. 

tazcrash

Only lump I saw in Costco was Stubbs,  :-q

Glad I only bought 1 to try

JRWhitee

Charlie tuna said:

My Sam's Club in North Florida carries "Best Of The West".  I think the bag is 20 pounds and cost about twelve bucks --  they haven't sold much of it, and the bags are beat up pretty bad.  I bought a bag when they first got it in the store ---  found it was made from mainly "tree limbs" and some up to 6 inches in diameter.  A few of these big tree limbs would not burn, they were like cement!  I ended up throwing the balance away because i just didn't want to get caught depending on it for a long cook. 

Good to know Charlie, thanks.

Lit

Yeah Alpharetta ga Costco doesn't sell lump or the mini vision kamado (I went again today to check). The BJs in cumming sells Frontier I believe it is. I was really happy with the Fogo lump I got from amazon delivered to my door for $1 a pound. Its comparable to wicked good but maybe better.

henapple

@lit... You need to hook up with @SmokeyPitt on an Ozark Oak deal...

SmokeyPitt

Indeed!  If we can hook up in July I will get some for @lit.  At least 5 bags are on me- I still owe him for the egg handles he hooked me up with.   

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1095747/new-egg-handles-thanks-lit

claybrn

lousubcap said:

@yzzi-was your WGWW in the old bag or the new blue labeled one...reason I'm asking as I am into my third bag of the new (cheaper) packaging of WGWW and the contents are poor to be kind.  None of the big pieces and probably 30+% is smaller than a half-dollar and lots of fines and dust.  Definitely bad enough to cuase me to go back to generic RO as the upcharge isn't worth the drop in quality.  FWIW-YMMV-

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has had issues with the "new" WGWW.  The last two bags I bought have been absolute crap...which is frustrating, because WG has been my "go to" lump for the last year or so.

WalrusBBQ

I love Royal Oak and use it exclusively. It is almost always in stock at the Wal-mart around the corner at a reasonable price. I have used it on overnight low-n-slow cooks and high temp grills. 

Produces a good amount of ash (but thats no problem as a clean out my egg with wet-dry vac after every several cooks) and also have found up to 3-4 small white rocks per every few bags (doesn't affect me or my cooks, just interesting it sneaks in).

Also - my understanding is the RO manufactures the BGE lump fwiw

Lit

If you liked wicked good and have amazon prime for free shipping try the 35lb bag of fogo lump. Its as good if not better than the old wicked good. I have to dig down 3/4 of the way through the bag to get pieces small enough to fit in the mini and its solid and burns good.

Hibby

I've historically been a Humphreys charcoal user for the last 8 years (other cookers than an egg) but its so difficult to find so I recently tried Royal Oak and like it pretty well. Not quite as "smokey" a flavor as humphreys but good nonetheless.

Maizeandbrew18

Little Steven said:

hondabbq said:

Unfortunately I don't have any variety around my parts. Only RO in the blue bag. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but I have done a 15hr cook and still had enough for 2-3 "quick" cooks afterwards. I get my smoke flavor, it gets to temp in good time, ash is ash. It seems fine to me.

Costco sometimes carries Basques, Nature's Own. Really good lump, all sugar maple

I've never seen any lump at Costco.  Only Kingsford.

yzzi

Yeah, my costco just carries briquettes. I used up the last of the RO yesterday, and I don't think I'll be using it again. It doesn't last near as long as WG/Publix brand and produces a lot more ash. Not to mention the sparking when lighting it was near-lethal. I think I'm going to either try lit's recommendation of fogo, but I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering some OO online first. Glad I still have 3 bags of WG left though

The Naked Whiz

yzzi said:

Yeah, my costco just carries briquettes. I used up the last of the RO yesterday, and I don't think I'll be using it again. It doesn't last near as long as WG/Publix brand and produces a lot more ash. Not to mention the sparking when lighting it was near-lethal. I think I'm going to either try lit's recommendation of fogo, but I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering some OO online first. Glad I still have 3 bags of WG left though

Did you check the country of origin on the RO?  They have been known to sell charcoal from a number of South American countries, some good, some not so good.  I've never had a bag of RO from the US that sounds like you describe.

yzzi

I didn't. I'll dig through the trash can and check depending on how many diaper bags are in there.

The Naked Whiz

yzzi said:

I didn't. I'll dig through the trash can and check depending on how many diaper bags are in there.

Never mind, lol!