Best lump charcoal?

ColtsFan said:

  

You act like you own a lump charcoal company or something.

Seriously, your post about lump are always very informative. Thanks for sharing that knowledge with us. 

Ok, I'll do you one better here.....we have 8 inches of snow and I don't want to plow it yet.

This other misconception that "size = quality = high cost", or "small pieces = cheap" is totally backwards......or it can be (sort of).

There are a million factors that go into this but I'm just going to hit on the main ones.  And the main one is: if it's properly carbonized, then it's brittle.  Just like Lay's Potato Chips, it's going to break down in the bagging, palletization, and transit from mere agitation.  If you have a huge chunk of 80-85% carbonized lump, then you either hand carried it out of the plant, or it was just well nested in the bag to preserve it.  But most of the time, what you are holding is probably under 75% on the inside......so wood fiber is holding it together.

We saw a big box retailer with a dirt cheap brand over the summer with huge chunks in it.  Every time I saw pictures of this product, I saw big BROWN chunks.  These pieces were not "charcoal", they were charred wood.  I can sell you a yule log sized piece that's black, heavy, and dense, by taking a log and hitting it with my weed burner.  It's going to be 30-40#, because it's full or wood fiber, water, and volatiles.  It's going to produce a ton of flames, odors, ash, and take for ever to light because of all the evaporation taking place dropping the kindling temp.

Cave man invented charcoal because it was solid fuel that was easy to light, quick to dry if it got wet, and burned hot quickly for a long time.  We use it for the same reasons but also because it's a lot of BTU in a small package, doesn't produce much ash or taste, and mainly because it doesn't produce flames (which is the volatiles burning off).  It's silly to buy under-carbonized "charcoal"......just use wood.  Think of buying firewood by weight and getting green wood rather than seasoned.  That's why states require you to buy by volume (measured in fractions of a "cord"), but you should still be ticked if it's not seasoned (15%-20% moisture content.)

Back to the money aspect.  It's cheaper to produce bigger chunk "charcoal" because it spends less time in the kilns.  If you can turn more kilns in a year, that's more money.  Also, your tonnage is a better yield because you are using less carbon to burn out the water, thus sending more water out in the bags (which you sell by weight).  Where we average 6.5#-7.0# of wood for every 1.0# of LUMP charcoal shipped, if you're shipping under-carbonized stuff, you might be down in the 4-5# wood:lump ratio.  Also, the more brittle the lump is, the more you lose in the fines.  Anything smaller than 1x1" gets falls through into the fines pile on ours.  Take that down to 3/4"x3/4" or use a lower carbonization to start with, and your tonnage goes way up.

Take a look at bag VOLUME size.  Our 20# bag is bigger than other 20# bags.  We can only fit 30 bags on a pallet, when others can fit 35 on the same sized pallet and not exceed 48-52" on height.  With all the 17.6#, 15.8#, and other odd ball sizes, you can't tell anymore, but the smaller the bag volume for the same size weight will tell you how much water is in the bag......since water is  heavier than carbon.  (It's a dead giveaway on briquettes since water soaked limestone is WAY heavier than carbon.  Briquette users that pick up lump bags for the first time of how "Light" they are.  No they're not light, they're just not heavy from all the limestone that's in briquettes.)

Once the lump hits the truck, then it starts breaking down again.  ANY charcoal company is always going to fill the truck up.  We double stack 30 bag pallets, some single stack 60 bag pallets.  Doesn't matter how you stack when it comes to the lump--it all has to do with the logistics.  The bags at the bottom feel the same weight.  But considering the surface area, it's not that bad as one would think.  The charcoal starts to break down and nest, and hopefully stops there.

Once it goes into distribution here's where stuff gets tricky.  I saw a pic on IG the other day of charcoal stacked 4 pallets high.  That's crazy.  We only stack 2 pallets high in our main warehouse for anything that ships out of STL.  For STL distribution in our other little warehouse (AKA: my treehouse/hideout, or "The BBQ Speakeasy"), we'll stack 3 high, but the bottom pallets are marked for restaurant customers who don't want the big chunks.  Even with the extra 660# on it, that bottom pallet isn't much different than the one in the middle.  The top pallet it always has the biggest chunks of course (as long as they didn't get swap from top to bottom as they go from the truck to the warehouse.)  Top or bottom, this lump only travels much less and is always delivered single stacked on our box truck.  Breakage is minimal even for the bottom pallets.

After it gets to stores and to consumers, it becomes a handling issue.  Treat it like eggs, not rock salt.

So back to my original point, making big chunks *can* actually cheaper and making lump that breaks down to little pieces is more expensive.

***Important***  I'm not saying that every large chunk of charcoal you encounter is going to be filled with wood.  There are people out there that can do it right, but it takes a certain type of wood, kilning, and handling.  We cannot do that here in the US because we cannot start with whole trees or cord wood, nor can we slow burn because of the EPA req's.  That's why you end up with longer flatter pieces in our charcoal.....it's coming from slabs.  If you can clear cut whatever is in your path then slow burn not worrying about particulate, then you can actually get some pretty big chunks that are 75%+ carbon all the way through.

Here's the super simple test; you don't have to spend $1000's on BTU and carbonization tests every year like we do. 

IF YOU CAN EASILY BREAK IT APART BY HAND, it's probably close 85% or more.

If it takes some force or you have to drop it, it's probably more like 80%.

If you can't break it, it's under 75% and NOT "charcoal" per se.  You have charred wood.

You'll find under-carbonized pieces in ANY brand including ours.  This isn't a highly controlled process.  You start with all kinds of wood with different moisture contents, then fire has a mind of its own inside the kiln.  The good news is with ours, it's mainly oak, with some hickory, maple, pecan, etc.  A little of that smoke is not going to ruin your food like a bitter foreign wood will.  But hopefully in the end, most of what is in the bag is about 80% carbon, a good mix of sizes, and all for a fair price for the BTU/#.