Newbie Question: How much charcoal in the UDS?

No problem with newbie questions, because we all were newbies once.

N8Man has an EXCELLENT thread on this.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109339

Yes, you can reuse whatever is left over. Use a METAL can to catch the ash and crispy bits. then load it up again.

My coal basket is always half to 3 quarters full regardless of the size or length of time of cook. And it's a big basket.

Load it up!
Whatever doesn't burn this cook you can use next cook. I NEVER throw out charcoal. All I do is shake off the ash, reload the basket and light it!

That's the great thing about a UDS. It's so air tight that you can just shut it down when you're done and relight the basket next time.

+1 on the load it up and reuse it.

Good advice above, but just in case you don't already know, you have to use the Minion method to make it work.

Here is what I do with very good results.

I have smaller diameter rings that hold 5-6 lbs of charcoal that I set inside my baskets for short cooks.









Most of the drum baskets I use are built on an 18" or 22" Weber charcoal grate frame with the expanded metal @ 9-13" tall. None of them perform any better or worse than the others as I only use 10lbs of briqs for heavy meats and have never had to add any fuel during a cook and there is always fuel leftover.





Size really doesn't matter, its how much fuel you use for the cook. Here is one built on a Weber Smokey Joe charcoal grate platform and its a chicken & rib cooking mofo.





This is all I need for ribs, chicken or turkey cooks in my 85 gallon drum.





a$$holes are like opinions-everybody has one, and my methods work for me, YMMV.

Listen to the master. ^^^^^^

On the other hand you don't want to leave a basket of coals sitting in the UDS for a period of time between firings where they can pick up moisture.

Swamprb knows UDS pits.