Offset cooker fuel: SCAM!

[Ylouder]

Your over thinking it

If you want to get real fancy them do a burn barrel with greener wood, burn it to coals, shovel it in to your smoker. Like the true ol pit smokers did.

That will give you the best, cleanest bbq you will ever make.

People spend decades chasing the perfect wood moisture, perfect smoker, for perfect combustion without all the volitile bad stuff in there. Spending thousands of dollars...the ol folks had a separate fire and a shovel.

 

[Mikhail]

Seems like this would only be a problem for he first year. After that you just keep replenishing with green.

 

[LordRiffenstein]

Seems like this would only be a problem for he first year. After that you just keep replenishing with green.

THIS!!

The only thing required is space to store the wood and patience.

 

[mph33]

Your over thinking it

If you want to get real fancy them do a burn barrel with greener wood, burn it to coals, shovel it in to your smoker. Like the true ol pit smokers did.

That will give you the best, cleanest bbq you will ever make.

People spend decades chasing the perfect wood moisture, perfect smoker, for perfect combustion without all the volitile bad stuff in there. Spending thousands of dollars...the ol folks had a separate fire and a shovel.

I've looked into those techniques but it seems to me like you would burn the hell out of yourself dipping a shovel down into a 55 gallon barrel full of hot coals. I too have always felt that making your own lump would give you the cleanest burning fires with more control. It would be nice to have like a stainless steel fire pit that's built like a water trough so you have easy access to the Kohl's

 

[Robert]

I've looked into those techniques but it seems to me like you would burn the hell out of yourself dipping a shovel down into a 55 gallon barrel full of hot coals. I too have always felt that making your own lump would give you the cleanest burning fires with more control. It would be nice to have like a stainless steel fire pit that's built like a water trough so you have easy access to the Kohl's

The burn barrel usually has an open bottom with grates to hold the burning wood and for the coals to fall through onto the ground. You then shovel hot coals into the smoker.


Thanks,


Robert

 

[sarth67]

I am using less wood now than I used to.
I use a mix of what ever charcoal I can find and I buy up loads of B%B competition char logs they are terrific.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

I've looked into those techniques but it seems to me like you would burn the hell out of yourself dipping a shovel down into a 55 gallon barrel full of hot coals. I too have always felt that making your own lump would give you the cleanest burning fires with more control. It would be nice to have like a stainless steel fire pit that's built like a water trough so you have easy access to the Kohl's

When I lived in eastern North Carolina I ran into the same issue you're having with trying to find seasoned wood which will actually burn. I had a big yard so I was able to buy 4 or 5 cords and let it season for a year. For a few months while my first cord was seasoning I did make a burn barrel and shovel coals and it worked well in my offset. The burn barrel is designed so that the hot coals will fall to the bottom, and you have a cutout on the bottom so you can just stick your shovel in that cutout and get a full shovel of coals. This is great because depending on how you build your barrel medium sized pieces of wood will also fall down into the hot coals. Those pieces of wood have had most of the moisture burned out, so now you've got a great coal bed as well as wood which will burn in your offset's firebox.

Obviously it's not the best solution, but it does work and it's cheap. I think I got my drum for about $30, and it took about an hour worth or work with an angle grinder and about $10 of rebar to make it all work properly.

 

[SirPorkaLot]

I've looked into those techniques but it seems to me like you would burn the hell out of yourself dipping a shovel down into a 55 gallon barrel full of hot coals. I too have always felt that making your own lump would give you the cleanest burning fires with more control. It would be nice to have like a stainless steel fire pit that's built like a water trough so you have easy access to the Kohl's

As others have said, this is a common method used down south, where using green wood is a preferred method.
Here is a post I made 12 years ago of so with my pre-burn barrel at the time

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1014830&postcount=11

 

[CameOutSmokin]

B&B Char-log base and coke can sized spitts pre heated on the firebox, perfect for a OCB.