Charcoal Supply issues

I went down to see Terry at Aussie BBQ Smoke today and picked up 7 bags of red gum lump for $40/bag. He said that mallee root is just about impossible to buy and is expensive if you can find any and would probably cost around $50-60/bag He reckons they've just about exhausted the supply and there's nothing left to burn which could be partly due to new regulations.

Anyway, he sells to lots of charcoal chicken places and since red gum isn't a suitable alternative charcoal for them, many are closing down and more will follow. This will also effect other food places which use open flame charcoal grills. He's got some iron bark coming but only had red gum in stock which he reckons isn't any good for low and slow in a kamado but I've used red gum in the egg many times and haven't had that problem.

Anyway, it was an interesting discussion and one which is a bit of a worry.

Great charcoal though, the red gum bags are about 18-20kg.

Quote from BBQbushy

Why does he think its no good ?

I didn’t pursue that part of the discussion but I think he said it tends to block the air flow as it burns away because it doesn’t create any ash. Now I’m trying to work out what having little or no ash has got to do with blocking the airflow. I would have though creating more ash would block it, not less.

Avoid mangrove at all costs. It's crap.

I haven't found any problems lighting red gum but it's a while since I've had any from Terry. I've been getting by on assorted brands from Bunnings until my restock yesterday. He's expecting ironbark to be back in stock towards the end of this month and that's what he recommends for low and slow. I think that would be harder to get going though.

Quote from Wazza

What regulations?

Over here, because we were stupid enough to had a Government both houses (don't care which party, never give them complete control), they have closed down a very sustainable forestry industry, all Jarrah logging is now going to be shut down. The way it was managed it was 200 years before the regrowth was logged. Now we will simply import Orangutan houses, aka rain forest to replace the hardwood supply. And we both know which industry is sustainable.

I didn't go in to it but I think it's a similar story to yours. The govt here shut down the Heyfield mill a couple of years ago and now there's a drastic shortage of pine for the building industry. Couple that with regualtions about sacred indiginous sites and what you are not allowed to remove from the forest floor to appease the green lobby and it's getting too hard for some to continue.

Opened my new bag today, ready for a roast chicken tonight and a slow roast chuck tomorrow.

I started the low and slow this morning but as Terry said, the fire went out after a couple of hours.

I was using the Tip Top Temp and after taking out the charcoal at the bottom, I found the air holes in the ash basket were blocked. Even adding the Cyber Q fan to try and get it going again didn't help. I think the combination of the ash basket, being a lot of small holes and the TTT was just too restrictive for the required airflow.

I removed the small bits blocking the holes and took the TTT off. I've put the CyberQ on and it's been fine for several hours now, in fact I'm having to keep an eye on it because I increased the setting to 175 and it's running at just over 300. That's OK though, the meat has been wrapped.

Unless they have old stock, I doubt it's mallee root. I tried AP Fuel Merchants who have been around a long time and they haven't been able to get mallee root for months.

Update on the charcoal going out. The Cyber Q held it at the set temp just fine for another 4 hours so that's all good. When the meat was done, I took the Cyber Q off, opend the vents and let it rip. It got up to 400c with the small amount of fuel left no problems at all.