Charcoal Supply issues

Hmmm ok thanks for the tip better top up.

Quote from Gumb

which could be partly due to new regulations.

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.

Just secede over there and be done with it will you

Quote from Gumb

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.

Why does he think its no good ?

If thats the case im glad i just stocked up. I ordered 30kg from The place i get it from but the guy said the supplier only packed 8-9kgs in each bag not 10 so he gave me an extra bag to make up the difference. So i think i got about 36kgs for the price of 30.

I've been struggling to find decent charcoal recently. I was hunting around for mallee root but like Gumb said, there is a massive shortage and I had heard that the supply had run out.

From memory, is red gum harder to light and may go out on a low and slow?

I just got a bag of Pit Boss branded charcoal, it wasn't cheap but not too expensive either. It's all hardwood and big chunks of it too.

The same place I got that had plenty of cheaper stuff, but I suspect it's 'mangrove' charcoal and unless you're doing a higher heat cook, I find it puts off a smell at lower temps.

i have been running Roboturds recently.

Picked up a 10kg bag of Firebrand Lump today just to top up.

Quote from Wazza

don't care which party, never give them complete control

THIS.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely etc etc

I went to my local Lebanese grocer and the charcoal I got today, same as the last lot was down from 15kg to 10kg bags. Supposedly Mallee Root, they had mangrove as well but like others I am not a fan.

Bunnings had pallets of coconut heat beads spread throughout the store.

Both charcoal and coconut heat beads were $2.50/kg

Quote from Gumb

Avoid mangrove at all costs. It's crap.

Sounds like you need to spend some time away from the lockdown capital of the world and visit a free state like NSW and give Emberpak a visit. He has excellent mangrove.

I agree Gumb, the Mangrove they had was in a different bag and had Mangrove written on it, this stuff was in a blue bag. I've been using that in the Kamado for hot stuff and the coconut in the MB560 for low and slow. It isn't giving off the mangrove swampy smell, so who knows what it is

Quote from Gumb

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.

Hi Gumb,

I had this issue sometime back and the way I worked around was leaving a gap on the bottom grate. ( so that we always see a section of free air holes. ).

More than the small particles getting stuck, the main problem I found with redgum is a that it 'shrinks' in size. So after some time I ended up with some 'disconnected' embers and it did not touch the unburnt charcoal pieces properly. That was the main reason for the fire to go off in my case.

I worked around that problem by loading the charcoal basket up to max level so that the weight of the pieces push down the embers to keep good contact.

( and I think using the forced air controller will solve the above problem like you did). it's a beautiful charcoal with a nice smell when burning isn't it ?

as with Iron bark, I would stay away from using it in kamado for 250F range. the lowest I could maintain was 300F without going off.