Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Homemade Lump Charcoal

Several years ago I bought a Green Egg so I could smoke and grill on the same unit. I enjoy grilling/smoking and cold smoking as many meals time and weather will allow for my family including beef, pork, chicken, seafood/fish, pizza, and veges. One unique characteristic of the Green Egg is that it's designed to use only natural lump charcoal - something I'd never used before. As you may suspect, the Green Egg company strongly recommends using only Green Egg natural lump charcoal. For several years I used it, to the tune of $1/lb - until I stumbled upon directions on a smoking/grilling forum to make my own lump charcoal.

While natural lump charcoal burns faster/hotter than charcoal briquettes, it lacks the chemical additives, can be reused multiple times, and imparts, IMO, a far superior flavor to whatever you are grilling/smoking. The following is a guide for making your own lump charcoal using an indirect method. There are several avenues online, but this process worked for my readily accessible materials, enables me to perform burns solo, is faster [50%] than several other methods, and consistently yields a solid results.

Making lump charcoal - super fast city boy solo method.


• 4 55 G Drums [available free from many sources]
• 2 30 G Drums [harder to find, must call around]
• 4-8 Cinder Blocks
• 4-8 Bricks or Fire Bricks
• Access to a tig welder or metal cutter
• Good supply of seasoned, dense wood which will serve as your charcoal [Oak, Locust, Mulberry, Osage Orange, Mesquite, Hickory]
• Good supply of seasoned kindling, branches, split firewood

Kiln Construction:

1. Cut lids off all 50 and 30 G drums [side cut beneath the rim/lip]. Set 6 lids aside, you'll need 4 of them for process.

2. Start fire in each barrel to burn off anything that was stored inside [oil, anitfreeze, transmission fluid]. This can be nasty, and might not be entirely legal. Remain upwind!

3. Choose 2 55 G drums to serve as your kiln. Cut a fuel feeder hole in the side of the drum near the bottom. Make the hole about 10 inches high and 18 inches wide. The larger the hole, the easier to feed the fire, but don't stray too far from the recommended dimensions.



4. Remaining 2 55 G drums will serve as your "snuffers" to be used at the end of the process - will explain later.

Homemade Lump Charcoal continued....

5. Drill/cut 5 holes about 3/8 or 1/2 inch in diameter in the bottom of each of the 30 G drums.



Charcoal Processing:

1. Ideal wood to serve as charcoal should be well seasoned, dense hardwood, cut into fist sized chucks around 4" thick. Length is not important, but we want uniform thickness so the charcoal burns at the same rate. Well seasoned wood will shorten the time required to process. I have used Elm, Cottonwood, and Ash as it's plentiful around the farm - and find while it's easier/faster to render into charcoal, I find it lacks the top end heat and burns far too fast for my liking. I now use only very dense hardwood with high BTUs. Some great options are Oak, Locust, Mulberry, Osage Orange, Walnut and Hickory.







2. Set up kiln [55G drum] on ground or on pair of cinder blocks 1 or 2 high. The higher the kiln sits, the easier it is on the back and knees while feeding the fire in the kiln. If you are going 2 block high, please be certain the kiln in steady and on level ground. Note regarding wind direction: It's best to process lump charcoal with some wind as it helps create a hotter fire, resulting in shorter processing time, and minimizes smoke inhallation. Do not set up your burn downwind! Realize this seems obvious, yet I learned the hard way when wind picked up later in the day and I ended up directly downwin - I smelled like a grill pit for a week. Do not set up your burn sideways. Setting the fuel feeder hole sideways/angled into the breeze can be hazardous as hot embers can be brown out and create a grass fire which can quickly get out of control. This too I learned the hard way. I now ensure to place my fuel feeder hole directly into the breeze as it keeps the smoke at bay, it acts like a sail and catches lots of oxygen and results in a very hot burning fire, and I minimize any fire safety issues with escaping embers.



3. Set bricks inside the kiln on the bottom. Fire bricks will last for several burns, clay bricks last for a 1-2 burns.



4. Set 30 G barrel inside the kiln on top of the bricks. You'll need to be able to put both lids back on the barrels, so don't leave the 30 G drum sitting too high. Experiment to determine the best brick configuration so both lids can still be placed on the barrels.





5. Fill the 30 G barrel with as much wood as possible so the lid still fits flush. Carefully wedging pieces in takes longer than simply dumping a load to the rim of the barrel, but will result in signficantly more charcoal. I recommnd to take the time, ensure the barrel has the most volume possible. Place lids on both the 30 G and 55 G drums. If yours are rough cut like mine there will be plenty of room for smoke, water vapor, and gasses to escape so no retort is necessary. If your lids are perfectly cut and could create an tight seal, offset the lids somewhat to create a chimney of sorts [or use a piece of rebar] to allow the outgassing from the kiln.

6. Build a fire between and even oustide the fire bricks beneath the 30 G drum. Start with paper and twigs and gradually layer larger sticks, limbs, etc. I use my piles of scrap after I limb trees felled for firewood scattered around the farm. These have typically been seasoning for at least a year - and using seasoned wood is important as the firebox can quickly get packed with coals which hampers continual feeding of the fire. The more seasoned the wood, the more completely it burns into ash, not coals which take up volume of your firebox.



7. Continue feeding the fire, keeping the firebox as full as possible and fire as hot as possible. A breezy day helps here - provided you are upwind - as you should have minimal heat exposure, smoke inhallation, and the breeze should be feeding your fire plenty of oxygen. Might be a good time to crack a beverage or two and get as comfortable as possible, you'll be stoking/feeding for the next 3-5 hours.

Homemade Lump Charcoal continued...

8. Between stoking and feeding your fires, grab a shovel, select two places nearby, and dig two depressions about 4" deep with the circumfrance of a 55 G drum. Keep loose dirt/gravel around the perimeter of the hole - you'll need this soon to cool your charcoal. Collect your remaining 2 55 G drums with the lids cut off and place them near the depressions - these will act as your snuffers very soon.



9. Watch the smoke! It should be white, meaning that the water, tar and other compounds are burning out of the wood leaving us with a lump of pure carbon - which is our goal. The white smoke burning should last for about three hours. If you see the smoke begin to slow, bang on the drum to settle the wood. When you begin to see blue smoke around hour 3 or 4 this means the wood is becoming charcoal and beginning to ignite.



10. At this point I very carefully remove both lids and look at the charcoal. I know my batch is finished when I see around 1/3 less volume. If I have elected to crack a beverage or two, I will actually reach into the barrel and remove several chunks and test it for consistency. I recommend long sleeve welder gloves for this foolishness.

11. Performing a charcoal burn solo is dangerous, but this is the most harrowing detail of the process - getting our 30 G drum of charcoal up and out of the 55 G drum if you have elevated it on cinder blocks. We now have two barrels at 600 degrees and burning gasses at 1,200 degrees sitting potentially two cinder blocks high - and while I do not endorse nor recommend the following extraction method, it's what a vertically challenged, solo operation demands:

Grab the 55 G drum, lean it to one side and kick out the cinder block on one side, and then the other. It's tricky business holding the scalding hot 55 G drum steady to prevent it from tipping over, but if you are solo there's no other way I've found. If I have gone two blocks high this is a much more difficult process. It is very important to insulate yourself from the extreme heat of the barrels and the outgassing. Once the 55 G barrel sits on the ground off the cinder blocks, I use vice grips on either side of the 30 G drum and lift/extract it from the 55 G barrel. I then place the 30 G barrel into the depression dug previously in the ground, then place the 55 G snuffer on top and pack the perimeter with dirt/gravel to create an airtight seal. This will deprive the charcoal of oxygen and your charcoal will begin to cool/set. It is imperative you completely cut off all oxygen to the charcoal whatever method you choose. Repeat this process with the remaining 30 G drum.

12. I allow my charcoal to cool for 24 hours, remove the snuffers, and empty the charcoal into plastic containers. It should all be cool to the touch at this time.

A 30 G drum should yield approximately 20 lbs of charcoal. You may notice some chunks of wood which were not converted to charcoal. This happens when using chunks with varying thickness, or using some wood more seasoned than others, and is to be expected. I consider a successful burn when there is less than 20% remaining wood.





During the 4-5 hour process of making homemade lump charcoal and handling white hot drums, it invariably occurs to me this is a lot like raising fish in my hatchery cells - pure labor of love. I try to justify the exercise knowing I am cleaning up clutter on the farm by using scrap firewood for my charcoal, brush piles for the fuel, save $300 annually from lump purchases, and am producing a superior product. In the end it serves as a nice distraction for a fire enthusiast, allows some needed quiet time for reflection, and 12 hour packer cut brisket never tasted so sweet.

Bravo!!

Very cool. Well explained too. I can get you 30g drums if you ever need more.

Very well documented. TJ, I sent you an e-mail for a safer way to move the hot drums.....

Thanks Scott, and I just might take you up on that offer, Josh. Much appreciated, those were hard to find.

Any other lump charcoal guys out there who can share some of their experiences? My method is a combination of several different things I've tried over the past three years, and again, tailored for the solo experience.

Excellent how-to, thank you! Being a hickory-smoked pork southerner, what are your favorite charcoal/meat combinations?

Hi Wade

I've been into using my cold smoker quite a bit lately to infuse as much smoke as I want without drying out or cooking meat. I have a dryer vent duct that goes from my Egg chimney into a modified cooler which serves as my cold smoke box. I love cold smoking steaks for 1-1.5 hours then finishing them on the Egg grill. My favorite woods for smoking steaks is pecan or hickory and then a lighter wood like maple, cherry, or plum.

My all time favorite meal is a cold smoked tenderloin then slow cooked in the Egg and finished over high heat to sear the sides. I'll use a pecan, hickory, mesquite or oak and then a lighter wood like maple, cherry or plum. My wife often asks if I can tell the difference between wood smoke types, and while it's hard on some food, when smoking seafood or cheese one can really tell the difference between fruit woods [lighter, sweeter] and nut woods.

Another rare treat at my house is getting some fresh tuna, giant scallops and tiger shrimp that is flown in overnight. In Nebraska that's as fresh as it gets, and I like smoking with a light wood like Ash or Alder and maybe a Lilac or Apple. Have to be careful not to oversmoke the delicate meat, then finish on the grill. I sure miss my traveling days which allowed me regular access to seafood on either coast.

Thanks TJ; pretty neat.

I mentioned this to my Wife. She told me "NO WAY" until I finish my other incomplete projects.

Thanks for the suggestions, can't wait to try some of them. Do you have a pic of your cold smoker outfit?

All I had to mention was a torch, drums with flammable residue, chainsaw, axe, vise grips, and fire, my hunting buds are in. My wife on the other hand...

I will post photos of the cold smoker. It's nothing fancy, but sure gets the job done well. Are you considering doing a batch of homemade lump? If so, please provide photos of the process and your success. There are plenty of variations one can make, especially if you're blessed with another person to help you out.

Nice website Wade...sorry but I'd never checked out your profile before - very impressive. When are you going to do some YP/SMB/HSB fisheries in SC?

Thanks for sharing,

Cool beans TJ. I’m gonna have to try this. I have some 55g drums with removable lids that I use for storage. If a person had a 30g drum with a removable lid, that’d be smokin. Because then you could simply remove the embers, pry upwards on 30g drum with pry bar, remove bricks, lower drum, replace lid, and let cool. On a related side note: I feel I must impart some words of caution concerning cutting the tops off the drums with a torch. Some drums may contain residual amounts of chemicals or solvents, and the fumes may be highly explosive. Sometimes the drum may even appear to be completely dry, but still have residue impregnated in the metal. When this residue is heated it can produce fumes which can build-up and explode in the confined space. There are numerous accounts of this happening. Usually from someone making a trash can or burn barrel. So when in doubt, don’t cut it out with a torch, plasma cutter, welding machine, or any heat related source. Use a reciprocating saw, or other mechanical means. Even then it pays to be cautious. So you may want to rinse the barrel out first, and then throw it on a big fire with the bungs removed, stand far away and wait awhile before retrieving. Sorry to be so long winded. I just wanted to be clear. Anywho, this project is definitely on my to do list. Thanks for sharing it..... Peace, gw

After submitting the previous post, I did a little research on the subject of exploding drums. Apparently it’s even more common than I had thought. Some people have even blown themselves up using saws or chisels to cut a drum. Evidently, anything that produces a spark can cause an explosion in certain drums. There seems to be a large number of incidents involving oil drums. I read one account of a teenage boy in a shop class blowing himself up while cutting a drum with a grinder. The drum had previously contained peppermint oil. So be careful. I also did a search on drum de-header tools. There are various models available starting at $40. and up. The more inexpensive ones operate similar to a can opener. I don’t know how well they work though. Perhaps a person could find a local business that has a de-heading tool and is willing to cut the drum for a minimal charge, if any. “When in doubt, don’t cut it out."--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: OK, It's like 2 hours later, and I'm back. I just had another thought. What if a person were to place the drum upright and fill it full of water before cutting the top off? This should reduce the chance of an explosion to nil. You would use a lot of water, but if you were cutting more than one you could transfer the water from one drum to another. Problem solved. I think. I hope I'm not sounding paranoid. I just don't want anyone to get hurt....... gw

Nice, I have the Grill Dome Love the ceramic cooking. Just wanted to let you know I have seen 55 gallon and 30 gallon drums with clamp on lids. Just have to search for them. Have to share some recipes. Now with some of the woods do you have to watch as far as making a bitter taste in the food?

Gully Washer, my brother used to make large bbq cookers out of dang near everything including oil field pipe, butane tanks and once even an old 1,000 gallon gas tank. Before he started cutting on the tanks, he filled them with water. Not almost to the top but overflowing so no fumes could touch the flame from the torch.

We use barrels with removable lids for our deer feeders. A new one might work but they are pretty thin walled.

I have found that I can ignite just about everything that has been shipped in a barrel. I used to have about 25 bee hives. In the Spring, we would jump start them by feeding different sweet syrups. I would probably get sued for what I could post about a certain popular soft drink syrup that burnt.

You guys be careful.

When I worked at Scott's Machine Shop (my Dad's business) back in the day (of the Beatles and Stones), we were often called on to repair leaking vehicle gasoline tanks.

This could be a thrill for you TJ; pay attention!

We would remove the tank from the vehicle and drain (most leaks were on the bottom of the tanks and brazing overhead is tricky).

Then we would fire up the the old 49 International pickup truck with flex tubing running from the exhaust pipe to the filler neck of the gas tank being repaired. We used pink shop rags (you know the ones that the rag truck delivered and picked up the dirty ones to be washed) packed around the flexible tubing to prevent most of the exhaust fumes from escaping to the atmosphere.

After a few minutes the gasoline tank fumes would be rendered harmless(??) by the carbon monoxide in the exhaust fumes. At that point it was safe(??) to braze up the leak or crack. Many times we added a galvanized tin patch to prevent a recurrence of a crack or leak.

We used the cutting torch method to remove drum heads back then too. Sometimes one would poooffff... through one of the bungs when the torch penetrated the drum. It was a safety rule to keep your face away from the open bungs at the initial cut.

Safety always came first back then. The definition of safety was much different than today! We considered brazing on gas tanks, torching drum heads and such to be safe activity.

A little later in life I became a Safety Engineer for an insurance company. I think that may have been penance for all risks taken and survived in the Scott's Machine Shop days.

I think the trick when welding/cutting on drums/gas tanks is to remove the air. Without oxygen, no boom.....hence electric fuel pumps in your car's gas tank....plenty of gas fumes in there, but no oxygen to support combustion.

I've seen the water trick, and the exhaust hose version Dwight speaks of, both methods displace the air in the tank, preventing an explosion. Hopefully.

Ever see those guys who put cigarettes out in buckets of gasoline? I understand how they're able to get away with it, but I still don't like to be around when they're showing off.

GW:

You are absolutely spot on regarding cutting the drums. I've cut quite a few in my time with a torch that have had unknown residue in them, mostly flammible residue, and used the water trick many times. The ones that I knew were going to burn but not go ka-boom, I just opened the bungs and let them burn as I was cutting them. Definately not something that would be OSHA approved in this day and age.

Good question on the wood selection. There are esoteric smoking circles who do this for a living either by owning a restaurant and/or are active on the smoking competition circuit and I've read a lot of their feedback on forums. My feedback is a combination on what I've read and from personal experience:

Charcoal wood selection: Stick with dense, high BTU woods like Oak, Mesquite, Hickory, Locust, Mulberry, Osage Orange, and some cultivars of Maple are pretty dense. When in doubt, one can't go wrong with Oak of any species as it's typically readily available. Remember to used seasoned wood as it requires far less time to process into charcoal.

Smoking wood selection: This is a long list, and each wood has different applications and characteristics. It eventually comes down to what is available [free if possible] and personal taste. If I had to choose just two woods, I'd go with Hickory or Pecan and Cherry or Apple. There are some woods to avoid according to the sources I've researched: Any conifers including cedar [which is weird because I've grilled salmon on cedar planks], and ELM, EUCALYPTUS, SYCAMORE, SWEET GUM.

Here's a good list of woods and their reported characteristics. If you stick with Hickory and Oak for red meats and rely on Cherry and Apple for Poultry, Pork and Seafood you'd be covered pretty well. Once you become familiar with using these woods, you can start mixing them [Oak/Maple, Hickory/Cherry] and see if your family [or yourself] can tell any difference. Eventually you may become adventurous out and start using woods like Sassafras, Persimmon, Lilac, Mulberry, etc.

As usual saw your post and made grand plans for a backyard exploit, then, another work week started! My friends and I are always searching for projects that incorporate bowhunting wild pigs with subsequent cooking of wild pigs. Suspect we won't launch into a charcoal project for a while but your recipe and pictures we'll keep for reference!

We will be trying some SMB in a new lake later this year so I'll keep you posted. I suspect its a bit too far south, but you never know with fish, they don't read maps or watch the weather. Have some HYB ponds that are doing well but clients won't let them get big like those Nate grows- they hit the skillet pretty quick.

Wade I think as long as those SMB have access to deeper water, stable water levels, good water quality and varied forage base they will do well. We'd like you to chronicle your SMB experiment on the forum, if you'd do us the honor. We need studies on SMB and the great state of SC!