Hi all,
I'm new here but would just like to pass on to members a little information about commercially available charcoal and especially charcoal briquettes.
I used to run a small business selling various sustainable fuels and things like woodgas stoves (I think I was the first outlet for the Spenton LLC woodgas stoves in the UK)
One of my products was charcoal which was made by a coppice worker in woodlands a few miles up the road in the Lake District. I'd done a lot of reading about commercially available charcoal prior to stocking this stuff, and to be honest I was horrified by some of the "ingredients" that go into charcoal briquettes to make them burn and stick them together. These include things like borax, ammonium nitrate, coal dust and limestone amongst others - NOT things I'd want to be cooking my dinner on!
Even with traditional lumpwood charcoal there are problems. The majority of it is imported - and although the situation has improved somewhat in recent years, there are still places selling cheap charcoal that has been produced from the wholesale destruction of mangrove swamps and so on for development or projects like palm oil plantations. There is also a fair old trade going on in the re-bagging of cheap charcoal - often from eastern Europe - to make it look rather more attractive. Much of this stuff is poor quality with a low conversion to carbon - a lot of what charcoal makers call "brown ends". This results in a much smokier product amongst other things.
When I first used the locally made stuff I was blown away. I'd piled it up as I'd had to with the previous garage forecourt type stuff to get any decent heat. It lit really easily, was up to cokking temperature in about 10 minutes, and I actually ended up taking the food off the grill and leaving it to burn down for a good 40 minutes as it was too hot to get anywhere near! The food would have been on fire before the inside got warm. This stuff will light using a few scrunches of paper, and the heat output is incredible, with hardly any smoke at all due to very high conversion to carbon when it's made - around 30% more than much of the imported stuff.
For those of you interested in this - I'd recommend having a look at Ian Taylor's website at www.lakelandcoppiceproducts.co.uk where there is much more information. I would urge all BCUK members using charcoal to have a think about this and make their choice accordingly. There is a growing network of charcoal makers in the UK, and they are finding that once people have tried their home grown product, they tend to stick with it. As well as being a FAR superior product, it's also helping to keep these guys in business renovating neglected ancient coppice woodland. Better for wildlife, better for the planet and better for us too.
Cheers all,
Andy
I'm new here but would just like to pass on to members a little information about commercially available charcoal and especially charcoal briquettes.
I used to run a small business selling various sustainable fuels and things like woodgas stoves (I think I was the first outlet for the Spenton LLC woodgas stoves in the UK)
One of my products was charcoal which was made by a coppice worker in woodlands a few miles up the road in the Lake District. I'd done a lot of reading about commercially available charcoal prior to stocking this stuff, and to be honest I was horrified by some of the "ingredients" that go into charcoal briquettes to make them burn and stick them together. These include things like borax, ammonium nitrate, coal dust and limestone amongst others - NOT things I'd want to be cooking my dinner on!
Even with traditional lumpwood charcoal there are problems. The majority of it is imported - and although the situation has improved somewhat in recent years, there are still places selling cheap charcoal that has been produced from the wholesale destruction of mangrove swamps and so on for development or projects like palm oil plantations. There is also a fair old trade going on in the re-bagging of cheap charcoal - often from eastern Europe - to make it look rather more attractive. Much of this stuff is poor quality with a low conversion to carbon - a lot of what charcoal makers call "brown ends". This results in a much smokier product amongst other things.
When I first used the locally made stuff I was blown away. I'd piled it up as I'd had to with the previous garage forecourt type stuff to get any decent heat. It lit really easily, was up to cokking temperature in about 10 minutes, and I actually ended up taking the food off the grill and leaving it to burn down for a good 40 minutes as it was too hot to get anywhere near! The food would have been on fire before the inside got warm. This stuff will light using a few scrunches of paper, and the heat output is incredible, with hardly any smoke at all due to very high conversion to carbon when it's made - around 30% more than much of the imported stuff.
For those of you interested in this - I'd recommend having a look at Ian Taylor's website at www.lakelandcoppiceproducts.co.uk where there is much more information. I would urge all BCUK members using charcoal to have a think about this and make their choice accordingly. There is a growing network of charcoal makers in the UK, and they are finding that once people have tried their home grown product, they tend to stick with it. As well as being a FAR superior product, it's also helping to keep these guys in business renovating neglected ancient coppice woodland. Better for wildlife, better for the planet and better for us too.
Cheers all,
Andy
and make charcoal too 
