In reviewing some other B&B products, we came across these B&B Char-Logs. That, coupled with a discussion on Facebook
about whether or not these logs were suitable for use in kamado-style cookers, led us to investigate. So, here we have
our review of B&B Char-Logs.
B&B Charcoal is a family-owned business located in Weimar, Texas. They produce a number of types of charcoal,
each made from a single species of wood so you get predictable smoke flavor and performance. These Char-Logs
are made from the remnants of their oak and hickory lump charcoal making process in Mexico. We conveniently
provide a map showing you the location of Mexico at right.
So, we mentioned that these Char-Logs are made from the remnants from making oak and hickory lump charcoal.
These charred remnants are ground into powder and then compressed under fantastic pressure to form the logs
that you will see below. It is notable that there is no binder used. Because B&B doesn't cook their charcoal
at really high temperatures, there is still enough plant cell membrane in the charcoal powder to bind the
charcoal when compressed. The resulting logs are dense, about 1¾" in diameter with a 5/16" hole down
the middle. The majority of the logs are between 1" and 5" in length.
One final comment before we begin this review. You will note in the Quick Stats that we paid $19.99 at Ace
Hardware for our bag of Char-Logs. However, Ace pricing is notoriously high on many products and that includes
this one. B&B Char-Logs can be found for about $12-14 a bag at other outlets.
So, like in all our reviews, we dumped the bag onto the ground for sorting and inspection. Since this isn't
lump charcoal, we just sorted the bag into whole intact pieces, broken pieces, and crumbles and powder.
As you can see from the following table, the bag consisted of 94% whole logs of varying lengths, about 5%
small broken pieces, and less than 1% crumbles and dust:
| Large |
0.0 pounds |
0.0% |
| Medium |
28.8 pounds |
94.0% |
| Small |
1.6 pounds |
5.3% |
| Chips/Dust |
0.2 pounds |
0.7% |
|
|
|
| Total |
30.6 pounds |
|
|
Needless to say, since this product is more like briquettes than lump, you would expect a low percentage of the
unusable crumbles. But nevertheless, that would rank Very Low when compared to all brands of lump charcoal.
In our lighting test, in which we count the number of sheets of newspaper it takes to get a fire going in a
chimney starter, these Char-Logs took 5 sheets to get a fire established. This is High compared to lump charcoal
brands. There was no sparking or popping while the logs were getting started. The smell of the smoke was mild
and what you would expect from a hardwood charcoal.
In the maximum temperature test, we were able to get B&B Char-Logs up to 898°F, which is High compared to
brands of lump charcoal. Again, there was no sparking or popping. The fire was quite slow to spread, which is
probably to be expected since these logs are relatively hard to start. Something we don't do with lump charcoal,
but do observe with briquettes and extruded charcoal is to snuff the fire after the high temperature burn and
observe the condition of the remaining pieces. The Char-Logs were somewhat fragile but if you take care, you
can knock the ash off and reuse them.
In our burn time test, B&B Char-Logs burned only an Average amount of time compared to lump charcoal. The ash
production was pretty staggering. The volume of ash produced was Very High compared to all brands of lump charcoal.
In fact, the logs produced 7% more ash than the very worst lump we have ever tested. That said, when we compare
it to other brands of extruded charcoals, it was in the middle of pack. In any event, this might not be
the best charcoal for a really long slow cook in a kamado-style cooker as the volume of ash could block your
air input. Otherwise, the ash wouldn't be a consideration.
One final comment before we render a rating for B&B Char-Logs. We don't usually cook food as a part of every
review but we were curious to see how much flavor you would get from these logs without adding any wood chunks.
We cooked a pork butt that took about 12 hours at 250°F. The result was a small amount of smoke flavor, but
both we and our neighbor found ourselves wanting more smoke flavor. So, you will probably still find yourself
needing to add wood chunks to your fire to get that smoky flavor that most of us want in our barbecue.
So as for a rating, there are really two ways to look at this. How does this charcoal do compard to lump charcoal
and how does it do compared to other extruded charcoals and briquettes. Viewed as a briquette type of fuel, we
would give B&B Char-Logs a Recommended rating. It's inexpensive, has some smoke flavor and performs as well or
better than briquettes. However, when comparing it to lump charcoal (and some folks are using this like lump
charcoal), we would give B&B Char-Logs our Average rating. It burns an average length of time and gets to above
average temperatures if asked to, but it is hard to start and stumbles badly at producing ash. We can see using
this for grilling, but for overnight cooks, the ash could prove to be a problem.
