White Oregon/Garry Oak in here. I’ve been experimenting. Finally getting the opportunity to do the big one. We’ll see. Might be too open fire? I do have a larger 55 gal oil barrel (believing this one to be about 20-25?
The way I've seen it done is to load the smaller barrel inside of the larger barrel upside down. The small barrel is full of the wood you want to make charcoal out of. The active fire is in the space between the two barrels. As the wood in the small barrel heats up, it off gasses all of the volatiles (wood gases) which are driven down and also burn in the space between the barrels. Due to the lack of oxygen in the smaller barrel, the remaining black chunks of char don't burn in the small barrel. Once complete, you let the whole thing cool down and are left with lump charcoal. I think I saw a YouTube video on it. Let us know how it works out.
Welp guys this one failed. Not because I didn’t do it correctly...it fell over in the night! Dang it. Well I dont truly have a shortage of the wood. I’ve set aside wood for this project because of how odd shapes they are not going to stack well. I will post pictures how I did it last night and then reveal the next plan in a few.
How is your Yakitori cooker going? I keep thinking of making one for a spring project. Weather is finally turning the corner around here.
So last Night I did this. Not realizing how much the rocks underneath were affecting its balance. So it became top heavy and ...*kerrrplew* and likely some form of rocket fire *SHHRRRRKKKK* with the sound of brick Krk! krk! While I was inside sawing wood. Should have done something like this prior.. and shoveled some coals around the barrel. The top you’re seeing is part of a pool filter. The container for that is smaller and all stainless steel. Really nice and sturdy but have a heavy piece of brass fitting on the side to remove before that can be used to make charcoal too. Might even be more useful as the whole thing is flush with parts, gonna post and edit here. Kinda cool huh, just the brass is super heavy needing to remove but even that itself is cool too!
I will probably make it again later. I realized some errors were involved and mostly that was because of no airflow from below. I’m impressed you remember that. I used the bricks and put spaces but they didn’t get hot enough from below so if theres a way to fix that, I’m listening! I will get plenty of that sorta thing fixed up this summer. I remember that if I can find some good steel grill square pieces that aren’t so wide(not much more than 6inches, although room for me to cut them to size) and go for it. I just love to bbq, old standbys and something new. Never hurts to keep trying.
Success!!! Last night made some with a quick burning fire and morning cooled off things pretty quickly. Can’t wait to get this batch in a container and use it!
Well It often burns faster for sure. I have not yet used this stuff, waiting for a better weather day to try. I find it lights easier, makes a really vigorous fire but makes plenty of sparks. At least the lump charcoal I’ve bought before did. I would have to believe that different hardwoods behave differently and their charcoal counter-parts may too. What I have made is some oak here. The best part about it is it is free for me. I can make it in batches that are similar to the bag you get at the store for 10-12 bucks. I had made this before in a small batch I have tried some mix of plum and cherry but the charcoal was a bit more exposed to air so it wasn’t as solid, more smaller pieces. I was trying to make charcoal that was similar to the charcoal you can find in Japanese/Asian food stores but its incredibly expensive. The wood has properties that allow you to use the charcoal and extinguish it and use it again. Special kind of wood. You can find YouTube videos on it.
You making Binchotan? In any case, if you don't mind could you walk through your process a bit more? I've got a lot of potential charcoal. Would love to try it out.
Thought I should show you this but I picked maybe a couple lbs of charcoal out. It is phenomenal. There’s no doubt in my mind that this will be my tried and true way of bbq. Great lasting heat, flavor is definitely likely to be there. Small pieces go a long way. Started it in my chimney with that eco light from kingsford, i use paper often in the summer, much easier to light when the draft isn’t there and coals are dried up.
All I did was tried to find a small grease barrel. Don’t burn up your dad’s vintage 76 or conoco oil one!!!! I found mine at a cement mixing place. Go figure but they likely do maintenance on their own trucks there too. Anyways burn it out first on a hot fire, paint and oil will be involved but I do not recommend this for your safety. Now with the legal part taken in stride, place oak splits in cool barrel and then make sure it’s in or near your fire being so heavy. I have a large pit so its easy for me to get it in. Put barrel in the fire open side up and find a steel lid that is not air tight, but sealable. I got mine off a pool filter lid. Put rocks on the lid and then line edge of the outside of the barrel with more wood and coals and give it a long burn. Make sure that the barrel wont tip over, had this happen to me and woke up to nothing but a bunch of ash and cracked bricks. Any hardwood should work but I’d stick with hickory, pecan, oak, and likely any fruit woods too. One thing I’m noticing is the fly ash is more so on real wood opposed to briquettes. Small price to pay for some quality charcoal. Hopefully we can get others to post how they do theirs!
Thanks for the details. Definitely want to try this. Saw one site that showed the guy using two garbage cans. One bigger to for over the other. Holes drilled. Nothing crazy. But tough to find aluminum garbage cans these days. I’ve got lots of raw material. Some black cherry and some oak tops I could use. If I make some I’ll definitely post. Thanks for the inspiration.
Yep!and I agree with the trash can deal, everything is galvanized and that’s no good for cooking. You’ll find it to be a lot of fun if you invite a few folks over who might be interested in helping you out. Also make sure that you leave the barrel overnight, some say to keep it closed for 24 hours. If you touch the barrel in the morning, any heat is likely to be saying its either not done or there’s an air leak and that might not be charcoal anymore. If it worked, find a black rubbermaid tub for ostentatious reasons for what its worth haha!
Nice one, wants me to try it too! Even though i reckon i would try get me some beech for it. Another project on the list
Have at it. Maybe we can get others to make suggestions to woods to use. I don’t want to use woods that taste bad but some woods are fantastic for being consistent for this sort of thing.
I think most charcoal you can buy around here is from beech. If you can get european beech in the states give it a try. But i can imagine Hickory would work fine too, what sort of oak did you used?
