Grilling pellets

[bronzdragon]

I bought a couple packs of these...

http://www.gardenluminary.com/jackdanielspellets.htm

with the initial intent of running my whiskey through them to produce a Tennessee style whiskey. The pack says they are made from JD mellowing charcoal.

They resemble small pellets like rabbit food, but they are black.

Does anyone have an opinion or experience with these? My thought was to rig up a tube, kind of like you would use carbon to filter neutral spirits, and just run my whiskey down through these pellets.

I'm hesitant in using them because the caution on the back says for use only with outdoor smokers and not to be ingested.

Basically my question is, will these approximate what the Ten whiskey makers do with beds of maple charcoal or should I just save this for the smoker?

~r~

[Dunderhead]

I woldn't You don't know they stuck them
together with .If you want to try that
just get hard wood charcoal.

[bronzdragon]

I hadn't thought about what the pellets are held together with. You're probably right. So, hardwood charcoal is a good alternative, eh? Would you just buy briquets and smash them up or what?

~r~

[CAMEL_Joe]

You can burn some sugar maple and collect the charcoal

you can find it on ebay cheap just search sugar maple I got it
from a fellow in vermont its dry and ready to go
I cut it up into 1" x 1" x 8" pieces and piled it up like a log cabin
on a flat clean surface I used a patio stone
set it on fire let it burn until you burn all the wood put out with water
and let it air dry before storing

Hope that helps

[bronzdragon]

Thanks Joe for the idea. I hadn't thought about checking ebay. I bought a box of sugar maple today and I'll just char it good and use it.

Here's a link in case anyone is interested.

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-LBS-VT-SUGAR-MAPL ... dZViewItem

hrm, sorry for the long url.

~r~

[Dutchmancreek]

I hadn't thought about what the pellets are held together with. You're probably right. So, hardwood charcoal is a good alternative, eh? Would you just buy briquets and smash them up or what?

~r~

Don't use charcoal briquettes...they all use some sort of material to "paste" them together. Some of the more popular ones (Kingsford et al) use coal dust to help them burn and might contain nearly type of wood.

Pure hardwood/natural lump commercial charcoal might be better but you still don't know what type of wood they use.

Bags of BBQ/Smoking charcoal are best used for cooking.

[Dunderhead]

NO to the briquets they contain coal
you can bye charcoal same place as briquets
I make charcoal by puting wood in coverd container
small whole let smoke out but not let o2 in
set on grill ,fireplce ,campstove outside and"cook it
old pot and lid or mettle can will work

[MisterSteve124]

In my opinion making your own charcoal isn't worth it. You need a fairly large container and most of the stuff at the bottom is over done and most of the stuff at the top is not done enough. At home depot they sell lump charcoal. That is what you want it's natural charcoal without any addititives. It's $4 for 20lbs which atleast I think is a pretty good price. Only problem is they don't sell it in the winter, since not many people barbeque when it's snowing .

[Dunderhead]

I agree eser to bye maybe ask they mite
have it stored "out back"
unless you want to try somthing difernt as
sugar maple or burtch i think in spring befor leaves
start. after leaves start gets bitter

[pintoshine]

Because of the sulfur content, Kingsford starting using cornstarch to glue there charcoal together. When the corn starch is kilned with the briquettes it turns black too. The Kingsford Charcoal molds when it gets wet.
The Jack Daniels pellets are extruded. The heat and pressure of the extruder causes the lignin in the wood to weld itself together. I'm pretty sure they are not using a binder. The pellets for wood burning stoves are made the same way. It is a very cheap process only requiring mechanical energy.

[Dunderhead]

I whold have to disagre wood and grains are steemed
and contain lignin and starch but jack daniels pellets
like briquettes are made frum charcoal