Mixing cocochar with lump in the basket

[PaulW]

Greetings,

I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience mixing coffee char lump in with cocochar in the basket for a low and slow cook.  My concern is temp spikes with the differing burning properties of each of them.  I have 35 lbs of boneless Costco butt (4 butts at about 8 lbs each) going on tonight for a party tomorrow afternoon and the pressure is on to get this right.  

Also wondering your thoughts about fitting all 4 butts on the main grate vs splitting the into 2 levels.  My plan is to put aluminum drip pans on the lower grate and let them go at 225 overnight - figuring probably 14 hours or so, then wrap, towel and cooler until picnic time.

Thanks

Paul

[tony b]

I've not experienced any problems mixing charcoals before, including cocochar with regular lump. 

I've never cooked that many butts at once before, so I do not have a lot of advice. If you keep them on the same level, just don't crowd them too much to block airflow between them. If you put them on the main and upper grates they will cook at different rates, so just be careful to monitor at least one on each level. 

Otherwise, you sound good to go! Butts are seriously hard to mess up, so you're going to be fine!

[Tucker]

I always use the coco extruded and lump together for low-slow cooks, no issues at all.

I have done 4 butts at once on my 23" several times, no problems, two on main grate, two on upper grate; the upper grate one touched a bit, but that did not present any issues.

I ran them for about 14-16 hours but used internal temp of 190f to determine finish time.

I only monitored one on the main grate.

once internal is hit, wrap in foil, stick in cooler, shred when needed.

[DennisLinkletter]

On 12/7/2021 at 11:30 PM, PaulW said:

I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience mixing coffee char lump in with cocochar in the basket for a low and slow cook.  My concern is temp spikes with the differing burning properties of each of them.

Charcoal burns at the maximum volume for the given airflow regardless what the properties of the charcoal are.
The same airflow will create the same BTUs.. The more dense the charcoal is the less of it will appear to be burning, the less dense will have more burning..