• Many Ways, One Goal
• How To Start A Fire
  • With Burning Coals
  • With A Chimney
• How To Never Start A Fire
  • With Match Light Charcoal Briquettes, Or Lighter Fluid
  • With A Propane Torch

Many Ways, One Goal

There are many ways to start a fire, there are tools, gizmos, gadgets, fuel, and so much more that it could make your head spin. We are going to give you our most common techniques, but realize there are many ways, use what works best for you.

Our one goal is simple, start a fire that brings nothing undesirable to the taste of our BBQ.

How To Start A Fire

With Burning Coals

The best way to start a fire, hands down, is from another fire. Take burning coals from a fire that is already working, even if it is of another type of wood, and use that to start your new fuel.

With A Chimney

If you don’t already have a fire burning, then our next choice is to use a chimney like the Weber Chimney to start a set of charcoal briquettes. Now we prefer all wood fires in our Offset Smoker, charcoal briquettes like the Kingsford Original Charcoal Briquets are easy to light and good at lighting other fuel. So we’ll light a chimney of briquettes and pour that into the bottom of our firebox. Then we will stack logs on top of the charcoal fire, letting that burn in and get things rolling.

Now none of that explains how we start the chimney to begin with. For that we are major fans of Weber FireStarters Lighter Cubes. These amazing paraffin cubes are great at starting the chimney. You simply place one on the ground, light it with your Lighter and put the chimney over it.

How To Never Start A Fire

With Match Light Charcoal Briquettes, Or Lighter Fluid

Never, ever, ever use lighter fluid or Match Light Briquettes to start your BBQ fire. It will bring a sour, toxic taste to your food, and over time build up in your pit.

With A Propane Torch

I’ve seen people use propane torches to start charcoal, or wood, and to be honest it seems like a lot of trouble. It will produce an inconsistent fire where logs or briquettes are not evenly lit. I have no issue with fireboxes that include propane starters at the bottom which evenly light things, but don’t use a torch.