# Bear Mountain Lump Charcoal Opened My Eyes To What Charcoal Grilling Can Be

*By James Hills, mantripping.com — Updated August 2026*

Bear Mountain Hardwood Lump Charcoal is a 100% natural oak and mesquite lump that the company sent me to cook on, and it is the bag that turned my new kettle from a burger machine into something I take seriously. It runs $34.99 for the 16-pound bag. This is what it got right, and the one thing it costs you.




    **
    How To Buy Bear Mountain Lump Charcoal**



The [Bear Mountain Hardwood BBQ Lump Charcoal](https://bearmountainbbq.com/products/bbq-lump-charcoal-16-lb) comes in 8.8 pound and 16 pound bags, and the 16 pound runs $34.99 on [Amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL8T3SXQ?tag=mantr0c-20). Bear Mountain built its name on smoker pellets, and lump charcoal is a recent addition alongside their chips and chunks.



    **
    What You Get When You Buy Real Hardwood Lump Charcoal**



Lump is a different product from the briquettes most of us learned on, and the differences show up before you ever light it.




- **It is oak and mesquite with nothing added** - no binders, no fillers, no mineral content to burn off.

- **The pieces run large** - some chunks fill a hand, with the grain of the original wood still visible.

- **It lights more quickly than I'd been warned about lump charcoal** - the wait between striking a match and putting food on gets noticeably shorter.

- **Shipping is the real risk with any lump** - a badly handled bag arrives as dust, and this one did not.

- **A chimney of lump carries less fuel than it looks like** - budget for that before a long cook.




    **
    Review Index**




[It Smells Like Wood Because It Is Real Wood](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/bear-mountain-lump-charcoal-review.html#it-smells-like-wood-because-it-is-real-wood)[A Full Chimney Of Lump Is Less Fuel Than It Looks](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/bear-mountain-lump-charcoal-review.html#a-full-chimney-of-lump-is-less-fuel-than-it-looks)[What It Did For The Venison](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/bear-mountain-lump-charcoal-review.html#what-it-did-for-the-venison)[Like A Lot Of Guys, I'd Heard Of Lump Charcoal But I Thought It Was An Expensive Gimmick](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/bear-mountain-lump-charcoal-review.html#like-a-lot-of-guys-id-heard-of-lump-charcoal-but-i-thought-it-was-an-expensive-gimmick)



I came to this straight off a bag of Kingsford, and if you want the full breakdown of how the two fuels differ I wrote that up separately in [briquettes versus lump charcoal](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/briquettes-vs-lump-charcoal.html). This is about how this particular bag performed.



    Bear Mountain BBQ Hardwood Lump Charcoal 16 lb




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                    $34.99





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    We may earn a commission from purchases made through these links.


The first thing I noticed was the size. Some of these chunks fill my whole hand, and you can still read the grain of the tree in the side of them. That is the difference between the two formats. Lump is wood that was burned down. A briquette is engineered to be identical every time, which is exactly what makes briquettes so easy to learn on.


Bear Mountain makes a specific claim about consistent piece size meaning less waste at the bottom of the bag, and that held up. Mine traveled through the mail and still felt full when I opened it, with solid pieces all the way down rather than the sack of charcoal dust other people had warned me about.





## It Smells Like Wood Because It Is Real Wood


Briquettes carry a faint chemical note as they come up to temperature, and this bag simply does not. It smelled, felt, and looked like real wood, that's something unexpected from a packaged product like this but it is exactly what it's described as and that was pretty awesome.


Compared to briquettes that I've used, it did struggle to light initially, but once it caught fire, the lump charcoal was ready to pour into the kettle pretty quickly. Bear Mountain sells this on lighting quickly, and ultimately that matched what happened in my chimney.





## A Full Chimney Of Lump Is Less Fuel Than It Looks


This one is not so much a knock on this bag from Bear Mountain as it is a differentiator between lump charcoal and briquettes. Those big irregular chunks do not stack the way uniform briquettes do, so a chimney filled to the top with lump is carrying less fuel mass than the same chimney of densely compressed briquettes like those you've probably used made by Kingsford.


It also burns hotter and goes through faster so that's something to take into consideration as well. In our use though, one chimney was the perfect amount to grill our venison steaks to a perfect medium rare with a level of sear I just couldn't get from the indirect heat provided by a gas grill.


Put those together and your cooking window is shorter than the full basket suggests. Light more than you think you need, or have a second batch staged. That caught me out, and it is the one thing I would tell anybody making the switch.





## What It Did For The Venison


The cook that sold me was venison tomahawks on my [Weber Original Kettle Premium](https://www.mantripping.com/stuff/weber-original-kettle-premium-22-review.html). Lean game punishes a grill that runs uneven, and this gave me a hard sear on the outside with the middle still properly medium rare, plus a smokiness my gas grill has never produced.


None of that makes briquettes bad. A bag of Kingsford is the right call for burgers, dogs, and a backyard cookout with the guys, and I am not getting rid of mine. But when the food on the grate costs real money, cheap fuel becomes the weak link in a cook you already invested in.





## Like A Lot Of Guys, I'd Heard Of Lump Charcoal But I Thought It Was An Expensive Gimmick


There's an entire industry dedicated to convincing guys that what they need to achieve pitmaster perfection and become king of the grill is one more gadget, a different type of grill and yes ... a better charcoal. With something like fancy chimneys and complex grills, that is total BS - a guy who knows what they are doing can cook on almost anything. Charcoal is different and now that I've experienced lump charcoal I don't know that I'll be going back to cheaper alternatives except when it doesn't really matter.


Seriously, I'm the kind of guy who can enjoy an ice-cold can of Coors Light and then pick up a $250 bottle of wine. The same goes for grilling ... don't waste the good stuff if you're just doing a cookout with the guys doing burgers and sausages but if you're roasting oysters, searing venison chops, or grilling an expensive ribeye ... for goodness sake, don't cheap out on the fuel! It really does matter when it comes to taste.


With that being said, the difference in cost needs to be understood. Compared to the same size bag of Kingsford, Bear Mountain is at least 3x the price. On top of that, before you order consider how much you really need. I'd go with the 16-pound bag rather than the 8.8. Lump burns through faster than briquettes, and the smaller bag disappears quicker than the price difference suggests it should.


What this did was change what I thought charcoal was for. I had it filed as the cheap stuff you douse in lighter fluid for a fast, hot picnic cookout. Cooking over a bag like this is as sophisticated and technically interesting as anything else I do, and I am looking forward to getting better at it. For current pricing and availability, check [Amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL8T3SXQ?tag=mantr0c-20).






                                                    Details



                    Written by: James Hills








        Published: 04 August 2026







        Last Updated: 02 August 2026

























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*Source: [Bear Mountain Lump Charcoal Opened My Eyes To What Charcoal Grilling Can Be](https://www.mantripping.com/food-and-drink/bear-mountain-lump-charcoal-review.html) — mantripping.com*

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