How It's Made

OUR PROCESS

Here at Caradoc Charcoal we use the retort method, which heats the wood to the point where the wood expels all of its gas and impurities.

With our method we are able to produce a batch of charcoal in just two days, which involves one day of burning and one day of drying.

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Once the locally grown wood reaches our yard it is chopped in to billets and put in a kiln to begin the drying process. It is then loaded in to our steel retort. We light a fire in the middle and wait for the temperature to reach 500°C on both sides It can take hours to get up to temperature depending on which way the wind is blowing!

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The wood then goes through gassing, where all of the moisture is sucked out. The conditions almost stress the wood in to releasing all of its moisture.

Gassing can take 8-9 hours depending on the wood and its moisture content. There is no rule of thumb on how long it takes, but we attend to it until it is ready.

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Then the wood is left to cool for another 24 hours, when it can be finally bagged up. That process produces between 200-250kg of quality charcoal. We aim to do this process three times a week and we make the charcoal all year round.

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We have set-up an online shop and we are able to deliver nationally by courier. If you are closer to home within 15 miles and place an order of over £30 will deliver to you free of charge.  If you would like to come and see us you can collect by appointment.  Just choose the option that is right for you at the checkout.