Western Premium.
America's Heritage Smoking Wood Brand.

Different formats for different cookers and cook lengths.

Wood chunks are larger pieces (roughly fist-sized) that burn slowly and produce smoke for 1 to 2 hours per chunk. They are designed for kamados (Big Green Egg), kettles, and offset smokers where you drop them directly onto the charcoal in the firebox. Long, low-and-slow cooks (brisket, pork shoulder) need chunks because chips would burn out far too quickly.

Wood chips are small flakes that burn fast and produce intense smoke for around 15 to 30 minutes per handful. They are designed for gas grills, electric smokers, and pellet smokers with smoke tubes where the wood sits in a smoker box or foil packet over the burner. Short cooks (chicken, fish) or supplemental smoke layers on longer cooks work well with chips.

Both formats deliver the same wood flavour. The choice is about your cooker, not about the smoke profile.

For brisket, three Western Premium woods are the right move depending on the style you are chasing.

Post Oak: the Texas standard. Used in central Texas BBQ joints (Franklin Barbecue, Pecan Lodge, Snow's BBQ) because the smoke profile is balanced, clean, and lets the beef stay the hero. Pair Post Oak with Meat Church Holy Cow for authentic Texas competition results.

Mesquite: bold, earthy, slightly bitter. The traditional South Texas and Mexican-style brisket wood. Use it lighter than you would Post Oak (the flavour is intense), or blend with Post Oak for a layered profile.

Cherry: not the primary smoke wood, but added in small amounts to build the deep mahogany bark colour that competition cooks chase. Use 1 cherry chunk to every 3 Post Oak chunks for both colour and flavour depth.

Post Oak is a specific oak species (Quercus stellata) native to central Texas. It is the signature wood of Texas-style BBQ, used in nearly every famous Texas BBQ joint from Franklin Barbecue in Austin to Snow's BBQ in Lexington.

Three reasons Texas pitmasters use Post Oak:

1. The smoke profile is genuinely balanced. Not too sweet, not too bitter, not too intense. The Post Oak smoke complements beef without overpowering it.

2. It is locally abundant in Texas. Texas pitmasters use Post Oak partly because that is what grows on Texas land, the same way North Carolina cooks use Hickory because that is their local hardwood.

3. It burns cleanly. Properly dried Post Oak produces minimal acrid bitterness, which matters for long 12 to 16 hour brisket cooks where any harsh smoke compounds over time.

Western Premium Post Oak comes from Kansas (a neighbour to Texas on the southern oak belt) and is kiln-dried for the cleanest smoke. The closest thing to authentic Texas BBQ wood available in Australia.

Yes, but match the format to the cooker.

Kamado (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe): use wood chunks. Bury 2 to 4 chunks throughout the charcoal pile before lighting. The chunks ignite as the charcoal burns past them, releasing smoke over hours. Chips burn too fast for kamado low-and-slow cooks.

Kettle BBQ (Weber Kettle, charcoal grill): use wood chunks with a snake or charcoal-basket setup. Drop chunks into the unlit charcoal section so they burn as the fire travels. For short cooks (under 1 hour), chips in a foil packet on the heat work too.

Gas grill: use wood chips in a smoker box over the active burner. Soak the chips in water for 30 minutes first (this delays ignition and extends smoke time). Replace every 30 minutes for ongoing smoke. Chunks do not work on gas grills because they cannot reach ignition temperature reliably.

Pellet smoker (Yoder, Traeger, GMG): pellet smokers run on pellets, not chips or chunks. If you want extra smoke layered into a pellet cook, use chips in a smoke tube (A-MAZE-N or LIZZQ) on the grate.

Electric smoker (Masterbuilt): chips, fed through the side-port chip loader.

It depends on your cooker. The short answer is: yes for gas grill smoker boxes, no for everything else.

Gas grill smoker box: yes, soak for 30 minutes in water before use. Soaking delays ignition (the chips need to dry out before they burn) which extends the smoking phase. Without soaking, the chips burn out in 5 to 10 minutes.

Smoke tube on a pellet smoker: no, do not soak. Smoke tubes rely on a slow smoulder, and wet chips will not ignite or sustain the smoulder. Always use dry chips in a smoke tube.

Foil packet or pouch on a kettle: optional. Some cooks prefer dry (faster ignition, more intense smoke), others prefer soaked (longer smoke time, gentler profile). Either works.

For wood chunks: never soak chunks. They are too dense for water to penetrate meaningfully, and surface moisture just turns to steam in the cooker which can affect bark formation.

Yes. Across the Sydney metro area we offer same-day or next-business-day delivery on Western Premium wood. Orders dispatch from our Wetherill Park showroom in Sydney's west.

For the rest of Australia, Western Premium ships through our standard parcel service. Wood is heavier than rubs, especially chunks, but freight scales well when you combine with other orders. Pair Western Premium with rubs, charcoal, or pellets and we will combine the delivery, no extra freight on the second item.

Pickup from the showroom is also available any business day. Call us on 0434 010 411 to confirm stock if you want to grab them for a weekend cook.