There are many pellet brands that claim to be the best, but one company stands out, Bear Mountain.
Bear Mountain makes amazing, high quality wood pellets, and I personally have had the pleasure of cooking with these pellets and burning through a few pounds of this stuff. Their pellets provide not only high quality but also plenty of smoke and flavor.
However, this is not the only reason I like these pellets so much, we also like the company behind this product.
For that and other reasons, I believe it is worth the time to write a review of the Bear Mountain pellets and introduce you to this amazing brand.
The Beat Mountain Company: who are they?
When you think of the name “Bear Mountain,” your mind might think of the state park in New York—what a beautiful place—but this company is far from that wonder of nature. The Bear Mountain Company is located in Louisville, Colorado, or about 1800 miles west of the state of New York.
One impressive fact about this company is that they have been in business for over 30 years and were founded in the 1990s. Since then, this company has been manufacturing high quality, natural wood pellet fuel and leading in this industry.
What Makes Bear Mountain BBQ Pellets among the top
Bear Mountain does two things absolutely right, which makes them among the top. First and most importantly, they manage to deliver every last bit of flavor that a BBQ pitmaster like me wants when smoking low and slow. Second, somehow they manage to deliver this level of quality at a good price. These pellets are more affordable than other well known brands but less quality.
We did a test to find the top wood pellets, and Bear Mountain came out on top for both quality and price, a fine line hard to beat. There are other wood pellet brands making great products and even using real trees as opposed to recycled wood dust from mills.
Our Review of the Bear Mountain wood pellets
For this review, I purchased a bag of Bear Mountain’s Gourmet blend which is a neutral well balanced mix good for just about every protein. I wanted to start there because I wanted a good starting point.
I used my Z Grills 700D4E for this test, and because I like to do things the hard way, for the test and review I smoked a brisket. Yay me!
The first thing I noticed is that the pellets seemed to burn flawlessly providing a nice thin blue smoke, which is a good indication that I have good amounts of smoke in the cooking chamber and likely will get a nice smoke ring.
First Impressions
Bear Mountain wood pellets smell amazing. But before I jump into that, let’s take a few steps back. You will quickly start experiencing quality when dealing with this product, starting with the plastic bag. Bear Mountain uses nice, strong, recyclable bags to protect the pellets and protected they arrived.
Now, you might think this is not relevant, but it is. The more protected the pellets the less chances of getting a bunch of broken small pellet pieces and a bunch of wood dust in the bag.
Also, good packaging will protect the pellets from humidity, which is the nemesis of BBQ pellets. One cool thing about this company is that they are strong supporters of protecting the environment, and that involves using a sustainable source of wood, recycled wood dust from mills, but also making their packaging bags from recyclable plastic.
Flavor
Ah, Flavor! This is one area where these pellets do not disappoint. As you would expect, these wood pellets are available in different flavors, but for this review, I used their Gourmet blend. This blend includes oak maple and cherry. This mix goes well with anything, and is sort of the “balanced” mix for any food.
In other words, if you are not sure what to pair food with, the Gourmet Mix is a good place to start.
If you are wanting to barbecue low and slow in a smoker, they carry other flavors like hickory, apple, mesquite, and a nice range of mixes.
Ash
Ash production in an important topic when taking wood pellets. This is because if you are cooking your pellet smoker for long periods, ash buildup will eventually degrade its performance.
Also, pellets that leave behind too much ash create more maintenance work for you. You will have to clean your ash cup and pellet grill more often.
I didn’t notice any more or less ash when compared to other top brands, which is, in my opinion, a good thing. I have tested other brands with dissipating results in the ash department.
Pricing
I find the pricing for these pellets pretty fair considering the level of quality. This is a good thing because if you enjoy grilling often, you can burn through pellets fairly quickly. If you are buying pellets for your smokers, expect them to burn much slower, but the point is, this is a fuel, it doesn’t last forever.
What we like:
- Price – considering the quality Bear Mountain BBQ wood pellets deliver.
- Quality – Consistent quality in every pellet bag. Not a lot of “wood dust” , nothing but pure hard pellets.
- Flavor – Flavor is very prominent when cooking with these pellets.
What to consider:
- For some reason, these pellets are not available at many of my local retailers, easiest to find online.
Conclusion
I like food, that’s not a secret, but I love good tasting food. Which is why I’m always looking for that extra source of flavor, in this case, good pellets. I enjoy cooking over charcoal, but the truth is, pellet grills are just easier to use, you just have to find good pellets.
I give Bear Mountain BBQ and their entire company a big 5 stars for the excellent, quality product they are offering to consumers every day.
