My Favorite Discontinued Charcoal Grill, The Bubba Keg
Posted on February 16, 2013
Cooks like a ceramic Big Green Egg, but is built for portability? Where can I get one of these things? Bummer, you can’t, someone decided it wasn’t a good product but I beg to differ. As you could imagine, I have quite the collection of grills in my garage and on my patio. So many, that my wife has been known to give one away without me knowing. Case in point, my Weber Performer
The Bubba Keg grill is made of double-walled steel. This thing is seriously heavy duty and very well insulated. I dare say it cooks just as well as the ceramic cookers I have cooked on in the past. As an added bonus, it is the same dimensions inside, so all of the Big Green Egg accessories fit it. I can get it up to 700 degrees to quickly grill the perfect steak and after sealing the bottom vent with silicone, I can cook a brisket for 13 hours on one load of charcoal. The difference is that those ceramics are not meant to be portable and you really have to be careful when moving them around. Not the Bubba. This thing is even built to fit in to the receiver of a trailer hitch, which is the second reason I love it so much. The Bubba Keg has been to a bunch of football games (well, the parking lot at least) in our time together. I finally have the security people trained to know that this is in fact a grill and not a large vessel for transporting beer. As for the toughness factor I mentioned earlier, the Bubba has survived a few falls from the trailer hitch during late night (after too many soda pops) tailgate cleanups. The driveway took a beating in those cases, but Bubba doesn’t have a scratch. The only problem I have it is the paint job, which sucks (see photo above), but I just use some high-temp paint to make him look good again.
So this thing is awesome, what is the problem? The problem is Bubba Keg hasn’t been manufactured or sold for a few years. I’m not sure why, I love mine, but it must not have made business sense for the folks at Bubba. I have seen that a new company has picked up the design and appears to be selling them on Amazon. The Broil King Steel Keg
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If my sources are correct the ‘Big Green Egg’ got jealous and filed patent infringement against Bubba…
That is why they are no longer made or sold…I just uncreated mine after it being
In storage a few years…u call it ‘Fat Boy’ after The A bomb …because it looks so much like a mini A
You can still get them, The product line was purchased by OMC. Google -> Big Steel Keg or Broil King Keg. You might not get the hitch adaptor included.
My son did some work with the original owner of the Bubba Keg. In fact, I have one my son gave me that is awesome. I have been cooking on it for 3 years and have done Boston Butts, Briskets, Ribs, Steaks, Chickens and even a Turkey. It is great.
It is my understanding that the company was purchased by a company out of Canada who was not overly excited about the Bubba Keg name and thought it was too regional of a name to use nationally, thus the name Steel Keg. It appears that Lowes and Walmart offer these, or something very similar.
What brand of high temp paint do you use? Ours is 10+years old, and in dire nee o
f a protective coating
Anyway to fix rust around the vent?
I have a Big Steel Keg and absolutely love it. I have 8 grills and always go back to the “Keg”. However; the inside Fire Bowl has rusted and needs to be replaced. I cannot find this part anywhere other than Broil King in Canada and they don’t ship to the USA. Any ideas on where I can buy one?