Infrared: Infrared in all its various forms continues to be a major selling feature for many grills. This year, quality grill manufacturer Broilmaster has jumped on the bandwagon with their own series of infrared grills. Of course these grills run around $1,000USD or more fully configured. Char-Broil (thanks to the genius of Bill Best continues to dominate low cost infrared grills with their "RED" (from Home Depot) and Quantum grills (from Lowes). This year gives us two new versions of the RED, one at $449USD and one at $1,199. There are also a couple of new quantum grill, including a small, balcony version.
Weber: Weber is the biggest name in the grill business and this year has introduced a few new products and a new modification to it's high end Summit Line. For Summit grills equipped with rotisseries they have engineered a drop down rotisserie motor that mounts permanently into the left side table. When not in use you flip it down to get it out of the way. They have also created a way of storing the one piece rotisserie rod into the grill cabinet with the forks. This makes rotisserie cooking a little more convenient but also acts to remind you that rotisserie cooking is a great way to grill. Last fall Weber introduced it's super-sized Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5 (WSM). This larger version of the ever popular WSM 18.5 is perfect for the person who likes to make a lot of barbecue but probably too large for the occasional family barbecue cook. I believe that this model is designed to compete with the recent explosion of "Ugly Drum Smokers". These are basically large steel barrel smokers that have a larger capacity than the 18 1/2" WSM. Also new from Weber is the the 26 3/4-inch version of the Weber Kettle. The kettle is the grill that made Weber and this deluxe version is a great big grill that is perfect for larger cookout.
Kamado Explosion: It wasn't long ago that if you wanted a ceramic kamado grill you would be buying a Big Green Egg. Since then several companies have come along including companies like Primo Grills, Grill Dome, and Komodo Kamado. This year comes the very traditional Kamado Joe and the very inventive Bubba Keg. Bubba Keg is a unique product that replaces the ceramic shell of these cookers with an insulated steel body making the grill lighter in weight and less likely to crack. The really inventive part of this unit is the standard trailer hitch mounting that lets you take this charcoal grill on the road. The Bubba Keg is available through Home Depot this year for around $600. Time will tell how long it lasts compared to the ceramic versions.
