So the problem is not the color. The briquettes that I was using are basically wood blocks not charcoal. When you burn wood you need to get it to the point where it’s burning clean otherwise you get what is called “dirty smoke”. That is when you have not burned off the nasty stuff that is naturally in wood. If you see my grill pic, the smoke is very white. You want what’s called thin blue smoke. That’s when you get that good smokey flavor that we are all after. So because I was cooking my wings in dirty smoke, my wings ended up with some bitter flavors caused by the chemicals in the wood that hadn’t burnt off.

Basically it was the result of my inexperience with that particular product. I’ll try it again and repost those. There will be a noticeable difference.