As a proud new owner of a Weber Smokey Mountain, I decided on 3 slabs of
spare ribs for my first cook. I would say that the ribs came out ok, but
not great, and I'm trying to figure out what didn't go as right as it could
have. I'm guessing on a few things - either I had too low of a temp, too
much wood bringing too much smoke, or I went too long. Thoughts please (see
below).

First, I used 3 slabs of fresh spares, around 3 lbs each. I pulled off the
membrane, but did leave an odd portion of meat that angled across the bone
side - not sure if I should have trimmed this or not. Then, on both sides I
very lightly applied a mustard slather and sprinkle of a rub I made of salt,
pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and brown sugar. Then onto the
rib rack.

Next, since these seemed like fairly large slabs, I thought it might take a
little more time, so I attempted the Minion method. I purchased 2 20lb bags
of Cleveland Charcoal Supply hardwood lump. The Naked Wiz gave it only a
4.2, and I can see why as I received a huge amount of unusable pieces. I
fairly loaded up the charcoal chamber with cold coals and also started a
chimney full. Around 20 minutes later, I poured the chimney onto the rest
of the coals. FYI, the chimney had burned down quite a bit before I poured
it. Could I have let it burn too long and, therefore, lost a lot of fuel in
the process?

Then, I put about 6 chunks of hickory on the coals, added the rest of the
WSM, including the water pan with water. Placed some BBQ beans in a foil
pan on the bottom rack and the ribs and some garlic heads for garlic bread
on the top rack. Closed it all up, set the top vent fully open, and set the
bottom vents around 1/2 open. This is where it got weird. The temp would
only register around 220-225 from the top vent. I used a Polder digital
thermometer stuck in a wine cork through the top vent. So, I fully opened
all the bottom vents - still would not go above 225 (meaning it's probably
around 210-215 at the great). Keep in mind that it was a nice sunny 80
degrees and the WSM was placed in a sunny spot. So, at about the 1 1/2 hour
mark, I decided to add some more fresh, hot coals. Fired up another chimney
and used tongs to place the coals through the side door. Also added 3 more
wood chunks. Got it up to about 230-235 and then put all the bottom vents
at 1/2. A few times the temp dipped to around 225 and I would stir the
coals a little to bring the temp back to 235ish.

Given the low temp and large spares, I was looking for around a 6 hour cook.
What was interesting was that the temp in the final 1 1/2 hours did rise to
250, which I let it do. At 4 hours, I started basting with some apple juice
every 1/2 hour or so. Finally at 6 hours, the ribs were pretty black, the
meat had pulled back from the bone, but they did not seem very tender. The
meat just didn't easily tear. I pulled them, rested them in foil for about
20 minutes and served with the baked beans (delicious!), garlic bread made
from the smoked garlic (great!) and homeade fresh cole slaw (tasty and
crunchy!). The ribs were fairly juicy, not hugely tender and did have a
fairly strong smoke taste. I wouldn't say they were bitter, but the taste
was a little strong for the kids. They had to offset with my homeade honey
bbq sauce.

In the end, my guess would be that:
a. I used too much wood, creating too much smoke.
b. I started with too little hot coals, thereby taking way too long to get
a decent temp.
c. Could I have cooked them too long?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated,

Dark Helmet

P.S. Other than being slightly dissappointed in my BBQ skills, it was still
fun and I'm anxious to try a butt or brisket next weekend.