Yesterday was a beautiful day for a barbecue. I am new to barbecue,
but I have been very successful so far by following directions and
having good results come out. So I invited 10 friends over, and
barbecued up some spare ribs... and they were so tough and chewy that
they were almost inedible.

Here is what I did:

I soaked the ribs overnight in apple juice. I then cured the ribs
with a dry rub for 4 hours.

I used an offset smoker (Silver Smoker from Char Broil). I cooked
with hickory briquettes (from Royal Oak) and soaked Hickory chunks.
In the firebox, I put a pan of apple juice for some added moisture.
The temperature in the smoke box remained between 200 and 300 degrees,
depending on how recently I opened the box.

Every 1/2 hour, I opened the smoke box to liberally spray the ribs
with apple juice. I flipped the ribs, and rotated them so they had
equal time close to the fire box.

I cooked the ribs for 4.5 hours, and a half an hour before we ate, I
lathered both sides with my barbecue sauce.

They TASTED pretty good, but they were so tough that they could barely
be ripped apart. Overall, they were so tough that it was an
unpleasant experience.

WHERE DID I GO WRONG??????