It seems like many beef rub recipes online have some amount of sugar in them. I really like sugar in my pork recipes, but I like savory rubs for beef. Am I missing something by NOT adding sugar to my beef rubs?
You're not missing a thing.
I am not a big fan of sugar in beef rubs either.
Though I do use a little bit of blackstrap molasses on briskets to help the rub stick.
And for butts and BBQ'd yardbird, it is always turbinado sugar in the rub as opposed to brown sugar.
I've heard about using turbinado rather than brown sugar. Why do you like it better?
I've tried a few different rubs on beef, and my all time favorite is the ol' fashioned SPOG. I smoke a lot of chuckies and it's my go-to favorite.