Noob from VA

[chef k-dude]

Nah I'm near Quantico Marin Corps Base. You're near Charlottesville?

I actually I love BBQ Exchange . You talking about Lexington, NC? I used to live there, never really liked their pulled pork sandwiches. They put coleslaw on it, yuck.

I've heard Costco meats are pretty good. I'm waiting until I stop screwing up these cheap pieces of meat from my local grocery store then I'll go to Costco in Fredericksburg. Maybe start with Choice cuts then eventually graduate to Prime

Yea, find a map of Virginia, put your finger dead center and you'd probably be within 20 miles of me. C'Ville is what we call "Town"...like The Waltons!

My wife and I both have kids (from different marriages) living in Frednecksburg Spotsyltucky! A name I gave it when I lived there for many years. Use to commute that nightmare of 95 up to Alexandria. Have lived in Alexandria, Lorton/Fairfax Station and Fredericksburg before escaping that rat race. Biggest traffic problem here is the combines at harvest time

I'll have to give BBQ exchange another shot. I did try to stop there once recently but they were strangely closed during operating hours.

Heck of a drive for you, must be something else pulled you down this way. We have a lot of what I call "Fermentourism" in these parts. Wineries, breweries, cider, distilleries now too. I cant hardly enjoy them anymore because they are always packed to the gills with people from the rat race!

 

[bluebird]

Welcome from Southwest Virginia!

 

[banderson7474]

The beef ribs came out just slightly better than the pork ribs .

I found an easy beef ribs recipe on this site and basically followed that. 225 for three hours, wrap for two, then sauce and back in for 10, sauce again and back in for 10.

I really like the flavor and everything but there's too much smoke after taste. I went with four pieces of oak chunks on a bed of Jealous Devil lump. Temps went up to around 265 or so for a bit, I was too late tamping the side vents to control the heat. Thought I had nice clean smoke but there were periods where I had too much smoke.

When you all open the door to the cook chamber, do you get CBS (I think that's the acronym for clean blue smoke) immediately or is some white/slightly dirtier smoke the norm until the coals settle down and get rolling again?

A guy I know has a Backwoods and he told me to keep the side vents open after reaching about 10 degrees to my desired temp then shut them down to about a two finger width opening. He said to use the chimney as the primary heat control. At one point I had the chimney nearly closed to control the heat.

I'm thinking I probably shouldn't go more than 3/4 close, 1/2 - 1/4 closed may be the ideal to keep the smoke/draw circulating. He usually knows what he's talking about but I'm not too sure about this chimney method.

Anyway, sorry for the super long post. I'll get this figured out eventually, I hope.

It's pretty strange to me to read that your beef ribs were in the smoke for 3hrs and that was too much (since it was wrapped for 2hrs)

It sounds like you didn't have clean smoke. That was probably the hardest thing for me to figure out with my Ok Joe stick burner. I've never wrapped beef ribs. I smoke that to around 200 internal temp. I don't treat beef ribs the same as pork ribs.

You will just have to learn your smoker. I find that my stick burner will have cleaner smoke with my vents more open than closed.

 

[millerbuilds]

Welcome to SMF from North Texas!
As stated above, if you provide specific issues pretty much guaranteed that at least one (most likely more) have experienced the same issues and can provide solutions.

Good luck,

Jason