Bite My Shiny Metal BBQ

February 24, 2012 - New York Strips

2012-02-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Picked up some New York Strips from Safeway at just under $5/lb. There is a built-in gas BBQ at my new place, so figured I'd use it on some steaks instead of the smoker I normally use.

Details:

Marinated the steaks for about 4 hours in Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning. I use the gallon freezer bags for this - 2 steaks in each of them.

Threw them on the grill when it was around 500-550 degrees and seared for 3 minutes, rotated 90 degrees, seared another 3 minutes, flipped, seared 3 minutes, rotated 90 degrees. I added a minute here and there since we were talking and after about 14 minutes they were medium rare, and turned out pretty good. The purpose of the rotations was to get some crosshatching marks on the steaks, which Hippie liked.

Don wanted his more rare (which you can see in his picture!) so reduced each phase by about 1 minute for a total of 10 minutes for him.

Served with Tater Tots and followed up with some Apple Pie.

Attendees:

Don

Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

Feb 6, 2012 - Lancaster's BBQ Hawg Trawgh

2012-02-24T12:20:00.007-07:00

Scott here. Decided it's been a while since I've posted anything on here (mostly due to the freezing cold and dirty leaf patio), so I wanted to write a review about a BBQ restaurant we've visited twice now in Charlotte (Huntsville Suburb) called Lancaster's Hawg Trawgh.

Let me start off by saying this was my 4th Trip to Charlotte, 3rd in which I experimented with Charlotte style BBQ. As Dan and I have mentioned in previous blog postings, we have yet to find anything that I would consider above average. This trip did not change that opinion at all.

Dan, myself, and a Co-Worker had gotten extremely sauced the night before (for superbowl!) so we set out to find some reasonable BBQ that would 'cure' us of its after effects. We had been to Lancasters once before, and while the beer selection is extremely generic, the BBQ then was actually quite good. We had gotten a buffet of BBQ: ribs, brisket, shredded pork, and even chicken wings. It was by far the best we ever had in Charlotte (once again, not saying much). The ribs and pork were average, and the brisket and wings with Jamaican Honey sauce were the highlights.

This time it was our second trip to Lancaster's at the same location, and let me tell you it was miserable. Between the 3 of us, we ordered 2 brisket platters, a pork plate, and an order of Jamaican Honey wings. I'm not sure if it was the time we went (around 5:30, early dinner), but all of our food tasted like it had been cooked and set out for quite some time. It was stiff, a little cold, and generally unflavorful. Our brisket slices tasted and felt like beef bacon, and the pulled pork was kind of watery with almost no flavor. The assortment of sides weren't any better. Both the cole slaw and seafood slaw was garbage, the mac and cheese was cold with no flavor, and the only sides that stood a chance were fried (surprise surprise). The only saving grace of the entire meal was the order of Jamaican Honey wings. That sauce is really good, and the wings were hot and crispy (just how I like 'em).

In conclusion, it's hard to say if this place is really any good. When I go to a restaurant, I expect some consistency. When it's good one day and not the next, it makes me think the good food was the exception to the rule. For our next trip, I will definitely not be going back here and will risk trying some place new. It's been our experience that the only thing the town can make is a reasonable brisket, and since they didn't get that right I just can't go back (not to mention I can find a better beer selection at Applebee's).

If there are better BBQ places to eat in Charlotte, please share your thoughts below!

January 15, 2012 - Baby Back Ribs

2012-02-24T11:12:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Turns out I forgot to post some Ribs I made on January 15th, so this is a catch up post!

Got the baby back ribs at Costco, $3.99/lb which is more than I normally pay, but wanted to see if it made a difference. Several people have told me Costco ribs are superior to those found at supermarkets, but I don't think the higher price was worth it.

Details:

Cooked the ribs on the Big Steel Keg using the 2-2-1 method but with less time since I tend to cook at 275-300 degrees instead of the lower 200-225 that most smokers seem to prefer - so it was more like 2 hours smoking, 90 minutes in foil, and 30 minutes back on the grill.

Didn't use any sauce - only used the Three Little Bigs Touch of Cherry rub, and smoked over cherry wood.

The ribs turned out OK - but not my best....they turned out a little overcooked, and I think it was because I dropped the ball and let the Diffuser go dry without refilling it & so the ribs cooked hotter. Also, without sauce I think the ribs lost some moisture. Still pretty good, but not amazing like the pulled pork has been recently.....live and learn!

Attendees:

Don

Nate
Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

February 17, 2012 - Pulled Pork Shoulder

2012-02-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made some pulled pork sandwiches last night - again. Nate likes it the best of the BBQ and I tend to get two shoulders at a time when I'm at the store, so making it more frequently recently.

Basically the same recipe & procedure as the pulled pork in January - the only difference was the rub.

Details:

Picked up a 9 lb Pork Shoulder at Safeway. Injected it with Maraschino cherry sauce and Marinated it overnight in the Kansas City Cowtown's The Squeal Hog Rub.

Put the Pork Shoulder on the Big Steel Keg with the Diffuser filled with Lump Charcoal and Cherry wood chips and smoked it at a steady 300 degrees for 6 hours which put it at about a 185 degree internal temp and then wrapped in foil with some apple cider vinegar - cooked it for about 30 minutes more up to 195 degrees internal temp and then let it sit for 30 minutes before Don used the Bear Claws to shred it - came apart very easily and he had it fully shredded in only a couple minutes.

Used seeded buns and applied a very small amount of Kansas City style BBQ sauce to only the top bun with a butter knife - very careful to avoid overwhelming the flavor of the meat as I've accidentally done in the past...

Everybody liked it - Nate said he thought it was the best yet - even better than last time.

Attendees:

Don

Nate
Hippie
Dan
Flork

Pictures:

January 21, 2012 - Pulled Pork Shoulder

2012-01-22T13:16:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made some pulled pork sandwiches last night. Getting better and better with pulled pork & the attendees advised me that this was the best yet.

Details:

Picked up a 9 lb Pork Shoulder at Safeway. Injected it with Maraschino cherry sauce and Marinated it overnight in the 3 Little Pigs Kansas City Touch of Cherry BBQ Rub.

Put the Pork Shoulder on the Big Steel Keg with the Diffuser filled with Lump Charcoal and Cherry wood chips at about noon. Smoked it at a steady 300 degrees for 6 hours which put it at about a 185 degree internal temp and then wrapped in foil with some apple cider vinegar - cooked it for about a half hour more up to 195 degrees internal temp and then let it sit for 30 minutes before Don used the Bear Claws to shred it - came apart very easily and he had it fully shredded in only a couple minutes.

Used the Aunt Hattie's BBQ Buns from Costco and applied a very small amount of Kansas City style BBQ sauce to only the top bun with a butter knife - very careful to avoid overwhelming the flavor of the meat as I've accidentally done in the past...

Everybody liked it - I think it was my best pulled pork yet!

Attendees:

Don

Nate
Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

January 9, 2012 - Apricot Saison Secondary Fermentation

2012-01-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

Eventually, I will consolidate everything so I can have a single post for each batch which gives the brew, fermentation, and tasting results, but for now, here's an update on the Apricot Saison/Belgian Specialty Ale I started on January 2, 2012.

S.G. at secondary fermentation is now 1.008, which means with the 1.039, this beer is now 4.1% ABV. With the half gallon of added Apricot Juice, fermentation kicked back in, and you can see the bubbles here:

Secondary Fermentation Beginning Again

I figure that should add another .02%, so that the beer will be about 4.3% ABV when complete. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this batch. For my first all-grain, it has been a fun experience, and it actually tastes like "real" beer already! I revised my efficiency numbers, and it seems I got 51% efficiency from the mash, but the problem should be fixed with the next run.

The secondary will run for 14 days at approximately 68 degrees F to finish out, then I will add the priming sugar, apricot extract for aroma, bottle, and condition for 1 month.

I already collected up 50 empty beer bottles from my stash, de-labeled them, cleaned them, and stored them for bottling later.

For now, this is what the brewery looks like:

The next batch is going to cook this weekend, and my wife and I will be making an Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

Here's the recipe: http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/58e215d2/chicken-mountain-brewers-scarecrow-jacks-pumpkin-ale

January 2, 2012 - All Grain Extravaganza!

2012-01-03T22:48:00.002-07:00

Jake here in California...

With the completion of a 48-quart Mash Tun cooler conversion, my diabolical scheme to take over brewing the best homebrew in the Concord Valley has finally come to a head!

For some time now, I have been underwhelmed by the hit-and-miss of home brew extract beers. Some beers are disgustingly sweet and overly malty, while others are pretty decent. But as a rule, I have only met two or three home brewers who can make an extract beer I enjoy drinking in quantity, Dan being one of them.

So, I tirelessly researched the all-grain process and started gathering the required equipment. I couldn't afford to buy my equipment from the brew store, so I built most of it from internet plans and YouTube videos.

Here is some of my equipment:

My converted Spaten Munchen Keg Kettle

The Keg Kettle on the Turkey Burner

The finished Counterflow Wort Chiller (worked AMAZINGLY well, down to 65 degrees)

The Mash Ten was an easy conversion. The cooler was a 48-quart Igloo Marine cooler for $24.95 at Wal-mart and about another $42.00 in parts from Home Depot finished it out for about $67.00 total. Here are some of the web pages I read to git-er-dun:

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer.html

Once I had the equipment built, I turned my attention to the beer. For starters, I decided to brew a Saison Fruit Clone.

Here is the recipe:

Belgian Pilsner - 10 lbs, 4 oz
Clear Candi Sugar - 1 lbs, 0 oz @ 15 mins left
Briess White Wheat - 1 lbs, 0 oz
Aromatic - 0 lbs, 6 oz
Kent Goldings, UK Pellets - 1.05 oz @ 60 mins
Hallertau, German Pellets - .4 oz @ 15 mins left
Coriander Seed - 2 oz. @ 60 mins
Brewer's Garden Paradise Seed - 1 oz. @ 60 mins
Sweet Orange Peel - 1 oz. @ 60 mins
Wyeast Labs Yeast, No. 3463 "Forbidden Fruit" - pitched at 70 degrees after chiller
2 quarts raspberry juice at secondary fermentation

The brew day lasted about 6 hours from start to clean-up, and I did an hour boil. The really interesting part was the Mashing, Lautering, and Sparging, since I had never done that alone, but it came out really well. I ran about 13 quarts of strike water at 152 degrees when I doughed in for about an hour, and then I sparged with about 5.5 gallons of sparge water at 170 degrees. It took about 45 minutes to run through twice, and the liquor looked and smelled great.

I then returned the kettle to boil and threw in the spices and Kent Goldings for an hour boil.

The real interesting part was that I decided to use Belgian Candi Sugar (BCS), which is an invert sugar used to increase the S.G. without affecting the taste or mouthfeel of the beer. After seeing it on sale for $10/lb., I did as I always do and figured out how to make it myself at home.

Here's the video:

Mainline Brewers is awesome for it's Brewing Videos.

So I made a batch using their method, and it turn out well, but I decided to improve upon a good thing. I invented Saaz Hop Infused Belgian Candi Sugar. That's right, I made BCS with an oz. of Saaz Hops mixed in. An important note is that hops makes BCS foam like a mother, so you need a good pot and some patience to keep stirring, but the result is worth the trouble. Also, use wax paper, since you lose less BCS when you're cracking and you don't have little pieces of aluminum foil stuck in your sugar to worry about.

The poured and chilled Saaz BCS ready to sugar.

Sugaring the Saaz BCS for cracking.

1 pound of the finished product, bagged and ready to go.

Anyway, so all went well. The equipment worked, and sparging was actually fun.

The beer is now fermenting away in the Ale Pail in my kitchen and seems to be going well.

I ran the calculations and found 1.040 O.G., which based on my grain bill, means I got about 57.6% efficiency from my Mash and Sparge. Not bad for a first All-Grain attempt. Here's the website: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/gravity.html

November 25, 2011 - Baby Back Ribs & T-Bone Steaks

2011-11-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made Baby Back Ribs & T-Bone steaks the day after Thanksgiving.

Details:

Cooked the Baby Back Ribs over applewood using the Big Steel Keg diffuser at around 300 degrees with the 2-2-1 method we've been using, except it was more like 2 hours smoked / 2 hours in foil / 30 minutes finished up with sauce. Probably could have done 2 hours smoked / 1.5 hours in foil / 30 minutes with sauce and gotten away with it. Used a very light cumin/salt/pepper/garlic rub up front & threw Famous Dave's Rich & Sassy sauce on one rack and Devil's Spit sauce on the other rack after the first 2 hour phase.

Removed the diffuser and brought the Big Steel Keg up past 500 degrees and seared the T-bones for between 10 & 15 minutes. The steaks turned out Medium / Medium Rare. The girls always say they prefer Medium Well but then they don't eat much and since Don and I prefer Medium Rare or Rare and have to eat most of the steaks, we try to get them off as early as possible/as early as the girls will allow!

Louie said they were the best ribs he had ever had...high praise from a former resident of Kansas City (he also attended the American Royal a few times - I went with him once).

Attendees:

Don

Louie
Tia
Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

Hippie didn't want her picture taken.... tough cookies

Tia was brave enough to try both steak and ribs

November 14, 2011 - Brats & Ugly Steak

2011-11-14T22:53:00.001-07:00

Don't know what to say, except we're on a roll...

Video #2 from BMSMBBQ - Brats & Ugly Steak from Dickman's Deli in Tucson, AZ!

November 10, 2011 - Pulled Pork Butt

2011-11-11T11:18:00.001-07:00

What can I say that can't be said with a video?

October 29, 2011 - Pulled Pork Shoulder

2011-10-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made some pulled pork sandwiches yesterday - they turned out great & were the best I've ever had. They even got Hippie's seal of approval which is an extremely rare thing with BBQ!

Details:

Picked up an 8 lb Pork Shoulder at Safeway since they were on sale @ $1.29/lb. Marinated it overnight in the Kansas City style BBQ sauce that Scott made when he was in town.

Put the Pork Shoulder on the Big Steel Keg with the Diffuser filled with Lump Charcoal and Applewood at about noon. Smoked it at a steady 300 degrees for 5 hours which put it at about a 165 degree internal temp and then applied a new layer of sauce and wrapped in foil - cooked it for about an hour and a half up to 185 degrees internal temp and then removed from foil and put on the grill. Cooked it for another hour until the internal temp was an average of 195 degrees, making it tender enough for shredding. At that point I pulled the pork shoulder off and wrapped it in foil and let it sit for 30 minutes before Don used the Bear Claws to shred it - came apart very easily and he had it fully shredded in only a couple minutes.

The only hiccup happened when adding sauce to my sandwich - next time I would prefer to add less & will have to be more careful....

Total cook time worked out to be 7 1/2 hours for a total of 8 hours including the 30 minute rest time in foil at the end. Totally worth the time invested - as stated above, all attendees thought it was amazing! I will definitely use this method next time.

Attendees:

Don

Chris
Nate
Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

Seasonal Harvest Ale Roundup

2011-10-10T14:52:00.004-07:00

Intro:

There's been a lot of great BBQ on here lately, but in my opinion, not enough beer. So, I decided to spend my Columbus Day holiday (Thanksgiving Day for all of our Canadians friends) reviewing some Seasonal ales for my fellow brew connoisseurs. Being so close to Halloween, the majority of the Seasonal offerings are Pumpkin Ales.

Attendees:

Jake
Wendy
Dan (Ex Post Facto technical consultant)
Dave (in spirit)

Details:

Wendy and I hit the Beverages & More here in Walnut Creek to try something different, and we noticed a proliferation of Pumpkin and other seasonal ales with Halloween coming up so soon. Since we loved trying all the Pumpkin beers in Pennsylvania when we lived there, we decided to try a few and rate them for ya'll.

The lineup:

Buffalo Bill's Imperial Pumpkin
Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin
Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat
Woodchuck Pumpkin Cider

Jake's Reviews:

Jake here. I really wanted to bring you a review of Woodchuck's Pumpkin Reserves Cider (linked above), but I had to settle for Granny Smith, a perennial flavor, but I couldn't find any of the Pumpkin Cider. It sounds really good to me, so anyone who has had it should e-mail with a review. That being said, I thought the Pumpkin Ales ranked as follows:

Shock Top - Normally, I don't go for the mass-produced products, but during the fall I try to see what schlock is being sold on the open market just for reference sake. This year, I was pleasantly surprised! This one is made from Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Missouri, and while it is a large company, I won't fault them for bringing such a great beer to the market en masse. It has a light flavor that isn't overwhelmed by heavy malt or spices that kick you in the face, and it has a great aftertaste that invokes images of pumpkin pie! Imagine that, a pumpkin beer that tastes like pumpkins! SCORE: 8.3, scoring well in flavor taste and drinkability.

Blue Moon - This one is made by Coor's, and while I don't mind the flavor, I think it isn't as flavorful as Shock Top. The spices are also just a bit too heavy for my preference, but not as bad as some others I have tried. It tastes more like a Pilsner than a Pumpkin Ale, which is okay, but makes me think they cheaped out on the pumpkins and spices and went with whatever beer ingredients they had laying around. It was still quite drinkable though. SCORE: 6.8, decent for a party beer, but too light on flavor for a pumpkin ale.

Buffalo Bill's - This beer will kick you in the face. It is very heavily spiced with a heavy pumpkin flavor, almost like a porter without the dark color. I liked it well enough, but not to drink a six-pack of. Save this one for a very cold night before Christmas when it hasn't snowed yet and you feel like watching Sleepy Hollow with your friends. SCORE: 7.0, a great Halloween mood beer, but not something to guzzle.

Wendy's Reviews:

Wendy here. I love fall, and I really like all the Pumpkin Beers that show up in October, so here's my reviews of the Pumpkin Beer lineup we tried.

Shock Top - I like this one, because it is light, refreshing, and not overpowering, but with a great pumpkin flavor. I like that it is a wheat beer, because it still has that refreshing taste and it reminds me of early fall, just after the summer. SCORE: 8.5, the perfect beer to relax by and think about the fall season.

Blue Moon - This was a medium beer with a good pumpkin flavor, but not quite right; it was a bit off from what I would expect for a pumpkins ale. I thought Shock Top had a better Pumpkin/Spice flavor. SCORE: 7.5, drink this after you've had a couple beers to finish the night off.

Buffalo Bill's - In terms of flavor, this beer was stronger and heavier than the others. I could only handle a couple before I wanted to move on to another brand. It really warms you up. SCORE: 6.3, save it for a chilly night.

The Winner:

With an average score of 8.4 on the Beerling Scale, Shock Top's Pumpkin Wheat took the day! Being a commercially made beer from Anheuser-Busch, you should be able to find it easily in any decent grocery store, so try it today for a pleasant Pumpkin Beer experience you can really get into! California Retail: $7.99 per six pack.

Oh, and BTW, I invented Pumpkin Cider. Seriously. Me. I invented it, straight up. It was fall 2010, and I decided to make pumpkin cider. It was awesome. My wife and mother-in-law can testify if I have to sue anyone. Nuff said. ;)

September 17, 2011 - Back Ribs

2011-09-18T12:32:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made some back ribs yesterday. A little thick to call them baby back.

Details:

Put a mixture of cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme onto some baby back ribs and smoked them over hickory for a change. I think I prefer applewood for ribs, but they turned out very good. Used 4 different sauces - Trader Joes Sweet, Trader Joes Bold, Sweet Baby Rays Original, and Bill Johnson's Hot & Spicy.

Bill Johnson's was poison, but the rest were decent. I think Grumpy's Bold XX sauce has them all beat. Scott and I plan on starting work on our own sauce in the near future.

Smoked the ribs at about 200 degrees over applewood on the Big Steel Keg using indirect heat (via the BSK Diffuser Kit) for 2 hours, put them in foil, and cooked them at 250-275 degrees for another 2 hours. Pulled them out of the foil and finished them up by smoking them at about 275 degrees for the last hour after applying sauce to each half rack.

Attendees:

Don

Chris (didn't get a picture of him somehow - Don dropped the ball because he had the camera)
Dan

Pictures:

September 10, 2011 - Spare Ribs

2011-09-12T11:44:00.007-07:00

Intro:

Scott here. I picked up some spare ribs last week because they were on sale (labor day), and given Dan's success I decided to give it another shot.

Details:

The rib packages that were being sold came in a double pack so I don't know the exact weight of each slab, but they were approximately 4.65 lbs (that's the total weight/2). For this smoke, I only made 1 slab since there were only going to be 2 people eating them.

I wanted to go very traditional with these since they were spares. This meant creating a Memphis/Texas style rib prep and smoke, so I only used salt and pepper for the rub (coarse sea salt) and hickory for the smoking wood. I didn't measure the amounts very closely since I was looking to completely coat the ribs, but if I were to guess it would be about 2 tbs salt, and 1.5 tbs black pepper. I also intended to use the 3-2-1 smoking method for these ribs (similar to the 2-2-1 for baby backs, but since these are spares, they require a longer cooking time). Lastly, I also cooked the rib slop, and it was seasoned the same way.

I put the ribs on at a temperature of 250, and let the smoker cool down to 225 and it remained steady for the whole smoke (after a second helping of coals after 3 hours). I then wrapped everything, poured in some apple cider vinegar in the bottom of the tinfoil, and put back on the smoker for another 1.5 hours. When I took the ribs out of the tinfoil for the last saucing part of the cook, rib bones fell off one of the halves (meaning these things were very tender). For the last 45 minutes, I put on my home made sauce.

Over all they turned out ok. IMO, they were actually way too tender. The smoke ring was pretty decent, though not completely through (this was my objective with going with more salt and a thinner rub). It's hard to say if the salt made any difference since I haven't made spare ribs in a while. In addition, they were just a tad salty (not too bad, it just meant another layer of bbq sauce on top). I'd still say they were better than the BBQ place down the street (slick pig), but not to my liking (nor the APR's). Thus far, I'm not sold on a return to spare ribs.

However, the night wasn't a complete disgrace. I did use the rib slop to make some very tasty beans. They were similar to the ones we make camping, but instead of the Texas Beans, I used Bush's Vegetarian baked beans with 1 fresh jalapeno (not pickled like we normally use) and reasonable share of the rib slop (doggies ate the rest :P). I then let it stew for about 30 minutes to allow the jalapeno to soften, and the meat flavor to soak into the beans. DELICIOUS!

Attendees:

* Scott

* APR

* My mom (Debbie)

* My sister (Ginger)

(sorry for the lack of pictures, while the ribs were cooking I mowed 8 acres of grass so was busy).

September 11, 2011 - Back Ribs

2011-09-12T11:00:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. I planned on making a rack of back ribs for myself to eat after the Women's US Open finals. Chris called and I ended up going to his place & splitting the ribs 4 ways as an appetizer (we each got about 3 ribs).

Details:

Had Hippie pick up some back ribs at Albertsons. Unfortunately she came back with pre-seasoned ribs (said they were out of the unseasoned baby backs that were on sale) so instead of them being $1.99/lb they were $2.99/lb. Not worth it... and now she says she'll never buy meat for me because I complained that she came back with the wrong thing....oh well.

They had some kind of light paprika rub on them (not $1/lb worth!) - I added a little bit of brown sugar and threw them on the grill.

Smoked the ribs at about 200 degrees over applewood on the Big Steel Keg using indirect heat (via the BSK Diffuser Kit) for 2 hours, put them in foil, and cooked them at 250-275 degrees for another 90 minutes. Pulled them out of the foil and finished them up by smoking them at about 275 degrees for the last 30 minutes after applying Grumpy's Black Label BBQ sauce and Grumpy's Bold XX BBQ sauce on each half rack. This was a little bit shorter than the 2-2-1 method because I was at a higher temp while in the foil so ended up shortening that phase.

Ribs turned out great, again. Everybody liked the Grumpy's Bold XX Kansas City-style sauce more - it was sweeter. I keep wanting to like the Black Label Spicy BBQ sauce more because it tastes better to me before cooking - but after cooking I agree that the Kansas City style sauce is better. Something to keep in mind as Scotty and I eventually work on our own sauce, which will probably be our next mountain to climb!

Attendees:

Don

Nate
Chris
Dan

Pictures:

Didn't have time to take a pic of the ribs when they were whole - we already tore into it!

September 6, 2011 - Propane Rides Again!

2011-09-06T19:47:00.002-07:00

Intro:

Jake here. I finally got back into the BBQ game after a year off. The move to California was a kind one from a BBQ weather point of view, but I couldn't exactly take my neighbor's Weber with me from Pennsylvania when we moved last December, so I've been in limbo since then.

Details:

About a month and a half ago though, we saw a decent two-burner propane out on the street for free, and in true Jake fashion, I snagged it for home use. Apart from the filth of a dozen cookouts and the lack of a gas tank, I couldn't find anything wrong with it, so I decided to clean it up and re-purpose it.

The other day I finally had enough motivation to clean the thing, an after a whole bottle of dish soap and a steel sponge, it looked much better. We stopped at Sam's Club after work the next day and got a gas bottle and filled it up at the gas station for a total investment of 1 hour cleaning and $48.50.

Viola! Clean and working! Got the thing up to 425 in 10 minutes. So, we started small and did a run of BBQ Chicken. The results were tasty, and good BBQ chicken sammiches were had by all. My wife and I enjoyed them in our awesome garden backyard.

Gonna try a pork loin next.

Attendees:

Jake
Wendy

Pictures:

The BBQ in its new garden home.

$48 BBQ after cleaning.

The BBQ Garden (Herb Garden with Apple Trees in background).

BBQ Chicken Sammiches with Avocado on Hawaiian Rolls.

Wendy enjoying BBQ Chicken Sammiches.

Guest Commentary:

Wendy here. I LOVED the BBQ chicken sandwiches. They were delicious and tasty and scrumptious! I would love to try steaks next (though I'd be hard pressed to beat Dan's Big Steel Keg brand Steaks). His BBQ is in a class by itself.

September 4, 2011 - Spare Ribs

2011-09-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. Made Spare ribs for the first time in a while, and for the first time using the 3-2-1 method (similar to the 2-2-1 method we've been successfully using for Back Ribs).

Details:

Bought two large racks of spare ribs at Albertsons for 1.49/lb. Rubbed them with John Henry's Summer Peach Rub and left them in the refrigerator for a few hours. Had second thoughts about the peach rub because it was so peachy, but a lot of that went away with smoking & it turned out great.

Smoked the ribs at about 200 degrees over applewood on the Big Steel Keg using indirect heat (via the BSK Diffuser Kit) for 3 hours, put them in foil, and cooked them at 250 degrees for another 2 hours. Pulled them out of the foil and finished them up by smoking them at about 275 degrees for the last hour, after applying Grumpy's Black Label BBQ sauce and Grumpy's Bold XX BBQ sauce to two of the four half racks.

A lot of the sweetness/peachiness of the rub had faded, leaving a mellow/slightly sweet flavor..and the Grumpy's sauce worked out great, too. Only real fault was that there wasn't much of a smoke ring visible when done - I think I'm liable to use a different rub next time.

Definitely the most success I've had with spare ribs so far!

Attendees:

Don

Nate
Dan

Pictures:

August 26, 2011 - 2 Racks of Ribs

2011-08-29T07:23:00.005-07:00

Intro:

Scott here. I had 2 rack of ribs that were sitting in my freezer for a month or two that needed to be eaten, and it had been a while since I smoked anything. One of APR's co-workers was having a birthday, so we decided to coincide the two events (smoking ribs being the more important of course!! hehe).

Details:

As usual, marinated the ribs overnight in yellow mustard. For the rub, I decided to go more traditional, so used our standard rub minus the onion powder (I'm out):

8 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chipotle flakes

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp paprika

I also put more on than I normally would, so these were fairly caked in rub.

Smoked on the WSM, with the diffuser, over applwood using the 2-2-1 method.

I did not perform a traditional mopping pattern of every hour, instead I only mopped once when I put the ribs into the tinfoil after 2 hours. Even then, I only sprinkled the tops of the ribs to preserve the rub, and tried to fill up the bottom of the tinfoil so that they remained juicy/tender.

For the last hour, I sauced them up using 3 different sauces: Stubbs, Sweet baby rays: hickory and brown sugar, and my mild homemade sauce.

Results? freaking AMAZING. These ribs were delicious, even the ones with my homemade sauce (didn't taste like ketchup this time). I know these results are truer than most since I hadn't even had a drink prior to eating them! They had a real nice smoky flavor (reasonable smoke ring), mixed with mostly rub flavor, and just a touch of sauce (I didn't add too much sauce since I wanted more rub flavor, just enough to make them wet). If I had one detraction to add, it would be that they were just slightly over cooked (a bit of gray in the meat).

Needless to say, this is my first experience using the 2-2-1 method and I'm sold. I'm also pretty happy that the homemade sauce smoked better than it tastes out of the bottle. Hopefully this isn't just a lack of ribs in the past month or two talking....guess I'll have to try again soon to be certain.

Attendees:

Scott

APR

Trista

Jake

Bubba

India

Eli

Liberty

Pictures:

August 25, 2011 - Two Beer Can Chickens

2011-08-28T12:48:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here. I like making two beer can chickens at a time - they fit very well over the diffuser in the Big Steel Keg & it's enough to feed at least 4 people.

Details:

Bough two small fryer chickens from Albertsons at 67 cents/lb. Slathered them in Olive Oil and coated one with Adobo spice & the other with Fajita seasoning. Put them on the beer can holders each of which had a can of miller lite (about 3/4 of the way full, additional holes poked open in the top with a church key).

Smoked the two chickens over indirect heat with 2/3 applewood & 1/3 hickory for just over 3 1/2 hours at just under 300 degrees which seems to be the sweet spot for beer can chicken on my Big Steel Keg. Used mostly lump hardwood charcoal as usual but had two chunks of applewood and 1 chunk of hickory that I wanted to get rid of. Internal temp was around 180 degrees when I pulled them off.

The skin & meat had a very pleasant smoke flavor when done. Cooked just right & still nice and moist. I love beer can chicken. Chicken is Hippie's favorite among all the meats I smoke, so I expect to use this method many times in the future!

Attendees:

Don

Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

August 19, 2011 - Brisket

2011-08-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here....picked up a very small brisket @ the grocery store & smoked it yesterday.

Details:

The brisket itself was only about 6 lbs with very little fat on it. I marinated it in Gold Buckle Brisket Sauce for about 24 hours and then smoked it over hickory at about 275 degrees for about 6 hours (most people smoke brisket at a lower temp - but because I knew this brisket was going in sandwiches I didn't worry as much about tenderness).

Used two types of Trader Joes BBQ sauces (Bold & Smokey, and Sweet & Spicy) and served on buns w/ sesame seeds. Turned out pretty friggin' good! I recently ordered a set of "Bear Paws" for pulling pork/shredding brisket - will definitely use those on my next attempt.

I need to stop wearing sleeveless T-shirts in all my pics... or at least start pumping iron everyday if I'm going to do it ;-)

Attendees:

Don

Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

Marinated brisket, just thrown on the Big Steel Keg

August 16, 2011 - Shish Kabobs

2011-08-17T06:21:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here....first time making Shish Kabobs on the Big Steel Keg.

Details:

Hippie got green peppers, red peppers, onions, and chicken and we marinated them in 3 types of sauce - Adobo, Vinegar Dressing, and Kroger Southwest mix.

She used the "Firewire" brand skewers which worked pretty well. Supposedly you put the marinade in a bowl and then use the tip to twist it around but I found it far easier to throw the whole thing in a gallon plastic bag.

Cranked the BSK up to the highest heat & grilled them until they were done. I think the only thing I'd change is to alternate the peppers so that still had color/variety but proportionally there was more onion and chicken.

As you can see in the pics Don and I were pretty enamored with our Stone IPA. We've had it many times but we were alternating between Red Stripe and Hop Czar and Stone IPA and Stone blew them away...

Attendees:

Don

Hippie
Dan

Pictures:

Beer, Big Steel Keg, and Squeezebox Radio > Bears, Beets, and Battlestar Gallactica

July 4, 2011 - Beef Ribs for 4th of July @ Flork's

2011-07-13T10:21:00.002-07:00

Intro:

Dan here....went to Flork's place for 4th of July and he made beef ribs. Lotta people there.

Details:

Flork uses an offset smoker and tends to smoke over Pecan. The brand of his smoker escapes me. He ended up getting a bunch of beef ribs and smoking them - not sure about the spices but you can get a better look in one of the pics.

I can say the ribs were good (Flork didn't like that they are charred but in my experience Beef ribs are usually charred on the outside & it adds to the experience). I can also tell you he had a growler of Stone Levitation Ale BBQ Sauce he got from Costco and that stuff was great..part of me wishes I still had a Costco membership so I could go buy myself a jug.

Attendees:

Don

Nate

Dan

Flork

Jen

Tara

Chris
Big Joe

Lindsay

Kyle

Flork's Neighbors? (not sure they showed up early enough for ribs)

Pictures:

Beef Rib Jenga

July 1, 2011 - Baby Back Ribs

2011-07-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

Intro:

Dan here....had Don and Nate over for some Baby Back ribs.

Details:

Used a rub from last year:

8 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chipotle flakes

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp paprika

Smoked on the Big Steel Keg with a diffuser kit over hickory (been a while since used something other than applewood).

Still using the 2-2-1 method - 2 hours smoking, then 2 hours in foil with some apple cider vinegar, and the final hour outside smoking again with sauce applied if desired.

Didn't use any sauce this time / only the rub.

Turned out really good & still digging 2-2-1 method but I think without the sauce maybe next time if I'm only doing a rub and not a sauce/glaze I'll keep it to 2-2-30 mins because it dries out faster without the sauce. Rub was also good but might add some white sugar next time & maybe a little more heat.

Attendees:

Hippie

Don

Nate

Dan

Pictures:

Waiting was the hardest part

Nimbus Brewery - how to ruin a good thing

2011-07-11T08:33:00.004-07:00

Dan here. I've been a fan of Nimbus Brewery in Tucson for some time. There's a lot to like about the place - it is a short drive, it is in the middle of nowhere which cuts down on the # of people/keeps it to regulars, and the quality of beer and food has always been high while the costs are relatively low. I'm not aware of another place where a couple of big guys can go and have a nice dinner and stumble away a few hours later for less than 50 bucks.

Problem is that ever since the Nimbus Bistro on Tanque Verde opened, the Brewery location has been in a gradual decline. I think the problem lies solely at the feet of management for not noticing/doing anything about it. Was there this past Saturday, here are some faults right off the top of my head:

Still no mug club since 2009. Mug clubs encourage regulars and when you're in the middle of nowhere you need to foster those relationships.

They have no growlers (and apparently haven't for 3 or 4 months?!?) so we were unable to take some beer to a friend's place when we left. How can a brewery not have growlers for such an extended period of time?

They were out of onion rings. Pretty common food - not only is it an appetizer, it is a side for some meals, and the ingredient in some of the burgers - how can you be out of this early on a Saturday night?

Out of perhaps 12 tap handles, maybe 2 of them were pointing in the proper direction. One had a flaky piece of paper on it with handwriting detailing the newest beer (use a tap handle with blackboard/chalk made for that purpose!). It was impossible to see what beers they had available without looking at the menu, and since all ordering is done at the bar where the tap handles are, this is extremely inconvenient/frustrating.

Only one of the two urinal stalls had the newspaper tacked up and it was Friday's (not Saturday's) paper.

The paper dispensing machine to dry hands had been ripped off the wall and was missing altogether / only option was to use the blow-dryer (if that is by design/on purpose to save money on paper, at least clean the glue off the wall!).

Guest beer has been A-1 for the last 6 months or a year. When you have a guest beer for that long, the whole purpose behind having a guest beer to give regular customers variety is lost. A-1 is like any of their other beers to me now - and wasn't even that great to begin with. The fact they have a big A-1 neon sign hanging up does not give me a warm fuzzy that this will change any time soon.

This last grievance is more personal. The "special" beer Nimbus had made was a "Smoked Rye". Smoked beer and rye beer are my two least favorite types of beer. If they had brewed it with toilet water in an old septic tank they could really go for broke...

I shared some of these concerns with one of the Bartenders. She explained that the management is trying to get out of Nimbus Bistro partnership & their attention is focused there. That's the same thing I heard from a different bartender 3 or 4 months ago. Problem is if they let the Brewery go to hell while they're fooling around with the Bistro they will have a new headache when they return to the Brewery.... it is a lot easier to retain existing customers than acquire new ones... and as I said, with their isolated location they should be doing everything they can to keep existing customers.

Nimbus: Throw us a bone and bring back the @$^@$ing mug club! I can't believe they wouldn't be able to recoup the cost of the mugs in a short period of time. If they are really in such dire straits that they cannot afford the upfront cost associated with buying a few hundred mugs, they might be closer to going out of business than I think!

June 20, 2011 - Baby Back Ribs

2011-06-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Dan here....Hippie invited Don over for dinner, so I decided to smoke some baby back ribs. Hippie doesn't eat ribs so only made 1 rack.

Details:

Did not put a lot of planning into the rub this time - all I knew is I didn't want to use the Memphis Dust rub from AmazingRibs.com (I thought it sucked). I decided to use similar ingredients to what Scotty and I did last year but didn't do any measuring...it ended up something like this:

slathered in yellow mustard

4 parts brown sugar

1 part onion powder

1 part garlic powder

2 parts thyme

1 part cumin

1 part salt

1 part pepper

a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme on top

Smoked on the Big Steel Keg with a diffuser kit over applewood.

I have been interested in the 2-2-1 method of smoking ribs recently - 2 hours smoking, then 2 hours in foil with some apple cider vinegar, and the final hour outside smoking again with sauce applied if desired.

In this case I used Cheff Matt's Honey Habanero sauce which I think is "OK" - nothing out of this world. Still hoping Scotty comes up with a great sauce I can start using :-P

I have to say, this 2-2-1 method works really well and results in some very tender ribs - Don loved them and I think they are probably my best sauced ribs so far. I was worried 2 hours in foil would result in seriously overdone ribs but it hasn't been the case so far. The rub could use some work - next time I think I will make it just like Scotty and I did in some of our posts early last year and forego the sauce.

Attendees:

Hippie

Don

Dan

Pictures: