Cooking Ribs on a Charcoal Weber Grill

I want to attempt this over the weekend. Based on what I've read online...I should separate my grill into 4 sections...top left: ribs, bottom left: pan for drippings, top right: pan filled w/ water (to keep moisture), bottom right: charcoal (and maybe some wood chips)

Cook @ about 225degrees for 3 - 4 hours.

...does anybody have any tips? or could comment based on experience?

I always put all the coals on one side of the grill, a pan full of water in the middle but on the same grate as the coals. Open the dampers above the coals and position the vent on the top over your meat, which is opposite of the coals so that the smoke blows across the meat and then out the top.

I generally keep a squirt bottle of apple juice handy to keep everything moist and flavorful, if you have it on mist it won't disturb the dry rub. You should be able to adjust the top vent to keep the temps low and if you are good with the moist smoking wood that should help keep the temp down as well. You may need to refill the pan of water once or twice too.

Indirect is the way to go for the first 3 hours or so. The Apple juice spritzer like Tenchiro mentions is helpful too.

Here's a good tip. After about 3 hours, take some foil and sprinkle some brown sugar and drizzle some honey on it, lay the ribs down in it repeat on top of the slab before completely wrapping in foil. Then cook your slab like that still indirect for another hour. Unwrapp and put direct over coals for a short time to brown things up a bit.

You'll be good to go.

I do my baby backs for closer to 5 hrs at 220-225F unfoiled & they turn out great. Many people subscribe to the 2-2-1 method. 2 hrs unfoiled, 2 hrs foiled, then 1 hr unfoiled. 3-2-1 for spares.

The other replies will work well also. Just be sure the heat is indirect.

I did ribs a lot on my 22" Weber. I would pack a chimney's worth of charcoal into one side and lay the ribs on the other. 2.5 hours unwrapped followed by 2.5 hours wrapped in foil. I found that the ribs browned up enough during the first 2.5 hours that there was no need to unwrap and put them back on the grill.

Thanks for the all replies.

One concern I have is temp control. I have a bag of hardwood coal so they are all different shapes and sizes and in cooking with this in the past I've noticed big differences in temperatures. I'm thinking I will need to pick up a bag of kingsford. I do have a chimney....to maintain temperature....I could get any additional coals ready in the chimney and then add them to the fire?? Is this normal? I dont anticipate one batch of coals lasting me 3 hours or so. I would guess if i put too much..it will be too hot @ first...too little and the heat wont last that long.

Unbelievable...five homebrewers talking about cooking ribs, and not a one of you has joined the Grilling & Chilling group!

BearsWickedBrew said:

Thanks for the all replies.

One concern I have is temp control. I have a bag of hardwood coal so they are all different shapes and sizes and in cooking with this in the past I've noticed big differences in temperatures. I'm thinking I will need to pick up a bag of kingsford. I do have a chimney....to maintain temperature....I could get any additional coals ready in the chimney and then add them to the fire?? Is this normal? I dont anticipate one batch of coals lasting me 3 hours or so. I would guess if i put too much..it will be too hot @ first...too little and the heat wont last that long.

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I've used the chimney technique before and it works. I just don't like the extra work involved so I just throw a few coals on top every once in awhile. As long as you're not adding too many coals at once you're fire should be ok. I'm assuming you're using natural lump & not the chemically saturated stuff.

^^I will probably pick up your standard bag of kingsford- that blue & white bag. I think this is natural lump. I won't be using "match light?"...which is that kingsford red and black bag that is pretreated w/ lighter fluid.

Not a big fan of the standard kingsford briquettes for smoking long term. Too many chemicals used in making those things. My Advice is to go with natural wood lump charcoal (any brand) for starters. Then experiment from there. Please don't use kingsford briquettes for a long term smoke. bad bad idea.

Soperbrew said:

Not a big fan of the standard kingsford briquettes for smoking long term. Too many chemicals used in making those things. My Advice is to go with natural wood lump charcoal (any brand) for starters. Then experiment from there. Please don't use kingsford briquettes for a long term smoke. bad bad idea.

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+1. Natural wood lump charcoal is the way to go for long cooks.

+1 to Lump charcoal, it definitely has the best flavor. On a side note I would not foil the ribs until the smoke has had a chance to penetrate the meat. Although if you keep the heat low enough and the moisture high enough you really should need any foil.

Also I would recommend apple wood for smoking pork, it gives a nice sweetness. Hickory is good all around too. Mesquite I generally only use on beef.

If you don't have apple, maple works very well.

^^Son of a B!%$^. Literally just got back from Home Depot w/ a big bag of kingsford match light...didn't want it, but its alll they had.

Ok..just checked the back. I do have a bag of "100% All Natural Hardwood Lump Coal"...its the "cowboy" brand (they carry it at trader joes). Its about 3/4 full....I imagine that will be enough. ...I also picked up hickory wood chips.

BearsWickedBrew said:

^^Son of a B!%$^. Literally just got back from Home Depot w/ a big bag of kingsford match light...didn't want it, but its alll they had.

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The best place I have found to get lump charcoal is a local Mexican Tienda. It is usually way cheaper than even briquettes. Most grocery stores consider it a specialty item and charge raise their prices accordingly.

BearsWickedBrew said:

Ok..just checked the back. I do have a bag of "100% All Natural Hardwood Lump Coal"...its the "cowboy" brand (they carry it at trader joes). Its about 3/4 full....I imagine that will be enough. ...I also picked up hickory wood chips.

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3/4 bag of Cowboy will probably be just about enough! It's made of hardwood flooring scraps which are kiln dried, so it burns REALLY hot and REALLY fast! Not ideal for your purposes, but vastly preferable to that bag of poison-soaked MatchLight. On the plus side, I find it leaves very little ash compared to many other brands of lump. It'll get the job done.

My favorite lump now is Royal Oak, which is available at Walmart at about $5.00 for 10lb. This stuff is great, it burns nice and steady for a long time, and doesn't make much ash either. It's the same lump that is repackaged and sold (at a much higher price) under the Big Green Egg brand.

Thanks...I hope this goes well...this is my 1st attempt at making ribs. I was searching the internet for dry rubs and just used the following recipe...let me know your thoughts:

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Paprika
1tbsp salt
1tbsp pepper
1tbsp garlic powder
1tbsp onion powder
1tsp dried mustard
1tsp cayenne pepper

...1 thing that concerned me was the sugar, but I figured since I will be grilling indirectly it shouldn't burn..hopefully.

BearsWickedBrew said:

Thanks...I hope this goes well...this is my 1st attempt at making ribs. I was searching the internet for dry rubs and just used the following recipe...let me know your thoughts:

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Paprika
1tbsp salt
1tbsp pepper
1tbsp garlic powder
1tbsp onion powder
1tsp dried mustard
1tsp cayenne pepper

...1 thing that concerned me was the sugar, but I figured since I will be grilling indirectly it shouldn't burn..hopefully.

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The sugar will caramelize, but at low temps it shouldn't burn. I have had the best success with dry rubs that contian no sugar and either spritzing with apple juice or hard cider or a acidic mop sauce. Gernally the acid will bring a sweetness without the caramelization.

That sounds like a good dry rub. Maybe a little too much black pepper, but that's just me. Personally I like some sugar in a rub, especially with some hot chili powder, and with indirect low heat it won't burn. Heat & sweet is a great BBQ combo.

Try chipotle powder some time, I love the smokiness of it.

^^Well, I actually gave it a couple turns on the pepper mill...so I'm sure i ended up south of 1 tbsp. Also, the recipe above is a combo of a couple of recipes I found online.....I took stuff I liked from diff recipes and threw it together. My 5 lbs of pork ribs are sitting in the fridge right now...can't wait till tommorow..tonight feels like Christmas Eve. Either I'm sick....or I really like grilling.

Tommorow, when I smoke 'em, I'll do it for at least 3 hours....fill my chimney with hardwood.....then add more once i spread it. The coals are kinda far away from the grill on my 22.5" Weber...so I think I'll need it. I have an oven thermostat that I'll use to measure temp. I picked up apple juice.....I plan on misting with this throught out (per tips on board). Will keep you posted. Again...thanks everyone for the info

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

One last thing, they aren't done if you can't pull the bone out of the meat with little effort. Once the connective tissue has broken down the bones will spin freely in there and pull out easily.

BlindLemonLars said:

3/4 bag of Cowboy will probably be just about enough! It's made of hardwood flooring scraps which are kiln dried, so it burns REALLY hot and REALLY fast! Not ideal for your purposes, but vastly preferable to that bag of poison-soaked MatchLight. On the plus side, I find it leaves very little ash compared to many other brands of lump. It'll get the job done.

My favorite lump now is Royal Oak, which is available at Walmart at about $5.00 for 10lb. This stuff is great, it burns nice and steady for a long time, and doesn't make much ash either. It's the same lump that is repackaged and sold (at a much higher price) under the Big Green Egg brand.

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+1 royal oak is the best charcoal. Thanks for bringing up the grillin and chillin group. I haven't checked out the groups section yet. This community just continues to get better and better.

Yeah, +1 again for Royal Oak lump coal. I use that exclusively for all my longer cooks.

Soperbrew said:

I do my baby backs for closer to 5 hrs at 220-225F unfoiled & they turn out great. Many people subscribe to the 2-2-1 method. 2 hrs unfoiled, 2 hrs foiled, then 1 hr unfoiled. 3-2-1 for spares.

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+1, this is what I do. I don't foil 'em anymore, just personal preference. Slather with yellow mustard, rub, heat, rest, EAT!

Soperbrew said:

Yeah, +1 again for Royal Oak lump coal. I use that exclusively for all my longer cooks.

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+1. I try to use logs when possible (maintains heat better in my smoker) but Royal Oak works very well.

Just to give you an indication of how everything came out...

When it came time to slice them up...1/2 the rib bones went in the trash because everything just fell right off. I will definetly be doing this more often. My 22.5" Weber seemed to work perfecty for this...the cowboy charcoal didn't give me too much trouble. I was using soaked wood chips too..so I'm guessing that helped slow things down.

*bump*

I plan on using the same technique tommorow. Except this time, Im smoking a pork butt. Any suggestions for cooking times or dry rubs?

we use dark brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, a dash of mustard powder, and a hint of ginger. we run a butt or shoulder for about 8-10 hours then wrap tightly in two layers of aluminum foil and rest under towels in a cooler overnight. mmmmmmmmmm good.

For pork butt I think you're looking at 1-1.5 hours/pound. I smoke 'em until 165°, foil it and let it go until 200°, then throw it in the cooler for an hour and then pull.

Good samiches! :rockin:

sounds good. I figured about 8hrs....I need to get started early if I want to be ready in time for the Pats game around 4 tomm.

Make sure you take pictures!

The only picture I have is of me holding a tray of pork....with a smile from ear to ear. Not quite sure I want to share.....I was several beers deep by that point. The pork was a huuuge hit...so were the ribs- everything came out great.

BearsWickedBrew said:

Not quite sure I want to share.....I was several beers deep by that point.

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Do you really think anybody in this community is going to criticize you for being "several beers deep?"

We'd only be looking at the pork anyway. For a foodie it's almost like looking at porn.