Update from First Smoke
Below is a summary and some photos from my first smoke. I did this last weekend and didn't post on here because I rant out of time on Saturday and was out of town for work this past week.
Charcoal - used Kingsford Original
Rub - homemade rub that includes brown sugar, cayenne, paprika, garlic salt, chipotle red pepper, and onion powder
Sauce - sweet baby rays
Setup - heated up coals and then put them on top of unheated coals that I had in bottom of PBC. Waited about 20 minutes and then put the ribs in. I also put some hickory wood chunks on top of the coals (i did not soak these).
Cook Info - I was aiming for about a 3-3.5 hour smoke on these plus time for the sauce to glaze but they ended up cooking in about 2.5 hours. I monitored the temp of the ribs as well as the temp in the PBC with a Weber iGrill and the ribs were at 190 degrees after about 2:20. The temp in the PBC seemed to be run at about 285-300 the entire time so trying to figure out what I might have done wrong. My thoughts/questions are below.
1) As a first timer, I'm thinking that I probably checked on the ribs way more than I should have. I opened up the smoker 3-4 times which I know raised the temp and caused this to cook too fast. Since this was the first time I was trying to make sure that the ribs hadn't fallen off of the hook.
2) Assuming that by not soaking the wood chips this also could have raised the temp in the smoker. Any thoughts here?
3) I live just outside of Raleigh, NC so my elevation doesn't require me to open the air vent very much so this shouldn't have altered anything very much
4) After I pulled ribs out of the PBC, the broke off of the hook right as I was putting them onto a baking sheet (got lucky here). Trying to figure out why they broke off so easily
5) Once I pulled the ribs inside, I wrapped them in aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. They turned out great and had a slight smoke ring on them so I was pleased with my first smoke but know that there is room for improvement.
Thanks to all for any help you can give as i'm planning to try another smoke this weekend but not sure if it will be ribs, chicken, or a something else.