Smokin' ribs and drinkin' beer

After two friends bailed on meeting up at the Ginger Man for a few pints on Sunday afternoon, I decided to enjoy the beautiful day in my own back yard and continue my "savouring instead of saving" series. And, since I was going to be just sitting around outside anyway, I decided to smoke some pork ribs and a small brisket. No, I don't have a proper smoker, but I do have a great propane grill that includes a smoker box which does a pretty damn god job of it. I prepared the ribs and brisket with my secret combination of herbs and spices and let them rest while I prepared the grill. The smoker box sits over one of the burners which heats up the wood chips inside and makes them smoke. Since the meat needs to cook slowly and indirectly, its placed over the unlit burners. As you can see in the photo, there are shallow trays filled with beer under the meat which helps to keep everything juicy and moist (and its a great way to use up any beer that you don't like or don't want). With just the burner under the smoker box turned on, the temperature inside the grill holds steady at about 250F and I keep adding new wood chips to the smoker box to keep a good layer of smoke inside. And, after about 5 ~ 6 hours, the result was tender and juicy ribs, but I was little disappointed in the brisket.

While the meat was gently smoking on the grill, I enjoyed several Austin Amber and Independence Pale Ale as well as a couple of beer from my cellar. One of them was the Devil's Elbow IPA from Howe Sound Brewing. I hauled this 1 Litre swing-top bottle back with me from our trip to Whistler, BC last fall. Since it was a 1 litre bottle, I had been saving it for when I had the proper time to enjoy and savour it and Sunday afternoon was that time. It poured out with a big foamy head that laced all the way down the glass. Grapefruit flavours and aromas with a nice bitterness in the finish. It was a good quality IPA. And with dinner, I enjoyed the smoked ribs and brisket with a Spezial Rauchbier Lager from Brauerei Spezial. It was okay, but it's certainly no where near as good as any of the rauchbiers from Schlenkerla. It was a little too sweat and the smokey flavours were too subtle.