Our Rather Simple Yet Chaotic Life: Smoking and Beer

This weekend went by entirely too quickly. Friday as a last minute brainstorm, I decided I needed to have a small party to help break in my smoker. I was already going to smoke a brisket since Todd had been asking me to and because I wanted to see how it would turn out. On Thursday, I picked up a brisket and make up some nice rub and massaged the brisket with it. But Friday, I had a brain fart and decided that I also needed to smoke some pork ribs and I just couldn't stop there, I also picked up two 4-1/2 pound chickens. There was going to be entirely too much food for two families to eat so I invited another couple and their 3 kids and couldn't stop there so I invited my brother (who actually showed up). Friday evening was spent making more rub for the ribs and some brine for the chickens. I just couldn't stop myself so I also made a batch of homemade BBQ sauce for those people that think you have to have sauce on barbecue.

I woke up a bit later than I wanted to on Saturday and didn't get the brisket on until 6:30 am or so. While I was getting the smoker up to temperature, I let the brisket's temperature come closer to room temperature and I mixed up some sop to baste the brisket and the ribs. I put the brisket on at 6:30, the ribs on at 1pm and the chicken on at 4. By 6 pm, were were eating like a bunch of 400 pound rodeo clowns. I think the ribs turned out the best out of the three meats. I think I would smoke the brisket a bit longer next time and let it rest 2 hours instead of the hour I left it alone this time. The chicken was really good too but the ribs were the shizzle. I do think I would try a less salty rub as well. Not overly salty but a bit too much for my liking. The BBQ sauce was my biggest issue. I tried a recipe I found on the food network from The Neeley's but it was entirely too spicy after the first 1-1/2 hours of simmering it so I threw in some tomato paste and more water to tone it down a bit and after another hour or so of simmering, I had decent sauce. Unfortunately, now I have entirely too much sauce. Anyone need a quart or so of BBQ sauce?

During the big smoke, Todd and I managed to brew a batch of beer too. I brewed a nice IPA that should be somewhere in the 150 I.B.U. range. Now that is going to be a nice beer!

Next weekend is the big Darius Rucker concert. Yes Darius Rucker is opening for Rascal Flatts. Lisa is a big Darius Rucker fan and she's so excited I don't know if she'll make it to Sunday night.