Ribs (and a day) gone horribly wrong......

[uniman]

Maybe some can give some advice for the future.  This was my SECOND time smoking with the OBS by the way, first time I was VERY successful with a beef roast!

Started this Sunday at about 12:00 NOON, preheated the OBS on full blast.  Temp was about 55 degrees with a pretty cool and strong wind, so I brought the smoker in the garage and sheltered it pretty darn good.

An HOUR later, the temp on the smoker was only at 200,  but I figured I had better get the ribs on at this point anyways, had a family waiting on me for supper around 7PM ya know!!!

I had TWO racks of baby back ribs, although the meat (and fat) on these were HUGE.

So I smoke away, for THREE hours (with apple wood) could NOT get the OBS above about 190 degrees....and at this point I have ALL the doors to my garage closed to try and get up the temp. (didn't work, and it WASN'T that cold out!)  All vents open as well.....

SIDE NOTE:  First time I used the OBS I used the same technique, only it was the middle of winter, 20 degrees, and I got a higher temp that day then I did NOW!!!!  Don't get it......

Still I smoke them for 3 hours, and I figure I will just wrap them in foil with a splash of apple juice and finish them on 225 in the oven (cheating I know) since the OBS isn't keeping temp.

Using a digital thermometer, and much to my surprise, we are up to 172 degrees meat temp within an hour (5PM)!!!! I am thinking at this point.....this is weird and WAY to early.....  I was thinking 6PM at the FASTEST.

Check the ribs.....yeah NOT EVEN CLOSE.  I don't even see any bone.  Then I check temps in other parts of the meat, certain parts were only at 150!!!

At this point I am lost, have no clue.  So I keep cooking them covered in the oven until 7 PM, TWO HOURS LATER.

At that point, I pull them out, and the ends look done, but that is it.  Parts of the meat (the top) at 180, other parts at still 160.

So what I did is just put them in a roster (with apple juice) and leave cooking for 3 more hours.

At this point, I had eaten the ends for supper (i had too, family waiting) and I was so pissed off, I still haven't checked the quality of the leftover.

I think my biggest downfall was getting ribs that were too big with too much variance.

A little discouraged at this point.  Any advice???

[Gizmo]

I would look at this a two different problems.  The temp in the Bradley and the overall end result.
Temp problems, could be one of several issues well covered in many threads here mostly with poor connections to the box and the heating element not actually working and the only heat being generated by the puck burner and the smoldering pucks. 

Is your element glowing red hot?
If your element is glowing red hot and you take out the V Tray, does heat up higher and more quickly? 
If it does heat up quickly without the V Tray, try opening the gap in the V Tray gaps.
Do you have the slider all the way to the right or have you tried to back it off just a touch from the extreme right position (to avoid a possible dead spot at the end)?

For ribs.  I smoke them in the Bradley for 3 to 4 hours depending on wood and how smoky I want them that day.  After that I Pull them and put them in a foil pan with a small amount of liquid and a foil lid, or double wrap in heavy duty foil, with 3 tbl spoons of liquid.   They will stay in the house oven that way for 2 to 3 hours (usually a total of 6) with the oven at 210 deg.  1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of bone should be showing, don't bother taking the temp, if you don't have a thermapen with the actual sensor in the very tip, you aren't going to get a good reading in the meat anyway (IMHO).  The bone test, or you can use the bend test, will be a better indicator of being done.  You can shut the oven off after the 2 to 3 hours and leave them there for a few hours if needed until you are ready to serve.  But wait, you say you need them done sooner?  Push the oven temp up to 325 instead of 210.  You can cut 1 hour off or more (use the bone test here) depending on how long you smoke.  The ribs may not be quite as tender but then not every one wants the meat to fall off the bone when touched. 

[Habanero Smoker]

Gizmo covered about everything you should review. Just to add, the vent setting is important. Though it need to be open to allow moisture to escape, you still need to play around with the opening. Having it too wide open, when moisture is not a problem, will also keep your temperatures down.

[uniman]

Thanks for the advice guys, will check the heating element and v trap.

Also, I thought the more you had the vent open was suppose to RAISE the temp, the more closed lowers it.

Is that not correct?

The good news, is after all this messing around with the ribs, they still didn't turn out THAT bad.  A little dry, but they pretty much fell off the bone.  Had to add some BBQ sauce with them, but weren't bad after that.

[Mr Walleye]

Uniman

Giz and Hab's have you pointed in the right direction. I'll just add... You didn't mention what you are using to read the tower temp. You don't want to rely on the built in therm as they are noted to be not that accurate and can be influenced buy the meat in the smoker. You want to monitor the tower temp at the rack lever, You want to know what the meat is being exposed to.

The vent is a tricky subject. When doing anything that is giving off moisture such as chicken, or even ribs in the early stages, you need the vent a little more open. This allows the moisture to escape and is usually easier to maintain temp in the tower. Moisture in the tower will make it difficult to maintain temps. As the meat temp begins to rise and give off less moisture you can close down the vent somewhat (never closed) which allows the unit to recover temps better.

Mike

[Roadking]

Here's what works for me.
Cooking Ribs My Way with a Digital Bradley Smoker


Remove the diaphragm meat from the concave side of the ribs. Don't throw this away save it for sausage meat or cook it while cooking the ribs.
Remove the silver skin from the concave side of the ribs. Just push a finger under it and it'll come off with some persuasion.
Trim off any excess fat. Some people will trim off some of the thick meat so the ribs cook evenly I leave it on. Never had a problem with it.
Ribs are ready for your favorite rub. Cut racks of ribs in half to fit on smoker racks
Coat the ribs with a light coat of cooking oil or mustard and then apply your favorite rub. Apply the rub a minimum of 2 hours before going into smoker.
Ribs should now be at room temperature before putting into smoker.
Preheat your smoker to 225ºF and preheat you smoke generator plate.
Fill the bowl with water 2/3 full and place in smoker.
Place your ribs in the smoker and close the door. Here's what I do now with the smoker and generator preheated. Pull the plug out of the wall and put it back in. Turn the smoker back on and load your favorite wood pucks and set the smoke generator to your desired time of smoking (I use 6 puck or 2 hours plus 2 Bubba pucks home made) and get the first puck on the plate. Set the cabinet to 225ºF for 5 hours (check note below). The reason I pull the plug is not to put a puck on the plate when there is only 5-6 minutes left of time to burn the puck. Did you ever clean up and notice two or three pucks are not burned completely? Wal-la, so I like to start the cycle from the beginning.
Don't open the door for 3 hours if cooking St. Louis Cut ribs (2 hours for baby backs). After the 3 hours (or the 2 hour for the BB ribs) take a peek and grab one of those pieces of diaphragm meat (if you put them on the racks to cook with the ribs, just a cooks bonus) and check the ends of the ribs to see how far back the meat is shrinking back.
Now is a good time to spray the ribs with some apple juice if you like. An alternative is to take the ribs and put them into a foil boat and pour 1 cup of apple juice into the boat (don't pour on the ribs) and seal the boat to steam the ribs for 30-60 minutes.
Remove ribs from boat and coat with your favorite BBQ sauce. Your can either finish this last 30 minutes with the sauce in the smoker, on a grill or in the house oven. I leave them in the smoker.Your ribs are done a good indication is the rib has pulled back on the bone. We're looking for ¼" or more.


Note: Cooking time - 5 hours for St. Louis Cut ribs and 3 hours for baby backs.
This recipe came from another site with my changes.


I've also cooked my ribs the same way on a grill using the indirect heat method.

[bigcatdaddy]

Uniman,

It sounds like to me that having your vent fully open might have been some of the problem.  As these fine gentleman have stated venting can be tricky.  I never have mine fully open.  The more it's open the more heat escapes and the smoker has a harder time keeping up the temp your trying to achieve.  Starting out with the vent 1/2 to 2/3 open should be more then enough with the ribs.  As the ribs start to get cooked down you can start pinching the vent closed, but never fully closed.  I take mine down just far enough that the smoke doesn't start escaping between the smoke generator and the cabinet and let'em cook.

BCD

[manderso]

The temperature problem could also be caused by a "shared" electrical outlet or a lossy extension cord.  Make sure that nothing else is drawing power from the circuit used and that you are using an extension cord with large gauge wire.  I've had this problem when I moved my OBS to a different location.

Thank goodness the weather is finally starting to turn half decent here in the northeast US.  Let the smoking season begin!

[drano]

uniman,
Welcome to the forum.  Others already gave great advice, but here's a couple more.
Not sure if you are or not, but don't use an extension cord.  It uses some of the power as the electricity flows thru it.  If you must use an extension cord, get the shortest 12ga cord that will reach--the heavy gauge eats up less juice.  And if you have a multimeter, see how many volts you are getting.  Hopefully you're not below 115v. 
Its been years since I did babybacks, but from my log I keep, it says I did 2 racks, and each one weighed 2.3 lb.  They were on for 4.5 hours, and I used 4 maple pucks. 
Don't open the door--it greatly lengthens cooking time.  Of course, until we learn how long it takes, we need to look, so opening the door just has to happen, but keep it to a minimum. 
My last spare rib smoke was one 3.65 lb rack that was on for 7.5 hours at 220 deg and 6 pecan pucks.  They turned out great.
Since your ribs have a lot of meat on them, they will take longer to get done. 
My last suggestion - get them on the Bradley early, and if you can't get to 220 deg due to outdoor temp etc, after smoking is complete, throw them in the oven at 220 until done.  Then FTC them until dinner time.  I've found 220 on the smoker gets the meat to 185-190, which is where they will tear apart.  Yes, the thin end is a little doner, but we can't fix that. 
good luck
drano