Here’s what happened:

1 Flank Steak marinated with Worsterschire Sauce, a little black pepper, and most of a bottle of Minhas Brewery’s Fighting Billy Bock for about two hours.

In lieu of Chipotle Mayo (since I couldn’t find any chipotles at the store, and the very idea of something spicy would’ve scared off one of the diners), I diced up about 4 peppadews and mixed them into some honey mustard.

Next, I sliced up onions, red and green peppers, and some mushrooms. I split a bottle of Capital Brewery’s Hop Cream Ale between the peppers and the onions and cooked them up in the beer as instructed. I started to get a little paranoid that they were running out of liquid too quickly, so I split a can of MGD between the two as well (cooking is a great time to get rid of the beer you would normally like to avoid actually drinking). The mushrooms, I just sauteed in butter.

While the steak was cooking away in the broiler (I don’t have much experience cooking steak, but I managed to get it out maybe slightly more done than Medium Rare), I sliced up a roll, buttered it up, and toasted it a bit in the pan that had previously cooked the veggies and now had a wee bit of residual beer to flavor my roll a bit unnecessarily.

Serve it all with some simple, boiled potatoes and a good glass of red (I know, it seems odd after cooking with all that beer), and let the accolades come rolling in.

Forget the “marniating” and simply put any sort of BBQ rub on it. There are plenty of good commercially produced ones or go to a BBQ forum, get a recipe that catches your eye and make it yourself. If you use sugar in the recipe use “Sugar in the raw” or “turbinado sugar” as it burns at a higher temp than regular granulated. If your recipe calls for salt, make sure it it NON-IODIZED to prevent off flavoring. Sea salt is the best I think.

Rub generously and let sit for 1-2 hours unrefrigerated before smoking.

Ribs should be cooked with charcoal. Don’t use the ready light stuff. Get a Charcoal chiminey starter and start it with newspaper…NEVER lighterfluid (can give an off flavor). Cook ribs “low and slow” with indirect heat at 250 degrees (25 degrees either side of 250 is acceptable). Add a bit of apple or cherry wood. Look for a thin blue wispy smoke and not billowing white or black smoke. Use chunks instead of chips and don’t bother soaking them. 3-4 fist sized chunks of cherry/apple wood will give you a nice smokey flavor. Much more than that and you could end up with bitter tasting ribs

Spares should take 4-5 hours @ 250 deg and Babybacks should take right around 3 maybe just a shade over depending on size.

You know they are done when the meat has pulled down from the ends of the bones and a toothpick inserted between ribs in the middle of the rack goes in like it was soft butter.

Leave the ribs dry and put sauce on the side for those that like it that way. If you’ve followed the advice here and you have a decent rub, you won’t need the BBQ sauce.

Ribs meat should offer a bit of resistance when you bite into it and ribs that are “fall off the bone” are technically “overdone”. But if that’s how you line ‘em…by all means.

I think those of us who wanted more literature are just trying to express the disappointment that there is not enough time in life to read all of the books you would like. Given limited time (and patience) for fiction, why read anything but the best?