I am now the proud new owner of............

[hotwine]

Drew, you're already cookin' the ribs, so this will be too late to help on that score. But here's a recipe I've used for years:

1 cup ketchup
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup corn syrup or maple syrup
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce

Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a low boil, keep it there until the sauce thickens.

Coat a rack of babyback ribs with the sauce, front and back; lay the ribs on a sheet of heavy-gauge foil and fold the foil into a packet (I like to keep it fairly loose, some people like to wrap them tightly)

Bring your smoker to a temperature of 225-250F; lay the rib packet in the smoker and cook for about two hours.

Remove from smoker and re-coat the ribs with the remainder of the sauce. Remove from the foil and lay the ribs directly on the grill, over the hot coals. Cook for 2-5 minutes per side, depending on the condition of the fire. The ribs should turn from a pale grey color to a rich brown, and the meat should pull back from the tips of the bones when ready.

Babybacks are easy to screw up because they have so little meat on them..... can't say how many I've incinerated with too much heat!

A couple of indispensable books for smoking are "Sublime Smoke" and "Smoke and Spice", both by the husband and wife team of Bill Jamison and Cheryl Alters Jamison, available from Amazon for $10-$12 each. They're big paperbacks and chock full of good recipes.

There's a hard-bound called something like "The Barbeque Bible" by Raichlan (sp?). I don't recommend it.

Be warned! It takes a lot of beer to cook a load of Q!