Product Review

Product Review: Carolina Dry Rub and Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce from Carolina Brewery

/ Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Monk: Carolina Brewery was founded in 1995 by UNC Chapel Hill alum Robert Poitras, who was originally from eastern North Carolina. The original brewpub, which still remains open to this day, is on Franklin St. heading towards Carrboro and they later opened a second brewpub in Pittsboro in nearby Chatham County.

This summer, after twenty-six years Carolina Brewery recently relaunched their brand “to promote the best of the Carolinas’ outdoor lifestyle and coastal conservation.” They also recently invited the Barbecue Bros to join their family. I told them we were in and before long both Speedy and I had some of the rubs and sauces in our hands to take advantage of some beautiful fall days in Charlotte and Nashville, respectively for some grilling and product testing.

Carolina Dry Rub

Speedy: And for ole Speedy, the timing couldn’t be better. After living in Nashville for four years, I finally put down some roots and purchased a home. My first accessory was a Big Green Egg that I re-homed from a friend that was not giving the old girl enough attention. Don’t worry – she’ll be well used from now on. 

I had tried a couple pork butts and gotten the temperature control pretty figured out, so on a lazy Sunday afternoon it was time to try some baby back ribs. Normally I like to make my own rubs, but the Carolina brewery rub ingredient list seemed perfect, so I sprinkled some on and got to smokin. Overall, I was really pleased. The rub imparted great flavor, and had a bit of kick. In a pork rub, I usually like a little more sugar to caramelize, but for ribs, this was spot on. Highly recommended for this use case. 

Monk:: The label said it was good for beef as well, so I tried the rub on some chuck roast I wanted to smoke for tacos a few weeks back. The 2 lb prime chuck roast took well to the rub and made for some tasty tacos. The rub has a generous amount of chile powder in it, so as Speedy mentioned it had a nice kick. Not too bad for me but be careful with folks who don’t like spice or young kids.

Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce

Monk: In terms of the eastern NC barbecue sauce, when I glanced at the ingredients, I saw a true eastern NC vinegar-based barbecue sauce. Which makes sense, considering founder Poitras’ eastern NC roots. The one thing I did not see at first was that it already had hot sauce in it, so after topping a pork sandwich with the sauce I added some Texas Pete Hotter Hot Sauce on top of it and WOW, that sando had a kick. Great flavor, but man what spice. Next time around I’ll be smarter, but the sauce is a great option to add to your chopped pork.

Speedy: I used this sauce on some leftover pork butt, as I had run out of my own homemade dip. Monk is right – it is true to eastern NC and did pack a punch (Monk warned me about the hot sauce). While I still prefer making my own dip (favoring Lexington style), this is a perfect substitute for when I don’t want to spend the time making my own. Will use again. 

Costero Lager and Copperline Amber

Monk: As for Carolina Brewery’s beer, I was provided two six-packs since they could ship within North Carolina. I found that the Costero Lager – a Mexican-influenced cerveza – was a great beer for smoking on a sunny, warm day and the Copperline Amber paired perfectly with the smoky meats.

All in all, a successful introduction to the Carolina Brewery family. They’ve got a nice rebrand going, and I look forward to checking out more of their sauces and beers next time I spot them in the grocery.

If you like the sounds of this and are in, you can check out Carolina Brewery’s beer finder here and learn more about their sauces and rubs here.

Product Review: Matt’s Rub from Midwood Smokehouse

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Monk: After interviewing pitmasters Matthew Berry and Michael Wagner from Midwood Smokehouse, I took home a bottle of the (at the time) recently-released Matt’s Rub. Nearly two years later and I have certainly put it through its paces on a variety of meats.

Most recently I used the rub for pork belly burnt ends I smoked for this year’s Super Bowl following this recipe from Hardcore Carnivore. After cubing the 9 lb. pork belly, I tossed them in the rub to evenly coat before placing on a cooking rack and placing in the smoker for two hours.

After two hours (rotating the racks in the smoker after an hour), I tossed them in a sauce mixture of Sweet Baby Ray’s, local honey, and chicken broth before putting back onto the smoker in an aluminum pan for another 2 hours total.

In total, after 4 hours I had pork pillows perfect for Super Bowl snacking. I have extolled the virtues of pork belly burnt ends before and I wasn’t let down by smoking them for the big game, both in terms of results as well as time spent. Each bite was well-balanced between spice, smoke, and sweetness.

And what about Matt’s Rub? The rub itself has a slight kick but I have found it to be a great all purpose rub. From this pork belly to pork butts, pork tenderloins, chuck roasts, chicken, and burgers, each time I was quite pleased with the results.From that conversation almost 2 years ago, here’s what Mathew and Mike each used it on, at least back then:

Is it an all-purpose rub? It can go on anything? What do you use it most on at home?
MB: At home? I use it on burgers the most. I cook a lot of burgers at home.
MW: I would use it on beef and pork. I would use it on chicken with maybe a little more black pepper, just cause that’s the way I like it. I mean anybody that knows anything about dry rubs, if they make one its going to have all of this in it.

Midwood Smokehouse has also since introduced a line of sauces, which we briefly discussed in that same conversation. Maybe next time maybe I’ll use their Matt’s Original Sauce instead of the mass-produced Sweet Baby Ray’s.

You can purchase Matt’s Rub online and at all Midwood Smokehouse locations.

Product Review: Texas Dry Rubs by Billy Twang

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Billy Twang is a Texas-based dry rub and grilling tool company that was started in Houston in 1992. All of their products are proudly made in the USA and backed by a lifetime guarantee. They recently reached out to me to try out a few of their dry rubs in exchange for an honest review, and I happily obliged.

Bottom line: Based on my experience with these rubs, I would happily recommend them to any backyard griller or smoker.

Click here for ordering information

Old No. 3 Rub ($25 but currently sold out, link)

Old No. 3 Rub is a classic central Texas salt and pepper dalmatian mix with granulated garlic. Not having time for a brisket, I tried the rub on a chuck roast that I was smoking for tacos. You can tell the quality of the ingredients in the rub just by looking at it, with the coarsely ground peppercorns and salt. Slightly overcooked chuck roast notwithstanding, the crust and flavoring on the chuck roast was excellent.

I also got good results by using the rub a porterhouse steak in a cast iron on the stove. I would occasionally get an especially peppery bite, but that’s why you have the red wine to wash it down.

Plan to use on: Brisket and tri-tip, naturally

Punch Rub ($25, link)

The aptly named Punch Rub is the spiciest of the bunch, but not overpoweringly so on the pork chops I grilled. The heat is not for kids or the faint of heart *cough*Mrs.Monk*cough* but if you are a spice head there’s nothing you can’t handle here. The rub contains high quality ingredients sourced from Mexico, France, and India.

Plan to use on: My next set of baby back or spare ribs, with a sweeter sauce to counteract the heat

Big Rub ($25, link)

The Big Rub is a more savory rub that still provides a kick on the back end due to the Tellicherry, Aleppo, and Urfa peppers. Again, this rub was too spicy for my kids on pork chops (amateurs) but not so for Mrs. Monk.

Plan to use on: Pork tenderloin or chicken or mixed into burgers

Many thanks to Billy Twang for reaching out and providing these rubs for a product test. Click here for ordering information

Product Review: Low Country BBQ Rub from Fire of Coals

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Fire of Coals is a Charlotte-based small batch and hand crafted barbecue rub and sauce company run by Lawrence Heath, who is active in the community barbecue scene, regularly helping out the Charlotte Rescue Mission, churches, and local boyscout troops using his NC-made BQ whole hog trailer. I’ve been following the Fire of Coals Instagram account for a few years now and as it turns out, Lawrence is actually a neighbor of mine.

I found this out when I bought a used burn barrel off a NC barbecue Facebook group and lo and behold, the seller was Lawrence and he lived not a quarter mile from me in south Charlotte. Once we got to talking barbecue it wasn’t too long that we figured out that we followed each other. Small world.

Along with the burn barrel, I also purchased a bag of his “Lowcountry BBQ Rub” which is an all natural ingredient rub made with assorted spices, brown sugar (there is a no sugar variant as well), and curiously enough, coffee grounds from Charlotte-based Enderly Coffee. The packaging states that it is gluten free and works with pork, poultry, beef, and seafood. Over the next couple of weeks I gave the rub a spin on a few different pork items – ribs, a small pork butt, and a pork tenderloin – as well as chicken wings from Joyce Farms and was generally more than pleased with the results.

The ribs were the most successful of the pork items. I’ve gotten into ribs a bit more recently and twice I used the Lowcountry BBQ rub as the base rub before finishing with a couple of different barbecue sauces (Rufus Teague Honey BBQ and Lillie’s Q Memphis). Whether it was due to a new technique, the rub, the sauces, or (more than likely) a combination of each, these were the best ribs I’ve smoked in my life. As in, not even close between these ribs and previous racks I’ve smoked that were overdone and dry.

As for a pork butt, I’ve become really accustomed to simply using salt on them a la Lexington Barbecue. This time around with the Lowcountry Rub on a 5.5 lb smaller pork butt cooking at a higher temp, the pork butt came out well but all things considered I might prefer just salt. Certainly no shots at the Fire of Coals rub, but I might just be getting stuck in my ways.

Finally, I tried the rub on a pork tenderloin cooked in a pan on the oven as well as some smoked wings on my Weber, both to great results. Based on the results of each of these meats, I can see myself continuing to reach for it on future cooks, perhaps giving it a try on some seafood or some beef.

The story behind Fire of Coals is detailed on the rub packaging, stating how Lawrence’s family is originally from “the Cape Fear River Basin area of eastern Carolina and cooked farm raised pork, chicken, beef, wild game, seafood and garden fresh produce for community gatherings on the Heath family farm.” It’s a pretty cool backstory to the company and a reminder that buying from Fire of Coals is supporting local (and in my case, hyper local).

Order the “Lowcountry BBQ Rub” online at Fire of Coals