Sweet Smoky Party Ribs

We take a couple slabs of spare ribs, fat trimmed and membrane removed, and carve them into two bone, double party ribs. We then slathered the pork ribs in a homemade sweet molasses and stout beer BBQ sauce. Rather than single bone ribs, we do pairs which still increases the bark to meat ratio over a full slab, but also allows for more smoke penetration before the sweet smoky party ribs are ready to serve. 

What are Party Ribs?

Pork ribs, either baby backs or spares, carved into one-bone or two-bone portions and smoked individually on the grill. 

Why Party Ribs?

When a full slab is smoked and carved into individual ribs, the sides of the ribs have no bark, seasoning or sauce on them. When carving into party ribs, there is bark all the way around. The downside is the pork ribs don’t cook as long as a full slab and thus don’t take on as much smoke, but this is a rather minor difference. 

Party ribs have become something of a trend on social media, at least in terms of the grilling and BBQ world. I was intrigued when I first saw them thinking they wouldn’t take much time at all to cook. I normally grill my ribs at around 300F and cook baby backs for 2-2.5 hours and spares 2.5-3 hours. Well, party ribs still take 90-105 minutes. So just short of 2 hours. These double party ribs took 2.5 hours at 275F. 

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Grandma’s® Molasses for partnering with us on this recipe. I’ve had more fun with this ingredient than just about anything else. It marries so well with barbecue. Sweet and smoky! What’s not to love? Here are a couple other recipes we did with this molasses: Shrimp Skewers on Grilled Pineapple Boats and Pork Tenderloin Skewers with Bell Peppers and Purple Onions.

This is our second foray into the party ribs game. I did these traditional party ribs not that long ago. Dad put his own twist on party ribs with hot honey soon after. Both of those were the traditional single rib portion.

If you want to go with the more traditional full slab method, but want to take the above and beyond, I give you blowtorch ribs. 

Although, if you are tight on space on your grill, may I suggest rolling the ribs to make more room?

And finally, how about checking out our foil boat ribs. 

Alright, back to the recipe at hand. These sweet smoky party ribs!

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Ingredients

• 2 slabs of untrimmed spare ribs
• Salt
• Your favorite BBQ seasoning
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• Sesame seeds for garnish

BBQ Sauce

• 1/4 cup Grandma’s® Molasses**
• 1 1/4 cups ketchup
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice (substitute apple cider)
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (substitute Andria’s Steak Sauce for a much richer flavor profile)
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp ancho chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 6-8 ounces of stout beer

**Grandma’s® Molasses partnered with us on this recipe which is ideal for this recipe because the molasses is sweet and smoky and that’s exactly what I’m going for here. Hence the title: Sweet Smoky Party Ribs.

Prep the Ribs

Begin the process by prepping the spare ribs

First, remove the membranes off the backs and trim any globs of fat off either side of the slabs:

The membrane on the back of ribs is indeed really, really slippery. Thus, paper towels help a ton to get a good grip.

That being said, you can do it sans towel, but it’s easier to do it with:

If there is any excess globs of fat, remove that and then flop them over to the bone side (where the membrane was that I just pulled off) and trim away that little flap of meat which is called the inside skirt of the ribs:

The inside skirt may be my favorite part of the pig.

We like to cook them up while the ribs are smoking and have a snack along the way that we like to call, “Nibblers.” You can see this cut of pork cooked properly and coming off the grill in this video:

Then carve the ribs into two bone pairs:

Once the pork ribs are cut into pairs of bones, season with salt and your favorite BBQ Rub:

Flip the double party ribs over and then salt and season on the other side.’

Further, dab the sides of the spare ribs in any excess seasoning on the cutting board:

How to Grill Party Ribs

Skin the membrane off the back of the ribs and trim off any excess globs of fat. Carve the ribs into single bone or double bone portions. Season with salt and your favorite BBQ seasoning. Place in a smoker at 275F and close the lid. Once the ribs reach 190F or higher, sauce the ribs (if you want sauce) and smoke for another five minutes and sauce again. Repeat this a couple more times till the sauce has thickened up. Finally, remove from the grill and serve. 

Now for the step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions:

Place the seasoned party ribs on a 275F smoker.

In this case, I’m using my pellet smoker:

While the ribs are smoking, let’s make that BBQ Sauce

Home Made BBQ Sauce

Pretty much all BBQ sauce is ketchup based. The trick is, getting as far from that base as you can to make something unique. Thus we bring in the molasses and stout beer to make that journey from boring to extraordinary.

Then, combine in a sauce pan the Grandma’s® Molasses, stout beer, brown sugar, ketchup, mustard powder, mustard seeds, apple cider vinegar, ancho chili powder, granulated garlic, black pepper, Andria’s steak sauce (or Worcestershire if you must) and pineapple juice:

Place the sauce pan on the stove and bring to a boil before dropping down to a simmer, then allow to cook down 1/4 to 1/2.

DO NOT let that sauce boil over.

Apple Cider Vinegar Spritz

While the BBQ sauce simmers, combine a cup of water and a cup of apple cider vinegar and give the double party ribs a spritz:

After 45 minutes on the grill, my now smoky party ribs are coloring up nicely:

And that inside skirt is ready to eat:

When are the Ribs Ready?

At 2 hours, some of my ribs are just about ready:

Time to sauce those ribs:

Furthermore, I kicked the party up a notch by saucing these ribs like wings, in a stainless bowl with a toss or two:

Now, you don’t believe that I tossed those ribs over and over and over again to get the handful of shots we used here, and didn’t drop one or two, do you?

Nope. 

Scroll down below the recipe card to see the drop pics or watch the video I will be posting shortly. 

Here is what one of those double party ribs looked like after tossing:

I placed the sauced ribs back on the grill for about 10 minutes to thicken up the sauce.

I went with two options here.

Sauced ribs and simply rubbed ribs that people can dunk in the remaining sauce:

Serve these ribs with a side of watermelon and finally garnish with some sesame seeds:

Obligatory bite shot:

And thus here’s how they looked on the inside:

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Recap

I love me some party ribs. And while I’m normally a rub only on my ribs, this sauce was wonderful. Thick, gooey, and well balanced. Most of all, it wasn’t like any sauce on the market that I have tried. And to me, that’s important. I’m always trying to come up with new ways to take my BBQ to the next level. And this sauce does exactly that. 

If you have any questions or comments about these double party ribs, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ that would be most appreciated! 

Additionally, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter/X and YouTube feeds

Thank you to Grandma’s® Molasses for partnering with us on this recipe. The more I cook with this molasses the more I like it. You really need to give it a try. 

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Recipe Card

Print Recipe

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs

Spare ribs carved into two bone portions and smoked before slathering with a sweet molasses and stout beer glaze, or what we call Sweet Smoky Party Ribs

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course, Pork Ribs, Ribs

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ

Keyword: Andria's, Andria's Steak Sauce, Andrias Brush-On Steak Sauce, Barbecue Sauce, BBQ, BBQ Rub, BBQ Sauce, BBQ Seasoning, Beer, Double Party Ribs, Grandma's Molasses, Homemade, Homemade BBQ Sauce, Hot Honey Spare Ribs, Molasses, Party Ribs, Party Ribs on the Grill, Pork, Pork Ribs, Smoky, Smoky Party Ribs, Stout, Stout Beer, Sweet, Sweet Smoky Party Ribs

Equipment

• 1 Food grade squirt bottle

Ingredients

Party Ribs Ingredients

• 2 slabs Spare ribs
• Salt
• Your favorite BBQ rub
• 1 cup Apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup Water
• Sesame seeds for garnish

Sweet Molasses BBQ sauce

• ¼ cup Grandma’s® Molasses
• 1 ¼ cup Ketchup
• 6-8 ounces Stout beer
• ¼ cup Dark brown sugar
• ½ cup Pineapple juice
• 2 tbsp Andria's steak sauce
• 1 tsp Ground mustard
• ½ tsp Mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Granulated garlic
• 1 tsp Ancho chili powder
• ½ tsp Ground black pepper

Instructions

Ribs Prep

• Skin the membrane from the bone side of the ribs and trim any excess fat around the outside. Carve the slab into two bone portions. Season the ribs with salt and your favorite BBQ Seasoning all the way around, including the edges. Place the ribs in a 275F degree grill and close the lid.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

• While the ribs smoke, combine the BBQ sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by 1/4-1/2. When the sauce has reduced, remove from the heat and set aside.
• Once the Ribs hit 190F+ place them in a stainless steel bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Toss the ribs a couple time until the sauce has coated completely. Place the ribs back on the grill and smoke for another 5-10 minutes to thicken the sauce and then remove from the grill and serve.
• I like to leave some of the party ribs sauceless and provide a bowl of the home made BBQ sauce to dunk in. Because some just like to dunk.
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Video

And here we are dropping spare ribs:

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: May 29, 2025