New UDS

Built my first smoker - my Red-Tailed UDS. (hopefully it is attached)

I've cooked it out with 2 bags of Kingsford and this weekend I plan on smoking some ribs and a brisket.

I have a couple questions, if y'all don't mind.

1. Charcoal. How much? With a 13lb bag of Kingsford glowing in there and a digital bluetooth thermometer I read the heat (all the valves open) getting up to and holding at 325-350F. I was just burning out the drum stink. It held heat for over 8 hours.

2. Ribs: Seems like I need to get the temp down to 250-275F (averaging all the posts I've read here), smoke it bones down with a dry rub for 2 hours, wrap it in foil for an hour and then mop it with sauce for 30min or so. Sound right?

I put a drip tray/heat baffle under the center of the grill. I think I'm going to float some beer in there for moisture & a hint of IPA in the meat.

3. Brisket...it'll fit. I'll mine the forums for cooking instructions...

Don't know about the control yet. I've only done a "full-heat" burn on it. This will be my first cook. I was worried about sucking exhaust back in...but that didn't appear to be a problem.

Funny you should ask...
I have a bottle opener on my workbench just for this purpose, but i haven't rummaged through my hardware jars to find the right nuts'n'bolts to mount it yet.

Thanks for all the replies and feedback. If the first smoke looks good I'll post pics, flavor graphs, drool measurements, etc. If not...we'll just pretend it never happened.

[edit] For grins..a pic of my heat baffle, drip-pan, beer-boiler...