Tri Tip with fresh herbs

My first tri-tip of the grilling season was a mix of thrill and disappointment. While the overall product was quite good, many touches were missing.

Herb rub:

fresh rosemary (handful)
fresh thyme (handful)
cracked fresh pepper
olive oil

First off--too much rosemary and thyme, not enough pepper. Ratio was greatly skewed, and next time I will back off the rosemary and thyme. I prepped the steak by sprinkling it with a thin layer of GARLIC SALT. I followed it with sea salt. This works quite well.

the grill:

550 degrees. 2 minutes per side sear. (4 minutes)

it was on-and-off storming, and this affected my fire. I heated the brick oven up to 550, but put the grill on the pit a little too late. The grill itself wasn't hot enough for the meat, and the sear left something to be desired. On the one hand, the meat squeezed right up and the result was juicy. The crust, however, was weak. The thyme and rosemary remained soft and squishy. I think a hotter oven (600+) with a pre-heated grill will do better. Increasing sear time is more problematic, as the outer layer of skin can dry up, which is NOT the crust we want.

350-400 degrees. direct heat. circa 20 minutes.

I was paranoid about burning the meat, and removed it once to check temperature (at about 14 minutes total time). The internal temperature was about 100, if my weak thermometer is to be believed. I put it back on for another ten minutes, and pulled it even though the thermometer indicated a low temp. The result was medium rare, and more on the rare side of it, so no fears about burning the meat.

I would have preferred to throw on the plate setter and cook the meat on indirect at 400. The weather kept me from doing this.