Brisket Advice/Help

southerncanuck

Am considering egging my first brisket this weekend.  Problem is I won't be around all day sunday to monitor, nor do I want to stay up all night.
Question is, can i cook it for 12 hours on Sunday, say 9am to 9pm, take it off, wrap in foil, blankets and place in cooler overnight, then put it back on Monday late morning to be served in the afternoon?
I'm sure this will depend on what temp it gets to Sunday, assume at least 160.
Any advice on how to split the cook over two days would be appreciated.Thanks

4Runner

How big?  You can slow down or speed up the cook time with temp.  Why not start it Sun night and pull Mon afternoon?  It will go all night.  Sometimes I will start at 210 to extend my time and then ramp up the heat later to hit my target "ready time"   More of an art than a science.  I do have a Stoker so that helps.  

southerncanuck

I don't have a stoker and the egg is my first and is two months old.  I'm half decent with getting the temp steady but not perfect yet and there is no way I could sleep with any confidence that it didn't to out or heat up past the target.  

Alternatively I my put it on really early Sunday (5 am) then start bumping the temp up in the afternoon to see it I can get it done in 12 hours.  Have read a lot of posts on the forum and it seems that 8lb briskets range from 12 to 20 hours depending on temp.

Spoon

Get yourself a Maverick ET-732 remote thermometer. It has a probe for grill temp another probe for food temp. You can set high and low alerts for the grill temp and it will set off an alarm if you hit that threshold. It's got a range of 300 ft, so you can put it by the bed and get some sleep.

jbenny

If you get it stabilized for about 30 minutes at 250 and let it be you won't have any issues.  You have to get one overnight cook done and not have any issues so you can trust.  Better now than later.

4Runner

I would target 12 hours but this is only a starting point and as you posted, times will vary.  This is all part of the fun of ownng and smoking with a BGE.  Please post results with pics later. 

ChokeOnSmoke

No way you can hold it in a cooler (hot) overnight.  The max time you're going to get is 4-5 hours before the temp goes under 140 degrees internal meat temp.  That's the danger zone and is unsafe for any extended time.

4Runner

No way you can hold it in a cooler (hot) overnight.  The max time you're going to get is 4-5 hours before the temp goes under 140 degrees internal meat temp.  That's the danger zone and is unsafe for any extended time.

plus 1

wolfsburg18

I always figure an hour and a half for each lb of brisket.  Personally I would wait if you don't feel you can be around for a whole cooking cycle.  The most i left it alone for was about 4 hours over night when my temps were holding strong for the two hours prior.

bostonjosh

Actually, I enjoy leftover brisket... often more tender, flavor more mellow than on day 1.  so, you could cook it sunday, then pop it in the fridge, and reheat next day on the bge for about 1 - 1.5 hr covered with foil.

having said that, i had the same concerns for my first brisket a few months ago, but decided to do it overnite and trust the bge.  glad i did; it came out great.  no stoker or anything like that.