Brisket help

coffeeguydenton

Put a brisket on late last night, about midnight, hoping to serve to my church home group at 6 pm.  Fire looked good, dome temp sitting at 250 when I went to bed.  Woke up, dome temp was 150.  Fire was still going, which blew my mind.  Opened the vents up and got temp back up to 250, no problems.  But now it's noon and dinner is in 6 hours and we haven't even gotten to the stall yet.  IT is 157 by the Thermapen.  Do I have any hope of serving this thing at 6 without ruining it, and if so what do I need to do?  Or should I just leave it be, let it ride up, and come up with a back-up plan for dinner?

I did go ahead and open the vents a little more.  Was planning on bringing dome temp up to 275, but wanted to avoid going any higher than that.

grege345

I see foil in your near future (crutch)

pretzelb

You might consider 275 to 300 dome. My grate is about 30 lower than my dome. My 2nd brisket was a failure because I didn't realize this and adjust. But I have only 3 briskets to my name so by all means listen to others before me.

cazzy

Just bump the temp to 275

clweed

Wrap it and finish it in the oven to be sure it is done on time

grege345

Let's see where your at when 3:00 comes. Don't panic yet

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Agree. Bump it and check in at 3-4. You will be fine.

coffeeguydenton

grege345 said:

I see foil in your near future (crutch)

clweed said:

Wrap it and finish it in the oven to be sure it is done on time

This is exactly what I am trying to avoid.  I don't want soggy brisket.  Would rather order pizza than that.

coffeeguydenton

cazzy said:

Just bump the temp to 275

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Agree. Bump it and check in at 3-4. You will be fine.

Thanks for the reassurance.  I'll let you know where we are at 3.  164 now.

NPHuskerFL

clweed said:

Wrap it and finish it in the oven to be sure it is done on time

-3. Why finish in the oven when he has a hot egg already?
@cazzy‌ & @The Cen-Tex Smoker‌ +3 on bump to 275F and hang tight you'll be okay for competition time or at least real close. Pics to follow :-).

The Cen-Tex Smoker

You don't need your oven. We will get you there. Plus it's already in an oven. Just one that uses lump instead of electricity.

coffeeguydenton

NPHuskerFL said:

Wrap it and finish it in the oven to be sure it is done on time

-3. Why finish in the oven when he has a hot egg already? @cazzy‌ & @The Cen-Tex Smoker‌ +3 on bump to 275F and hang tight you'll be okay for competition time or at least real close. Pics to follow :-).

Pics to follow for sure.  Forgot to get picks before it went on.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Cazzy can get you home as good as anyone. I'll be around too if needed. If it creeps over 275, I would let it. Anything at or just under 300 is ok with your schedule. You will probably have to wrap it unless it stalled out in the 150's overnight. It can happen but I doubt it did on this one. I'm guessing you are going to stall here in the next few degrees. <300 will push it through pretty fast

coffeeguydenton

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Cazzy can get you home as good as anyone. I'll be around too if needed. If it creeps over 275, I would let it. Anything at or just under 300 is ok with your schedule. You will probably have to wrap it unless it stalled out in the 150's overnight. It can happen but I doubt it did on this one. I'm guessing you are going to stall here in the next few degrees. <300 will push it through pretty fast

I guess this kind of answers my question.  I don't want to waste a good brisket by foiling it and ruining the bark.  I would rather take it off later tonight and have it for left-overs than have it come out less than ideal.  But if you don't think I'm going to destroy it, then I will trust you.

cazzy

Agree with Cen...anywhere between 275 and 300 is fine. By now you have a bark...so we just need to get you to the finish line. With 3.5 hours of cooking time left you're good. At 4pm, we'll see where you're at and adjust from there.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

^^^^^^^this. Don't worry about the bark. We will get you there with bark.

coffeeguydenton

I'm in the stall now.  Dropped to 161 IT from 164 about 40 minutes ago.  Should I go ahead and foil or wait a bit. Dome temp is 300 at the moment.

grege345

I don't think your bark is going to suffer unless it hasn't formed a good crust yet. I suspect it has a good crust tho. I'm not in love with foiling either but I don't see the harm when the bark has formed

The Cen-Tex Smoker

wait. check in at 4. You may push through it fast if you are around 300. All over but the waitin'

cazzy

grege345 said:

I don't think your bark is going to suffer unless it hasn't formed a good crust yet. I suspect it has a good crust tho. I'm not in love with foiling either but I don't see the harm when the bark has formed

Foil can soften a bark as it steams it and doesn't breath at all.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

cazzy said:

I don't think your bark is going to suffer unless it hasn't formed a good crust yet. I suspect it has a good crust tho. I'm not in love with foiling either but I don't see the harm when the bark has formed

Foil can soften a bark as it steams it and doesn't breath at all.

agreed. that's why I wait as long as possible before diciding. You can firm it up after but you care chasing it once you foil it. Once it is really set and really dark and dry you can usually get ti through ok. I find that it usually after the stall. 

coffeeguydenton

Looks like we're good.  181 and rising.  May even get a decent FTC time in.  Thanks for the encouragement and help guys!  Pictures to come.

cazzy

Yep!  

You're through the stall...prolly will be at money time around 4pm.  

NPHuskerFL

Edit> completion time. Not competition time. Anticipation of pics X_X. What not even a little peek? You brisket tease. :-P

NPHuskerFL

I'm so excited that my Son and I pulled the brisket (we're smoking next Fri/Sat) from the deep freeze and laid it in the egg for a moment. I admit I've got a brisket addiction. Giddy laugh!!!

coffeeguydenton

NPHuskerFL said:

Edit> completion time. Not competition time. Anticipation of pics X_X. What not even a little peek? You brisket tease. :-P

There's your peek :P.  It's like a brisket peep show.

coffeeguydenton

So things didn't quite work out as expected.  Thought everything was going great, but then went back out at 4 and temp had stalled again, this time dropped from 181 to 176 and held at 176 for another hour and a half.  Didn't have time to mess with it, so we picked up some brisket from the local BBQ joint.  Brisket just finished, 22 1/2 hours after going on.  Good news is, it looks good and probes like butter.  Bad news is we won't be able to eat it fresh (at least no one else will- I'll be cutting myself some tonight before I go to bed).  FTC for the next couple hours, then I will slice and store, about half in the freezer and about half in the fridge for brisket leftovers including tacos tomorrow night.

NPHuskerFL

How many # packer was this? 22 1/2 hrs Woah Nelly. Looks great!

coffeeguydenton

14 pounds trimmed

cazzy

Next time...let us know if you're in trouble. Cen and I could have helped. You were at 181 at 3pm so there was time.

Oh well, leave it whole and you'll have good eats all week!

coffeeguydenton

cazzy said:

Next time...let us know if you're in trouble. Cen and I could have helped. You were at 181 at 3pm so there was time. Oh well, leave it whole and you'll have good eats all week!

I didn't really have an option.  It was for a church group that starts at 4 and we eat at 6, so I couldn't really make any changes at that point.  Didn't realize I was in a second stall until it was too late.  But thank you for your help.  Egging is like life.  Every cook is either a success or a lesson learned.  Either way, each cook makes us better.