Beer Brined Bird and Meatloaf-A Sunday Dinner to remember!

This past Sunday I decided to cook a feast for the family, a beer brined bird (not beer can, brined in beer) and a Meatloaf. Bird was brined in a mix of lager beer, water, salt and sugar overnight. The meatloaf recipe was borrowed from posts on the Forum. I wrapped the Meatloaf in bacon, sprinkled with Arizona Dreaming spice from Penzy's. After one and a half hours the bird came off...I was a little worried cause it was at 180 degrees and looked almost overdone. But I wrapped it in parchment paper and foil, dropped it in the cooler and proceeded with the Meatloaf ( I have a medium, so have to do one at a time). It too went for an hour and a half, pulled at 180 temp. Both were indirect heat, Bird was legs down and Meatloaf legs up. Dome temperature was 350 for Meatloaf, 400 for chicken. Next time I am taking the dome temperature down to 350 for the bird also.

No basting of the bird, Meatloaf was basted with a ketchup/vinegar/brown sugar mix every half hour.

The pictures show the before and afters, sorry but I didn't post any plated ones since I had a few cocktails at that time and well...that just never happened!

The Bird recipe was from, of all places, the Big Green Egg cookbook. Even with it  appearing to be overdone it was real juicy, I think the foiling may have saved it...I tip I learned from this forum. Next time I am going to have to watch the temperature a little more closely.

Thanks much to all who helped me by providing tips, guidance and hours of entertainment. I have only had my Egg since March and already have blown through three bags of charcoal. And to think the dealer said one would last all summer? HA!