First Boston Butt Review....Suggestions?

MelResDes

So I smoked my first butt yesterday and it turned out pretty good in my opinion, for a first time. 80% of the finished product was great, 20% was just okay. The part that was just okay was harder to pull and was a little dryer that the rest......also the meat was white, not pinkish.
Here is a rundown of what I did. Please give any suggestions so that I can improve:
6.5 lb butt rubbed and injected Saturday night, wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the fridge over night. Started the XL BGE Sunday morning at 6:30 with Hickory chunks and Cherry chips soaked over night. I had 250 dome temp by 7:00 am so I put the butt in. I placed the butt directly on the plate setter (legs down) and smoked it that way. I talked to an experienced BGE user and he said he does his butts on the plate setter so I figured I would try it that way too....thoughts? Anyway I was at 187 degrees internal temp at 2:00 pm. by 4:45 pm I was only at 188 internal so I bumped up the heat to 300 at the dome and hit 195 by 6:15 pm. I pulled the butt, wrapped it in 2 layers of foil and shut down the egg and put the butt back in the egg for about 30-45 minutes, unwrapped and shredded it. The bone slid out with ease.
My main questions are: 1. Should I have cooked on the grate with a drip pan of water or does it matter? 2. when placing the butt do you put the fat side up or down or does it matter? 3. was the part of the meat that was hard to pull just a nature of the cut of meat or because I rushed it along? Again, Please chime in with any suggestions. I have my own opinions of what I could have done to make it better but I would like to hear others.
Thanks!

Rolling Egg

Yes you should have cooked it on the grate with a drip pan setting under it, on the platesetter, with the feet up. As far as the fat cap goes, to each his own. I've cooked them fat up and fat down with no diff. Some think that the fat renders down through the meat and keeps it moist but I can tell you that the ones I cook fat down are just as moist. I think the fat dripping around the outside on a fat up, prevents a real good bark on the outside, therefore I do all of mine fat down. No need for water in the drip pan and no need to soak your chips. Also, Im guessing that the meat that was harder to pull was probably on the bottom half of the roast where it was setting on the stone. You probably over cooked the bottom half. To get that dome to 300 on the end, you probably had that stone 600 degrees (just guessing). Pulled that number out of the air but you get the idea.The direct contact with that stone over shot the doneness on the roast.