Good 10LB brisket - smoke wood amount

Powak

Tomorrow I'm smoking a 10 LB brisket and want to turn out a super good one. I'm planning on using mesquite chunks. Having never done a brisket on an egg before I want to make sure I use the right amount of smoke wood. On the WSM 3-4 chunks of mesquite and meat came out perfect. Couple weeks ago I did butt on the egg and had hickory chunks peppered throughout the lump buy I didn't achieve good smoke flavor in the middle of the meat (maybe because it was partially frozen?). 

My basic question is do you have to use more wood in an Egg for a smoke than in steel chimney and offset smokers?

Here's a couple pics of my prized brisket from Christmas.

bhedges1987

No. I do 3 chunks and 1 handful of chips scattered. 

lousubcap

You will be well challenged to replicate the above smoke ring on the BGE.  Given the ring is for show but is a nice indicator of a labor of love, I would go heavy with chunks dispersed throughout the lump load.  And position one about 30 minutes (SWAG) burn time away from your initial fire/burn spot.  
FYI-the fire tends to burn toward the back so go heavier there.  If you pull it off you will be in rare company.
Above said, the moisture and taste will not be topped unless you go with a stick burner.  Even then you still have to nail the finish.  FWIW-

Powak

lousubcap said:

You will be well challenged to replicate the above smoke ring on the BGE.  Given the ring is for show but is a nice indicator of a labor of love, I would go heavy with chunks dispersed throughout the lump load.  And position one about 30 minutes (SWAG) burn time away from your initial fire/burn spot.  
FYI-the fire tends to burn toward the back so go heavier there.  If you pull it off you will be in rare company.
Above said, the moisture and taste will not be topped unless you go with a stick burner.  Even then you still have to nail the finish.  FWIW-

What's SWAG burn time? And is 30 minutes away from my initial burn spot mean down below in the lump place another chunk?

Darby_Crenshaw

amount of wood matters less than where you put it.

don't spread it around on top.  the fire travels downward (from where you lit it) and somewhat toward the back.  put your smoke wood (chunks or chips, doesn't matter) in the area under where you are going to light it, up and down through the column of lump.

as the fire moves, it has a better chance of finding wood.

chips don't burst into flame or burn faster (by weight) than chunks, so don't sweat that. 

i use both (whatever is wood, is good), and find that i can get better smoke by spreading the same amount of wood through the lump in chip form than in a few chunks.  chips (or twigs, bark, smaller chunks) allow you to hedge your bet and put the same amount of wood in the fire as opposed to banking it all on three or four chunks.

when i put the meat on, i sometimes also drop some more wood on or near the coals.

gamason

SWAG--- Scientific wild ass guess??

lousubcap

@Powak - the SWAG is "scientific wild-a$$ guess" as to where the fire is headed-see @Darby_Crenshaw 's comments about fire travel.  I always put a chunk behind where I initially light the fire (one spot for l&s) just before loading up the PS and rest of the cooking hard-ware.  FWIW-

Powak

Darby_Crenshaw said:

amount of wood matters less than where you put it.

don't spread it around on top.  the fire travels downward (from where you lit it) and somewhat toward the back.  put your smoke wood (chunks or chips, doesn't matter) in the area under where you are going to light it, up and down through the column of lump.

as the fire moves, it has a better chance of finding wood.

chips don't burst into flame or burn faster (by weight) than chunks, so don't sweat that. 

i use both (whatever is wood, is good), and find that i can get better smoke by spreading the same amount of wood through the lump in chip form than in a few chunks.  chips (or twigs, bark, smaller chunks) allow you to hedge your bet and put the same amount of wood in the fire as opposed to banking it all on three or four chunks.

when i put the meat on, i sometimes also drop some more wood on or near the coals.

Killer! I picked up a bag of mequite chips to go along with my chunks and will use both today.

Powak

Brisket came out phenomenal. 20 hours at 250 until the meat hit 198 and was soft as butter.

lousubcap

Great result right there.  Nailed it.  Congrats.

1move

Not sure if its the photo but to me it looks a little dry in the last photo. How was the smoke flavour? How much wood did you end up putting in?

Powak

1move said:

Not sure if its the photo but to me it looks a little dry in the last photo. How was the smoke flavour? How much wood did you end up putting in?

Just the photo for sure. It was actually very moist and had the perfect balance of smoke flavor. 8 of those 10 lbs were gone in about 15 minutes at work. I used tons of mesquite, both chunks and chips. And stacked them layered between the coal in the center. I find I can get more smoke rings with less wood in my WSM but the amount of labor intensive temp monitoring and coal refueling is completely removed from the process with the Egg.