Briket and fire temp falling during stall

jschaub

I have been struggling how to maintain temp while cooking a brisket.
I set up with the platesetter, tray of water and I have a cyberq.   THe fire is set at 225 and the vents are closed other than the fan pushing in air.  I feel like the first 2 briskets I cooked the cyberq kept the fire right at 225 all night.  

Currently I have a 13lb brisket on and the fire dropped slowly to 155 from 225 after the stall began.  When the stall started the mead temp dropped to 144 from 160.  Any ideas why my cyberq is not maintaining 225?  The fire is back up to 167 and the meat is coming back up so should I just sit tight or should i open wrap, add water?  If I open the vents could that mess up the humidity inside?  Could it be my charcoal is not good enough?

Thanks for your advice.  I'm still a brisket and egghead rookie

Joel

jschaub

I should have mentioned - I am 13.5 hours into the cook. 

AVEngineer

Is your daisy wheel open at all?  It does not sound like it since you are saying all vents are closed.  My 13 pounder took me 12 hrs yesterday and it was one of those days the Egg and I could not agree on a temp. I would say mine temp average was 240 but it it 2 stalls,one at 160 and one at 170. It took 4 hrs to climb between the two. 

jschaub

my daisy is closed.  I have a cyber q and a fan on it.  Should it be open?

AVEngineer

I don't use a controller but with it closed the fire has no breathe. From what I have read it should be open a small amount so the air the Cyber Q forces in has a way out. 

jschaub

that makes sense...  I've cracket the wheel.  Lets see.  I appreciate your help

jschaub

fire up to 189 - i needed to have the wheel cracked......  I'll be back at 225 shortly.  I'm worried about the brisket now - its been on 14 hours and still in the stall due to my fire temperature dropping.   Should I open the egg and wrap the brisket and add water to avoid it drying out?

FearlessTheEggNoob

I would be concerned about warming it to death. i.e. driving too much moisture out as a result of being on so long.

If it were me I would either butcher paper wrap it now, or bump the temp up to 270. Then start probing for doneness at 195 internal temp.

My thoughts are that there's been adequate time to break down the connective tissue. Now cook it. I would be looking for tenderness and a sweet spot between intramuscular vs rendered fat. Go too long and the slices will be less flavorful, dry out quick, and have a spongy look due to too much fat rendering.

jschaub

thanks for the tip.  I have wrapped it in foil as I don't have butcher paper.  just need to get it up in temp now.

StillH2OEgger

On the advice of others here I stopped putting water in my drip pan long ago. Did not notice any difference in my cooks and it eliminates a potential issue with temp control. Good luck taking this one to the finish line. I'm sure it will be great.

dougcrann

When I bought my FlameBoss 200 it had a small piece of orange paper with directions on the Daisy Wheel. On any one of our 3 Eggs 225* requires the DW to barely, and I mean just barely, have the tears cracked open. My wife is making a cake and then some brownies in her Medium. Tears are about half open. Once the Egg hit 350* blower hardly runs at all....and yes, the Eggs are tight. After putting them together I lit a tray of pellets and put them in each Egg...only place it smoked, with the green cap on was out the bottom vent...