Brisket Questions and Temp Control

scottyv24

I'm doing my 2nd full brisket tonight and had a couple of questions.  Last time I did one, I got my large egg stabilized in the 225-235 range for about an hour, threw the brisket on and then kept an eye on it for about 2-3 hours and it stayed at that temp, no problems.  Went to bed, woke up and the dome temp was up near 375!!  Needless to say, I woke up to a brisket that was pretty much done.  It still turned out great actually, but I can't figure out why it stayed stable for so long and then shot up overnight.  One thought I had was I didn't use a pan on the platesetter so is it possible that the drippings made their way onto the coals and created hot spots??  Any other ideas on why? 

Also, when you light the lump initially, are you lighting in multiple spots or just in the center? 

Thanks in advance for the help.  Looking forward to giving this another try!!

Scott

lousubcap

I have not seen a ramp up like that after that number of stable hours.  That said, a lot of fat will render so your thought could be the major contributor.  I run with an air-gapped dripped pan to eliminate that possibility.
About lighting- I light in one spot for a low and slow cook-wait til i get around a soft-ball sized amount of lump burning then load the internal hard-ware.

Did you run with a water pan?  If so, it acts as a heat sink until the water evaporates then the temperature will climb to the non-water vent settings.  FWIW-
Edit: welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.

JustineCaseyFeldown

If you corrected the dome temp after putting on the meat, because the temp dropped, that could be your problem too

Ignore the initial drop in temp. The fire is the same fire it was when it there was no meat in there. Adding cold meat drags the done thermometer down, but the fire is the same. 

If you open vents to "get back to" the original set temp, you will overshoot eventually, once the meat heats up too

scottyv24

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

If you corrected the dome temp after putting on the meat, because the temp dropped, that could be your problem too

Ah, this may have been it.  While I didn't necessarily do this right after I put the meat on, I think I may have tried messing with a little bit probably thinking just a small adjustment won't do anything crazy.  Maybe that was what it was.  Tonight, I'll do the same to stabilize and once comfortable with the temp, put the meat on and not touch the vents.

tikigriller

FB200

Foghorn

scottyv24 said:

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

If you corrected the dome temp after putting on the meat, because the temp dropped, that could be your problem too

Ah, this may have been it.  While I didn't necessarily do this right after I put the meat on, I think I may have tried messing with a little bit probably thinking just a small adjustment won't do anything crazy.  Maybe that was what it was.  Tonight, I'll do the same to stabilize and once comfortable with the temp, put the meat on and not touch the vents.

This.

Good plan.