Brisket

KGilma2018

My second BGE cook ever, and my first brisket ever.  I decided to cook a small 2.5 lbs flat, I found on the clearance rack at Kroger for $10. Nothing special, just an angus beef brisket. I threw together a little rub and went for it. I set the egg up indirect at 250 figuring it would take 5-7 hours for a small piece like that. It took about 7 hours with a little stall in the middle. I'd give it a 6.5 / 10 for a first try. I had good bark, and a little smoke ring and it tasted pretty good. Parts of the brisket were moist and tender, while other sections were a little dry and tougher. I realize one mistake I made was using mesquite chips instead of chunks, I grabbed the wrong bag. What can I do to make the next one better?  How do I keep the whole brisket moist? Do you guys have a recommended temp that works better on the egg? I watched a few different youtube videos on it, most were between 250-275. I'm going to try again maybe on 4th of July with a bigger brisket. Also, both cooks I've done on the egg, it has rained in the middle and as soon as it started my temps started to rise. Is that normal? Yesterday, I was pegged at 250 then the rain started and it shot up to 300.  The previous cook I was holding at 350, and it went to up 400.  

lkapigian

first of all, welcome!

That is a small lean section for a low and slow, get yourself a packer , even a cheap one and practice with that 

TEXASBGE2018

Welcome! Cook temp can range between 225 to 300 depending on who you talk to. keeping it moist is a complex issue. It depends on the amount of fat you left on it, cooking temp, whether your spritz or use a water pan. Personally I don't think you need a water pan but spritzing can help a bit. Also Wrapping in Foil or Butcher Paper after it hits around 150-165 IT can help aide in moisture retention. You can use the search feature on the site to find dozens of posts about this issue. As far as your temp rising due to rain. That shouldn't matter. It may have just lit pieces of the chips you had clumped together. That could cause temp spikes. Be sure in the future to use chunks and also Mesquite is pretty strong. I think most would recommend Hickory, Oak, or maybe very little pecan over mesquite.

KGilma2018

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Welcome! Cook temp can range between 225 to 300 depending on who you talk to. keeping it moist is a complex issue. It depends on the amount of fat you left on it, cooking temp, whether your spritz or use a water pan. Personally I don't think you need a water pan but spritzing can help a bit. Also Wrapping in Foil or Butcher Paper after it hits around 150-165 IT can help aide in moisture retention. You can use the search feature on the site to find dozens of posts about this issue. As far as your temp rising due to rain. That shouldn't matter. It may have just lit pieces of the chips you had clumped together. That could cause temp spikes. Be sure in the future to use chunks and also Mesquite is pretty strong. I think most would recommend Hickory, Oak, or maybe very little pecan over mesquite.

I did use a water pan, and I also injected it with beef stock and rub mixture.  The part closest to the injection was the most moist.  Next time I will try wrapping it once its gets to the right temp.  When the temp spikes like that, should I just let it go, or adjust the vents?  I closed the daisy wheel a little and dropped it back down to where I had it.  

TEXASBGE2018

KGilma2018 said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Welcome! Cook temp can range between 225 to 300 depending on who you talk to. keeping it moist is a complex issue. It depends on the amount of fat you left on it, cooking temp, whether your spritz or use a water pan. Personally I don't think you need a water pan but spritzing can help a bit. Also Wrapping in Foil or Butcher Paper after it hits around 150-165 IT can help aide in moisture retention. You can use the search feature on the site to find dozens of posts about this issue. As far as your temp rising due to rain. That shouldn't matter. It may have just lit pieces of the chips you had clumped together. That could cause temp spikes. Be sure in the future to use chunks and also Mesquite is pretty strong. I think most would recommend Hickory, Oak, or maybe very little pecan over mesquite.

I did use a water pan, and I also injected it with beef stock and rub mixture.  The part closest to the injection was the most moist.  Next time I will try wrapping it once its gets to the right temp.  When the temp spikes like that, should I just let it go, or adjust the vents?  I closed the daisy wheel a little and dropped it back down to where I had it.  

You could make minor adjustments but most likely if its just a spike it will come down on its own. If it was in fact a spike from wood chips using chunks will help solve this as they will burn a lot slower. Unless I see a huge temp spike (+100 Degrees) or so I usually just let it ride.

gdenby

Usually, if the temp goes up during a storm, its more likely that the wind happened to be blowing in the direction that stoked the fire from the flow at the bottom vent. Not much one can do about that. My experience is that if the rain is just coming straight down, the Egg temps drops a little, maybe 10 degrees, but comes back up as the water on the shell evaporates. That doesn't change the heat the food is getting enough to bother about.

Got to admit, I've never done a brisket I've been proud about. Whole packers are hard to find, and all of the flat portions I've done have turned out pretty much like you described. When I've done whole packers, the point turns out decent or better.

My preference smoke for all beef is oak, post oak if you can get it.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
Regarding brisket, flats are a bit of a challenge to nail as mentioned above.
Give the search function here a look.  You will be able to read/consume more than you need to sort this out.  FWIW-