Brisket Cook Question / Double Stall?

ccepaulb

Hi, I've been having success with my most recent brisket cooks, I bought the CyberQ and it's been wonderful.  I normally have been needing 1.5 hours cook time per pound at 225 temp.  My last cook though was strange, if you look at the graph image you'll see I hit 195 after 12 hours on a 14 Lb Brisket.  It appears to have then stalled at @ 195
for the next 5 hours until I took it off the grill.  I was trying to hit the Aaron Franklin temp of @200-203.  I know I should use the probe method to really determine doneness but wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on why it stalled again at 195 as well as why it may have cooked so much faster than normal? (about an hour or maybe less per pound).

Thank you, trying to figure this out as I'm now confused and this throws a wrench in my planning as I usually cook these for parties/big events at my house that have a set meal time.

Specs:

• 14 Lb Prime Brisket after trim up.
• 225-230 was maintained throughout cook.
• Wrapped brisket in butchers paper @165 / 9 hours into cook.
• Was really tender but a tad bit dryer than normal on the Flat, but not bad which is weird since it stalled at 195 for 5 hours, thought it would have been dried out.
• Total cook time was about 18 Hours.

 

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
Regarding your above cook let me start with "the friggin cow drives the cook".  I have brisket cooks (running around 250-270*F on the dome) take anywhere from 0.7 hrs/lb to 1.4 hrs/lb.  I have also seen the "double stall" but normally in the high 180's*F.  
For me the goal is to finish the cook inside the FTC window which I plan to be 2-6 hours wide.  I find that an FTC brisket ( least a couple of hours, if possible) really helps the end result.  So, just aim to finish inside the window and then you are not stressing trying to get the cow across the finish-line with the slice and serve time closing in.  FWIW-

unoriginalusername

Franklin can be a tricky bugger to copy. In some interviews he says 270 cook temps in others its over 300 based on time of year, humidity etc. 

Regardless i I find the stall let alone double way more predictable at the 270 range than I do at 225 where it’s more of a roller coaster ride 

ccepaulb

@ Unorginalusername.  Is that 270 dome or 270 at the meat?  I think for my next brisket I'll try 250 at the meat.

unoriginalusername

ccepaulb said:

@ Unorginalusername.  Is that 270 dome or 270 at the meat?  I think for my next brisket I'll try 250 at the meat.

I went to a competition and all the finalists and winners had their pits set to 272 so that’s now the dome temp I aim for 

ccepaulb

OK, so that's @ 250 at the brisket for me, mine usually runs about 25-30 cooler than the dome temp at the grate.  Thx.
I still don't understand why it stalled again at 195(ish).  Maybe 230 was too low to get the meat to 200-203.