Middle of brisket cook question

BoiseBGE

I have made several successful briskets, but lack the overall experience of hundreds or thousands that others here have. I purchased a Costco prime, about 22#s and guessing about 4#s trimmed off for fat and squaring the flat. 

I am 7 hours in and currently sitting at 165. I have never cooked a brisket this large and was planning on at least an 18 hour cook, if not 24. My temp has been messed up because the probe was right at the meat, but knowing my egg pretty well, I have been sitting 225-275 max. 

My question is, can I hope for a 7 hour stall so I can sleep tonight. Or am I up for the rest of the night watching it while it gets done faster than I could have anticipated?  

I know every cook is different and the cow drives the cook, but I could have started this hunk of meat in the morning if I would have known it would have got there that fast. 

Prime cut, and am starting to spritz every hour to slow it down. 

Thank you for the help and any thoughts. 

BoiseBGE

BoiseBGE

Looking at the picture, there is almost zero crust and I should just relax and have another bourbon and move the probe. Worst case scenario, I can stay up all night and get drunk and blame it on the meat. Or I can go to bed and trust my prior experience with a worse case of ordering pizza tomorrow and get drunk telling the family about “The brisket that got away”.

lkapigian

I’d drop the temp and extend the stall through the night , you can always speed it up latter … better yet, 7 hours of smoke, set oven at 200  and go to bed 

BoiseBGE

Thank you for the input. The fire has been going long enough that I should be fine lowering the temp and not have to worry about it going out. I will babysit it for a few more hours and start to make a call in the next 3 hours. 

lousubcap

As you note the larger ones cook a bit faster.  Good call from @lkapigian.  
Guessing you are in the MST zone so let us know how the night went once up and about.  

BoiseBGE

I ended up babying it along until 5am and then stuck it in the oven for two hours to finish it off. FTC at 7am and back to bed for a nap.  Hoping for the and will post pictures after it is cut later. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lkapigian said:

I’d drop the temp and extend the stall through the night , you can always speed it up latter … better yet, 7 hours of smoke, set oven at 200  and go to bed 

This is the answer. 

BoiseBGE

Turned out pretty good. The point lacked a bit of structure but the flat sliced well. I did burn the very end of the flat, but I didn’t feel like wrapping that part and knew it was going to happen. Now I know larger cuts take less time per pound. Thank you everyone. 

lousubcap

@BoiseBGE That's a winner in my book.  I would take that every time. I just sent you a PM with some notes I have put together over the years about brisket cooks.  May be something in there for the next one.  

GoldenQ

lousubcap.    please send me a copy of that PM

lousubcap

@GoldenQ -done.