AAARRRGHHH - Brisket is too hard!

Unknown

I have never had much luck with brisket and I don't know why. I am from Texas, and so until I master brisket, I won't consider myself a competent BBQ chef. I can cook pork loin pull-tender perfection and my ribs are a thing of beauty; but really good brisket continues to elude me. Here are my prolens.[p]On Saturday, I fired up the egg and did a nice pork loin and a brisket. I set the egg up to run at 225 and put both the pork loin and brisket in at 11:15 AM. Everything was clicking along fine, but at about 5:00 PM, I noticed that the egg was producing an acrid smell and slightly yellowish smoke. This happens every time I try to cook a brisket. If I leave it alone, it will eventually permeate the brisket with a nasty, acrid taste. I removed the pork and the brisket and finished them both in the oven. Then I added a little more fresh charcoal, opened up the vents on the egg and brought it up to 550 degrees to clean it. It produced a lot of yellowish, sulfury smelling smoke until it was clean. Very nasty.[p]After cleaning the egg, I reduced the temp a bit and did the ribs. They came out perfect.[p]I have tried to do brisket all by itself on a few other occasions but I always end up with acrid, yellow smoke, a foul tasting brisket. Besides that, my nicely browned egg has taken on a nasty, greasy, black-tar like appearance inside it ever since I have started trying to cook brisket. bringing the egg up to 600 degrees gets rid of whatever is causing the nasty smoke, but it doesn't clean the black-tar off of the inside of the egg. What am I doing wrong?[p]I use natural lump charcoal and little white firestarter cubes in a large BGE. Pork, chicken, turkey, ham, and chicken always come out perfect; but brisket contines to elude me.[p]Any help would be much appreciated.[p]--
Phillip H. Blanton
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Bobby-Q

Phillip H. Blanton,
Not a clue what the sulphur problem you're having is from, but I'm sure the eggsperts on here will have some ideas. I do know that if you fill the firebox, light it, open the bottom door all the way and take the top off, and remove the thermometer to prevent pegging it, and leave it running for 45 minutes to an hour, you will get a clean white interior. Do not open the top during this time to a) prevent flashback and b) prevent ruining your gasket. Just let it sit and nuke itself and then close the door, put the lid back on top and let it sit for a couple more hours.[p]After that you can open it, clean out the dust, re-insert the thermometer and it should be sterilized on the inside.

Big Jim

Phillip H. Blanton, I live in Texas and understand you statement "I am from Texas, and so until I master brisket, I won't consider myself a competent BBQ chef". I recently got my BGE and have not done a brisket yet, but soon. I've done several in my offset smoker with very good results.[p]After reading your post I did have a couple of questions.
1. How are you setting up your egg?
2. What type of briskets are you buying ( trimmed or untrimmed )? I am wondering if "acrid smell and slightly yellowish smoke" is too much fat dripping onto your coals.[p]Jim

Smoked Signals

Phillip H. Blanton,
Are you using a platesetter or doing these direct? What are you covering your brisket in? (ie. what's in the sauce or rub?)[p]

Borders

Phillip H. Blanton, I agree w/BigJim. It sounds like you dont have a drip pan on a plate setter, and the brisket's fat is hitting the coals. 6 hours into the cook, your fire is stabilized, so I cant think of any reason for it to start smoking then, other than drippings.[p]I've had great luck with briskets of all sizes using the drip pan/place setter method, and there's no reason you should not have the same success. I usually have to put 2 drip pans together to cover the drippage. On one big daddy brisket, I had to use a turkey baster to drain the drip pand because it was going to overflow.[p]Good luck,
Scott