I've finally got past the shoe leather phase of brisket cooking such that my family and friends actually look forward to me making one.  I really like the Prime Brisket from HEB and have been using a BBQ Guru DX2 for temperature control and a Maverick for monitoring.  The Maverick bit the dust and I wanted to get down to one unit that could control and monitor remotely.  I decided the try the Signals + Billows.  Last night was my first time using the Billows.  This is also my first time trying a Costco Prime Brisket.

The first thing I noticed about the brisket is a thick fat cap.  HEB must trim theirs more.  From a 13.5lb brisket I cut well over a pound of fat, maybe two.  At the end of the cook there was a pound of oil in the drip tray.  On previous cooks I only had one thermometer probe and usually probed the flat toward the point side.  This time I probed the point and flat separately.  I set the billows for 225F, but it settled in on 240F.  I lowered the setting to 220F but it never got that low, staying between 230 and 240F.  I think part of the problem is no damper on the blower.  On the DX2 I had the damper closed almost all the way, maybe 1/8 to 1/4".  The Billows has a huge opening and even when not running allows too much air through.

The cook started right before 8PM.  The flat raced ahead of the point and hitting 150F about an hour later slowing rising to 170F by midnight where it stayed then started to plateau at about an hour later, 170F at midnight, 180F at 4AM and 190F at 6AM.   The point trailed the flat by at least 20F most of the night until 4 when they both stayed pretty close together.  At 7AM I pulled it, and then foiled it until 8AM.  I let is sit for a couple of hours and then cut it up. It was super tender, not a tough piece to be found.  Sorry, no pictures.  The few pieces I sampled were good.  Will have the first meal with it tonight.

Compared to HEB briskets I think Costco has more fat.  I'll have to compare prices to see what I'm paying for actual meat.

Compared to the BBQ Guru, the Billows did OK but (1) needs a damper for very low cooks and (2) really needs an open lid detect feature.  I like the IOS app to monitor the temperatures and the ability to set High/Low alarms for each probe and to change them via the app.  I wish the high/low alarms for the Billows were customizable but seem to be based on the target pit temperature.

Overall, both get a solid B+ so far.  The Brisket could rise to A- after sampling it!.  The Billows has potential, but could do better.