First time Brisket...

looks good, if I may, just go ahead and get you a thermapen for your meat thermometer and find a decent dual thermometer for your smoker/food, it truly does make ALL the difference in the world...

Hey Tyler,

First of all nice job on the brisket. Great looking smoke ring. Your comment about the mesquite being a bit strong is a very common occurrence. It's a good tasting wood in small doses, but can overpower on longer cooks, But hey, that's the fun of learning with this hobby! Try good ol' oak next time with some fruit wood thrown in if you have it. Save the mesquite for poultry!

Second, Bed bath and beyond has a great food thermometer for $20 that you need to get. The link below will show you what it looks like. It's great b/c it has an alarm on it to let you know when stuff is cooked to temp. Just slide the probe through a potato or onion, and place it on the cooking rack near the meat. This will give you a temp read of the smoker. After an hour or two, the chamber temp should be stable, now just stick the probe into the meat and watch that til it's done. And when you're ready, up grade to the Maverick remote thermometer. It's so awesome for overnight or winter time smokes like we have right now. Just my .02 cents. Hope it helps.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/lists/display/view_item/id/35497