First Ever Brisket on my new 26" Kettle. w/ Qview

Update!

So its been four (4) hours now.  Woke up from what I will call my "nap" seeing as how I didn't really sleep much.  Went to sleep around 3:45am...woke up at 6:30am.

Here is what my Smoke Wireless Receiver Shows.  Held quite well as you can see from the pit temp and the meat temp!. Going to bring it up to 160F then wrap it...although it is creeping up in temp slower now than at the beginning. In the first hour it rose like 45F...now its slowly but surely climbing about 1 degree per 5 mins or so.  Just waiting for the stall.


Top Vent Setting


Lower Damper Setting


Current amount of charcoal left in snake at what the meat looks like. Only burnt about 25% of the snake I made...I rotated the meat a bit just to ensure it is an "indirect" as I could make it.


Think everything is going ok?  Comments? Questions? Concerns?

More updates to came as the time progresses.

Waiting for it to hit 160F or a little near the "stall" before I wrap it in foil (no butcher paper here) and put it back in.

8:30am Update:

Pit Temp  = 224F
Brisket Temp  = 149.6F

The brisket rose about 9 degrees in 2 hours.

Will wait for around 160F to foil and put back in.

Stay Tuned!

10:00am Update:

Brisket was showing around 151F  and not moving for an hour. Figured I hit the stall.

Took it off, but made the mistake of taking the probe out...when I put it back in, it is now showing ~145F...hope this isn't going to be an issue?

Pic of when it came off the Kettle.

12:30PM UPDATE

PIT TEMP = 247F
Brisket TEMP = 184.7F

Coming along nicely...hoping to be done by around 2pm so I can put in a cooler and rest for 3 hours

1:49PM UPDATE

Brisket is at 201.6F....only 1.4F left to go

Pit is at 246.9F....and holding.

I will test for tenderness with my thermapen and to see what other spots are at when it hits 203F.

Seems like it is taking forever to hit 203F...but you can't rush meat.

Should I just poke through the foil with my thermapen to test for tenderness? Or unwrap it...then wrap it back up before going into the cooler?

Just curious...if I poke through I will have holes that won't be good? Juices will leak out?