brisket on the weber

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smokedad

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Aug 16, 2016
107
27
NW Ohio
As a relative newbie to smoking, I had a few questions on doing a brisket.  I am planning to smoke my first brisket in the near future, and right now I am using a 22" Weber Kettle for my smokes.  With brisket taking such a long time to smoke, I was planning to use the minion or snake method for the charcoal.  Since I think I will have to fill the whole bottom of the kettle with charcoal for this, the brisket will be directly over the heat most of the time.  If I put a pan or pans of water under the brisket, will this make it indirect enough that it will still turn out OK?

For brisket, it is better to have the fat cap up or down in this situation?   I have read that the fat cap down can be another layer of insulation against heat, but I have also read that some people always smoke with the cap up.  I can generally keep my Weber between 275 and 300 degrees for a few hours with a chimney-full of charcoal before I need to add more.
 
On the Weber, I would go fat side down, like you said, insulation from the heat. Also, I would put the coals on one side of the kettle, meat on the opposite side.

That's how I would roll. I've only done ribs on a kettle and that's how I set it up with a water pan under the meat. If you go cap down make sure that when you start to probe for tenderness you push the probe all the way through. I went cap down in the wsm one time and it probed perfect but when I started eating, the 1/4 inch directly below the cap was still tough. I would also rotate 180' a couple times during the cook so that no one edge is facing the heat the whole time.
 
Thanks, Sauced, I usually do put the fat side down on the Weber and put the charcoal and meat on opposite sides when doing shorter smokes.  I wasn't sure if I could use the minion or snake methods without filling the whole bottom of the kettle with charcoal for a long smoke.  I know it's better to leave the lid on for as much of the smoke as possible, so I wanted to minimize the number of times I had to take the lid off to add charcoal. 
 
I just did a brisket cook using the snake method on my 26" kettle.  Took 11.5 hours to do a 7.8lb flat.
 
KanewtZ, were you able to keep your coals all on one side of the kettle and the meat on the other with the snake method?    Did you have to add coals during this cook? 
 
A pan would help.  I have smoked in my Kettle using the side method, fenced off method (Smokenator, fire bricks), and a kind of minion method. 

What make it work best for me is a heavy pan and two charcoal baskets.  In my 22.5" Kettle I use a 15" paella pan ($23 Amazon) and a 13" round cooling rack in the paella pan ($14 Amazon).  The pan works as a heat deflector and the cooling rack ensures smoke circulation around the meat. 

Put the two charcoal baskets on opposite sides of the kettle, each under the flip up grate.  Fill the baskets with cold charcoal and wood chunks or large chips, then add about 6 hot coals to the top of each basket.  Once the temp and smoke stabilizes, put the meat on the cooling rack in the paella pan and straight into the Kettle.  Works great!

I use a version of that method all the time, mostly for hot 'n fast smokes because I have my WSM for slow ones, but it works for slow ones too. 


 
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