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17 lb. Packer Brisket- now what?

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schlotz

schlotz

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
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Jan 13, 2015
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Coatesville, IN
Local supply only had "large" packers. I haven't worked with one this size.  Granted it will probably trim out to somewhere around 15 lbs. I'm attempting to reverse engineer this smoke.  Dinner time on Saturday is 6pm.  I know it needs to rest for at least 2 hours so it needs to come off, once it probes without resistance, no later than 4pm. I usually smoke at 250° but given the size I'm wondering if 275° might be a better choice especially given time constraints. 

Now for the hard part, i.e. figuring out when to put this sucker on? On smaller briskets 10-12lbs before trimming, I never had a problem with a 6am start since I compensate by utilizing a crutch wrap at the stall and if it got done early it just spent some extra time in the rest cycle. Not certain 6am is going to work with this one.  I could start it at Friday at midnight and determine around noon if I need to wrap in order to ensure dinner is met but having never smoked this size of a brisket I would like to hear from others what has worked for them with large briskets.

Matt 
 
When I do a packer for dinner, I fire up the smoker around 8-9 PM the night before I'm going to serve.  I smoke them all night at 225F grate temp.  The next morning, when I get up, they are usually toward the end of the stall or a few degrees past the stall.  I crank the chamber temp up to 275-300F until they are probe tender.  I don't wrap at the stall or in butcher paper.  They finish in plenty of time.  Once probe tender, I tightly double wrap in HD foil and put in a cooler surrounded by a bunch of old, clean bath and beach towels until time to slice. 
 
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I just did a 17lb brisket last weekend (because that is what I could get).  I got the meat on at 3am and it was at 207° at 3pm but the meat wasn't as tender as I was looking for.  During the smoke I did have some temp issues because of 15-20 mph winds but I tried to keep it between 250 and 275 with some success.

Here is my temp chart:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/266537/monster-brisket-questions#post_1739798

Good Luck and I look forward to hearing how it all worked out.
 
Noboundaries said:
 
When I do a packer for dinner, I fire up the smoker around 8-9 PM the night before I'm going to serve.  I smoke them all night at 225F grate temp.  The next morning, when I get up, they are usually toward the end of the stall or a few degrees past the stall.  I crank the chamber temp up to 275-300F until they are probe tender.  I don't wrap at the stall or in butcher paper.  They finish in plenty of time.  Once probe tender, I tightly double wrap in HD foil and put in a cooler surrounded by a bunch of old, clean bath and beach towels until time to slice. 
Click to expand...
Sounds about right. What lbs range?  Considering dinner is around 6pm, a 9pm start yields 21 hours.  Not knowing the weight you started with but I would think there was a fair amount of rest time involved. Roughly how many hours was it in the smoker?
 
BoardGames4BBQ said:
 
I just did a 17lb brisket last weekend (because that is what I could get).  I got the meat on at 3am and it was at 207° at 3pm but the meat wasn't as tender as I was looking for.  During the smoke I did have some temp issues because of 15-20 mph winds but I tried to keep it between 250 and 275 with some success.

Here is my temp chart:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/266537/monster-brisket-questions#post_1739798

Good Luck and I look forward to hearing how it all worked out.
Click to expand...
Interesting, assuming the 17#'er was gross before trimming. Can you estimate how much weight you trimmed off?
 
Rings R Us said:
Wow.. big! What smoker are you using?
Click to expand...
See my tag line at bottom 
101.gif
 
I think I carved off about 2+ lbs.  The only thing to remember with my time is that I think I blew through the stall because of wind problems.  If I had it to do again I would have gone a little lower in temp and started closer to 1am and given myself a little more room with the stall and the rest.  But I have only done two briskets so far so I am by no means an expert just figured I would let you see my data from a similar cook.  Good luck tonight.
 
schlotz said:
 
Sounds about right. What lbs range?  Considering dinner is around 6pm, a 9pm start yields 21 hours.  Not knowing the weight you started with but I would think there was a fair amount of rest time involved. Roughly how many hours was it in the smoker?
Click to expand...
You always adjust on the fly.  Here's the last packer I did in early April.  Dinner was planned for late Friday afternoon because my wife was working less than a full day.   

Thawed, then dry brined for five days. 14 lbs packer.  Cut off maybe a pound of fat.  Fired up the smoker at 5:45 PM.  Put it in the WSM fat cap down at 6:35 PM at 225F grate temp.  After 11.5 hours in the smoker (just after 6 AM) I inserted the food probe.  Flat was tough, point was tender.  Flat was 179F IT.  Point was 187F IT.  Conditions were fairly strong breeze, temps in the 40s.  Only increased Guru temp to 250F.  After 16.75 hours (11:20 AM) on the smoker the flat was 194F and the point 198F.  The flat wasn't quite as probe tender as the point (obviously), but it was much better.  The KBB I was using was fading, chamber temps falling, and I didn't feel like loading more hot fuel due to the wind. 

Double wrapped in HD foil and into the cooler with the towels.  We ended up having dinner about 4.  Both the flat and the point were tender and delicious.  Ended up cutting a six inch portion out of the middle, part flat-part point, refrigerating it, then taking it to one of our kids on Saturday.  She and her husband loved it. 
 
"You always adjust on the fly..." boy how true that rang.

Started the smoke at midnight with the MAK at 225° & WiFi control, then went to bed. Sure enough (and only for the first time in 3 years) the MAK timed out on connectivity and it reverted back to the initial SMOKE setting or ~ 175° somewhere around 2am. I woke up at 6am to see it still there, ARGH!!! Nothing to do at that point but bump it to 250 'ish and see what happens. About 1pm, the IT was 194° BUT all the fat that had dripped was starting to smoke a bunch. Enough so I didn't want it to negatively affect the flavor so I quickly removed the meat, pulled out the alum foil covering the bottom then put everything back so it could finish. Note: although some parts were probing tender others weren't so more time was needed. IT hit 200° right after 2pm and it probed tender so I pulled it. Let it sit for 10 min to see the IT drop 2 degrees then placed in pan, foiled over, and into cooler with towels to rest until 6:30pm dinner. IT at 6pm was 154° so popped it into the oven at 160° until serving.  

Results: damn decent, good flop and super easy to pull apart. Reasonably moist once you got into the flat a bit and very good flavor. Simple rub BTW: 2 part salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part garlic powder, 1 part onion powder. 
 
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