I've been lurking here for quite awhile and just recently signed up. In that time, I've seen many of these "help" threads where the people replying say they need more info. Well, prepare for "more info".
For those who don't want to read through everything, my 14.5 lb brisket was done in 10 hours. Being a brisket rookie, this seemed REAL quick. I have a big cook coming up next week where it has to be done on time(ish) and need to know if this is normal or did I miss something. For the details, read on. To see the final Jeopardy question, scroll down to the red text.
So I'm going to be doing a BBQ for work next week with about 80 people. I plan on doing a brisket, 2 or 3 pork shoulders and some boneless chicken thighs. I have a Weber 22.5" Smokey Mountain and just bought a Dyna-Glo wide-body vertical offset. This guy right here...
I read a couple dozen pages here before buying and building it and did the recommended mods as far as sealing it and adding a heat baffle at the firebox (hard to see in the crappy cell phone pic).
Last weekend, to practice for next week, I bought a 14.5 lb brisket and since I was going to be running the smoker anyway, I told a couple fellow "meat enthusiasts" at work that if they wanted to buy the meat, I'd do a pork butt for them. I wound up with 6, 8 and 10 pound butts.
Brisket (Lego Mr. T for scale)
The night before, I salted it and injected with beef broth. The next night, I rubbed it about an hour before going on. This is my first full brisket (did an 8 lb once) and I figured at 1.5 hours a pound, I'd get it on at 6:30 pm Saturday so it would be done a bit after noon on Sunday and I could rest it in the cooler for a couple hours.
Here comes the info;
I ran briquettes in the Dyna-Glo along with some hickory chunks for the first hour or so. I had a water pan at the bottom left (see first photo). My temps were pretty consistent in the 220 to 235 range (the odd spike after adding a fresh batch of lit coals). I was using a Weber iGrill with one probe in the beef, one for the smoker temp and one for the outside temp. I kept a detailed log of smoker temp/meat temp/outside temp for every half-hour of the cook but I won't go that crazy and post it all here.
The brisket going in
At 6:30, the meat went on (fat side down) at 52 degrees, at 8pm it was 89 and when I added coals at 9:45, it was at 121. From that point on, it went up about 10 degrees an hour so I figured when I was ready to put the pork on at 1:00 am, it would be close enough to the stall that I would wrap the brisket. At 1 am, it was at 155 degrees so I wrapped it in foil (just a light spritz of 50/50 water and apple juice) and threw it in with the butts.
Here it is before wrapping
After babysitting the butts for an hour and adding applewood chunks every 20 minutes for an hour and a half, I figured I could squeeze in a couple hour nap before I needed to add coals. At 2:25 am, the brisket was at 161 when I went to sleep. I had added a few lit coals and some wood so the smoker temp was 235.
At 4:40 am, I woke up, looked at the temps and panicked! The smoker was at 226 and the brisket was at 199 degrees!!! In the 2 hours I was asleep, it had gone up 40 degrees. At 5 am, I took it off at 203 degrees. I probed it with my instant read in about 20 different places and got 202 to 204. It was done in 10.5 hours. WTF?!?!
I threw an extra layer of foil on it (to cover all the probe holes) and put it in a cooler with a bunch of towels. Luckily, it took until about dinner time to get to 145 before I sliced it. It meant I didn't really get a good bark, but what are you gonna do.
Before slicing
Here's my problem
For the warm-up cook, being 10-plus hours early wasn't the end of the world. That's why I did a practice run, right? But for next week, I need to serve 80 people at noon. In fact, for brisket, I want it ready around 7 to 8 AM so I can rest it in the cooler before slicing. If I go by this first experience and start cooking my brisket at 8pm, will it take 10 or 11 hours again? If it takes 20, I'm screwed. I'll probably go with a 16 pounder so what time do I need to put it on?
For those who don't want to read through everything, my 14.5 lb brisket was done in 10 hours. Being a brisket rookie, this seemed REAL quick. I have a big cook coming up next week where it has to be done on time(ish) and need to know if this is normal or did I miss something. For the details, read on. To see the final Jeopardy question, scroll down to the red text.
So I'm going to be doing a BBQ for work next week with about 80 people. I plan on doing a brisket, 2 or 3 pork shoulders and some boneless chicken thighs. I have a Weber 22.5" Smokey Mountain and just bought a Dyna-Glo wide-body vertical offset. This guy right here...
I read a couple dozen pages here before buying and building it and did the recommended mods as far as sealing it and adding a heat baffle at the firebox (hard to see in the crappy cell phone pic).
Last weekend, to practice for next week, I bought a 14.5 lb brisket and since I was going to be running the smoker anyway, I told a couple fellow "meat enthusiasts" at work that if they wanted to buy the meat, I'd do a pork butt for them. I wound up with 6, 8 and 10 pound butts.
Brisket (Lego Mr. T for scale)
The night before, I salted it and injected with beef broth. The next night, I rubbed it about an hour before going on. This is my first full brisket (did an 8 lb once) and I figured at 1.5 hours a pound, I'd get it on at 6:30 pm Saturday so it would be done a bit after noon on Sunday and I could rest it in the cooler for a couple hours.
Here comes the info;
I ran briquettes in the Dyna-Glo along with some hickory chunks for the first hour or so. I had a water pan at the bottom left (see first photo). My temps were pretty consistent in the 220 to 235 range (the odd spike after adding a fresh batch of lit coals). I was using a Weber iGrill with one probe in the beef, one for the smoker temp and one for the outside temp. I kept a detailed log of smoker temp/meat temp/outside temp for every half-hour of the cook but I won't go that crazy and post it all here.
The brisket going in
At 6:30, the meat went on (fat side down) at 52 degrees, at 8pm it was 89 and when I added coals at 9:45, it was at 121. From that point on, it went up about 10 degrees an hour so I figured when I was ready to put the pork on at 1:00 am, it would be close enough to the stall that I would wrap the brisket. At 1 am, it was at 155 degrees so I wrapped it in foil (just a light spritz of 50/50 water and apple juice) and threw it in with the butts.
Here it is before wrapping
After babysitting the butts for an hour and adding applewood chunks every 20 minutes for an hour and a half, I figured I could squeeze in a couple hour nap before I needed to add coals. At 2:25 am, the brisket was at 161 when I went to sleep. I had added a few lit coals and some wood so the smoker temp was 235.
At 4:40 am, I woke up, looked at the temps and panicked! The smoker was at 226 and the brisket was at 199 degrees!!! In the 2 hours I was asleep, it had gone up 40 degrees. At 5 am, I took it off at 203 degrees. I probed it with my instant read in about 20 different places and got 202 to 204. It was done in 10.5 hours. WTF?!?!
I threw an extra layer of foil on it (to cover all the probe holes) and put it in a cooler with a bunch of towels. Luckily, it took until about dinner time to get to 145 before I sliced it. It meant I didn't really get a good bark, but what are you gonna do.
Before slicing
Here's my problem
For the warm-up cook, being 10-plus hours early wasn't the end of the world. That's why I did a practice run, right? But for next week, I need to serve 80 people at noon. In fact, for brisket, I want it ready around 7 to 8 AM so I can rest it in the cooler before slicing. If I go by this first experience and start cooking my brisket at 8pm, will it take 10 or 11 hours again? If it takes 20, I'm screwed. I'll probably go with a 16 pounder so what time do I need to put it on?
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