Thanks everyone for replying. Apologies for the delay. Rather than reply to this thread, I will relay my latest experience which turned out just as bad if not worse. I will try and post pics if I can but here is the synopsis:
— using
Camp Chef Windward Pro 24. Smoking the Flat only, simple salt, pepper, onion powder rub.
— started at 200, temp got to 145.
— moved temp to 225 and stalled out around 5.5 hours at 165.
— no bark at this time. Actually the meat was sweaty. Regardless, wrapped it in pink butcher paper and put it back on.
— no move in temp in for the next 4 hours
— bumped temp to 250. Got temp to 175 and it stalled again, bumped temp to 275 and after 12 hours got temp to 195.
—pulled it for rest for about 2 hours. About 14 hours total.
—when I opened the wrap, no bark and meat was soaking wet on the outside. Tried a few pieces and it was salty as hell and ironically dry on the inside.
A couple other quick things. Refrigerated overnight (18 hours) prior to starting. Meat was good as it came from a steer I had bought and other cuts (cooked on the grill) have come out well. Also checked temp probes with external to make sure i wasn’t having measuring issues. I think that is everything. Not sure what else to do, but I can say I won’t do this again given that I have wasted 2 briskets and money on 2 bags of pellets.