2 briskets on weber smokey mountain... cooking time?

[maritime]

Hey, I have done a single brisket on my 18.5" Weber smokey mountain a couple of times and it always comes out great. Usually takes about 15 hours for a 13lb brisket....

For an office party I need to make TWO briskets... what do you think the cooking time will be? If one took 15 hours do you think two will take 18-20 hours? More?!?! 

Gotta get the timing right!

Thanks!

 

[africanmeat]

Welcome to SMF  I am glad you joint us

You are in the right place the folks here are help full and knowledgeable

Don’t forget the Qview    

 

[jirodriguez]

Welcome to the forum.

No you don't double the time, just because you double the meat. Basically it will take about the same amount of time as a single brisket, unless you have them crammed against each other or something like that. Of course brisket is a difficult one to try and peg, each piece of meat is differant. I have had a 13 lb. packer cook in 10 hrs., then the next one at 14 lbs. took 16 hrs.

I usually figure approx 16 hrs. for brisket, plus another 1 hr. of rest time, and 99% of the time I do fine. Usually a lot of my briskets seem to finish cooking in approx 12-15 hrs. Then I double wrap them in heavy foil and place them in a dry towel lined ice chest with more towels on top - you can hold a brisket that way for 4-6 hrs. with it still being to hot to handle with bare hands.

Better to finish early and hold it in the ice chest, than have it run long and have to order pizza.

 

[raptor700]

Welcome to the forum.

No you don't double the time, just because you double the meat. Basically it will take about the same amount of time as a single brisket, unless you have them crammed against each other or something like that. Of course brisket is a difficult one to try and peg, each piece of meat is differant. I have had a 13 lb. packer cook in 10 hrs., then the next one at 14 lbs. took 16 hrs.

I usually figure approx 16 hrs. for brisket, plus another 1 hr. of rest time, and 99% of the time I do fine. Usually a lot of my briskets seem to finish cooking in approx 12-15 hrs. Then I double wrap them in heavy foil and place them in a dry towel lined ice chest with more towels on top - you can hold a brisket that way for 4-6 hrs. with it still being to hot to handle with bare hands.

Better to finish early and hold it in the ice chest, than have it run long and have to order pizza.

   Yeah...........what Johnny said 

 

[maritime]

Yah I am going to start at 8PM tonight > 8 am is 12 hours of cook time.

Then I need to work some fronteir medicine as I have to physically move the smoker from one location to another (home > work). My plan is to pull out the meat and put into foil / towel lined cooler, pull out the hot coals from the smoker and put them into my weber kettle to extinguish.

I will put the smoker pieces onto a couple blankets on the bed of my pickup truck and drive about 3 minutes to work... then put everything back together and re-lite the fire. I think the whole process will take about 30 minutes and might add 1 hour to the cooking time...

8PM > 8AM = 12 hours @ 225

8AM take off meat and store in cooler, bring temp down + move smoker and meat to office

8:30 relight smoker

9:00 put meat back on smoker

9:00-3:00 6 hours cooking time brings me to 18 hours cooking time... whenever it hits 180 I will crutch it and whenever it hits 190 I will pull it off and let it sit in the cooler until 5:00. 

Alternatively we have a gas grill @ the office... I could leave it smoking at home until it hits 180 (maybe 11am which would be 15 hours on the smoker) then leave the smoker at home and take only the meat to the office in foil on the gas grill to finish off (the crutch) and keep in a hot cooler until 5. 

What do you think is the best way to go?

 

[raptor700]

I would go with plan B (ie) the gass grill @ the office.

Once you foil, you don't need the smoke anymore,just the heat.

And it would save a lot of time and extra labor on your part.

Good luck and don't forget the Qview!

 

[maritime]

Yah I figure that is the more sane option... but these people have no idea what a smoker is... I feel like they need to see it in action even if its not really doing any smoking at that point ;-)

I will be sure to take photos. 

 

[SmokinAl]

Sounds like the boy's got you covered!

 

[jjwdiver]

ok...times up - lets see the qview!!!   I know I'm too early, but brisket makes me drool!!!!!!

 

[maritime]

Ok had a few slips last night but I think all in all its on track. First the thermometer probe was touching the meat (big piece of meat!!) and it took me a couple hours to figure out why the temp wouldnt go over 160... I figured out it was right @ 225 the whole time once I got the probe adjusted. 

Then, right when I am about to go to bed... the sprinklers went off. Forgot about those. Temperature plummets. I cant control the sprinklers (I live in an apartment) so I stand there for 10 minutes with a giant cardboard box shielding the smoker. Luckily it was midnight and I dont think anyone saw me. 

It didnt take long to recover the temp so I think it wasnt THAT bad a problem...

The bottom brisket hit 180 first. I took both of them out and measured temp, the one on top was only at 170 so I switched the two around and am now monitoring the one that was cooler. When that one hits 180 I will take both off and measure temp again... I think I might not even crutch the top brisket if its at the right temp, it looks juicy! I plan to take them both off around noon... 3 hours from now. The brisket is measuring at 172 so I cooled the fire down to around 210, it should make it just fine. Now I gotta figure out how to keep them warm for 5 hours... where are my towels. 

Pics soon. 

 

[SmokinAl]

 

[raptor700]

Glad to hear everything is right on schedule.....

Can't wait to see the "money shot" 

 

[elhauser31]

I am also going to smoke 2 briskets at the same time this weekend. I was curious if you need to rotate them. Move the brisket from the bottom rack to the top and top to bottom?

 

[rus_bro]

I moved from my WSM to my offset a couple of years ago and forget how much quicker brisket cook on those things. :) kinda miss it sometimes.