Brisket Help

[Gunsmith1388]

so new to using a smoker just got a masterbuilt G230 electric smoker from my work as a present fast forward decided to do a brisket as my first smoke ( i know mistake on my part ) had a 14 lb untrimmed brisket put it on at 0400 set the smoker for 220 degrees it's now 0538 and the 2 probes are reading 145 i think i'm in trouble not eating till 1900 any suggestions

 

[phathead69]

Any probes checking smoker temp. Maybe hotter than you think. If you went from fridge in the low 30s and hour and half your at 140s something is amiss seems to me.

 

[SmokinAl]

Are you using an external thermometer to measure the smoker temp?
If so & it's at 220, I would bump it up to at least 225, cause it will slow down cooking considerably around 160-170 degrees. A 14# brisket at 225 is easily a 20+ hour cook. You may also want to repoosition the probes, one in the center of the point, & one in the thickest part of the flat.
Al

 

[gnarlykaw]

I thought i would jump in here and throw out a suggestion.... dial it up to 250, and pour on the smoke for at least three hours. the meat is going to pull the CC temp low for a long time. if you have water in there, even more so. AL is right, its going to be a long cook....Bump up the temp. Your not going to dry it out, just pull it, and wrap it tight, somewhere between 150-170, and you will keep the juice...

 

[schlotz]

Some baseline tackling is important. Relying on a built-in thermometer temp reporting is the first concern. Many of these are notorious for being off. Always best to verify smoker grate temps with a known third party sensor. I rely on those from Thermapen but there are others that work too. Now for meat IT. With only 1.5 hours in, I seriously doubt the brisket is at 145º. One of three possibilities here. 1. Your meat probes are not inserted correctly (most likely), 2. The probes are defective (possible), 3. the smoker temps are way much higher (doubtful). Testing those probes before hand in boiling water and then in ice water will reveal their accuracy. Assuming for the moment the smoker temp is approximately correct and the IT probes are not in the middle of the thickest part of the flat I too agree that if you are wanting to eat around 1900, the smoker should be reset to at least 250º. Reposition the meat probes and have at it. Keep the door shut. BTW, did you weight all of the trimmings so you know exactly how much meat is being smoked? Assuming approx 2 lbs were trimmed off, and a constant temp of 250º I would expect a 12# brisket to run somewhere around 43-48 min/lb to reach the 200º ish area. With what you've stated so far, it will be longer given the 220º setting for the first 1.5 hours.