First Brisket on My MES - Took Forever!

[weezmcfly]

Okay, I thought I would post to see if any of you have had similar experiences with Brisket.  This is the second time I have used my MES 30.  I bought a 4lb Flat Brisket and from what I had read in these forums, they generally take about 1.5 to 2 hours per pound.  The thing took close to 12 hours to reach an IT of 190 degrees!  Here is how I prepped it and smoked it:

• Brisket had mustard/dry rub applied 24 hours prior to smoking.  Left the 1/4 inch of fat on the bottom and inserted some slivers of garlic clove into the fat side.
• Smoking day 6AM - Brought smoker up to temp of 230 degrees with a water pan of hot water loaded.  I have verifed that the temperature is fairly accurate with an external redi-check thermometer.
• Meat went on at 6:45AM.
• I decided not to spritz or foil on this smoke.  I just kept the smoker closed and let it go.  The only time I opened the door was a few hours in to insert a temp probe into the meat.  I know a lot of people foil at around 165 degrees but I generally like the texture of unfoiled meat.
• I checked the accuracy of my meat probe with an instant read thermometer to make sure that I was getting a good reading

It finally hit 190 degrees at about 6:30 PM and then I wrapped it in foil and did the towel/cooler thing for about an hour.  Any ideas why it would take 12 hours for a 4 pound brisket?  It came out really good.  The texture was great and it was fairly juicy.  I am just curious if I did something wrong or have some of you had similar experiences.  Here are the pics.

 

[bama bbq]

You probably experience a pretty significant stall. Each piece of meat is different and some can stall a LONG time. You might try a higher temp (maybe 250 - 275*)

...or after the bark is set (by using the finger nail test) use the TX crutch by wrapping it in two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil...usualy about 150-160* internal.  I know you don't like to wrap but the TX crutch works thru the stall. 

I know what you mean about liking to leave it unwrapped ...I like to unwrap after 190* to tighten it up a bit until I get the look I want.

 

[zahlgren]

 

[smokinhusker]

Looks great and sounds like a stall. My MES40 is about 20-25* cooler than the set temp when smoking at temps over 200* and less at lower temps.

 

[xutfuzzy]

Definitely double-check chamber temperatures and anything else you can think of, and I just had a big stall myself with a corned beef (brisket cut) while making pastrami...it was painful to sit through. 

Chef JimmyJ posted this article in my post that helped explain it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/physicist-cracks-bbq-mystery_b_987719.html