First Brisket on the Horizon offset with pic

[daspyknows]

My Horizon arrived Monday, seasoning on Tuesday, ribs and chicken Wednesday and planning on smoking a brisket Saturday night for Sunday football viewing. I bought a 20 lb choice untrimmed packer for $2.89/lb. I plan on trimming and then cooking at 225 starting it around 8 or 9. My son will be feeding in logs until 3 or so and I will be up by 6 to finish tending to the smoker. I expect it to finish when it finishes, will let rest a few hours then see the results. Plan is to share it 3 ways so I can make another one soon.

 

[tag0401]

Look forward to seeing the results!

 

[smokin peachey]

Great to hear your smoker finally arrived. I can’t wait to see some pictures. Best of luck with your brisket.

 

[Chasdev]

At 225 you will be cooking close to 20 hours if the cook grate temp stays that low.
In addition, during the three hours or so it will run without a pilot, the fire will run very low as will temps.
If he gets the idea of loading the firebox with wood to allow it to run that long without adding more wood, it will either run way hot on normal inlet vent/door settings or if he loads it up and closes off the vents to prevent a temp runaway, the smoke will turn dark and sour.
I say these things because I found out both the hard way.
My best advice is to either keep a driver awake to maintain 225, which is not that easy to do, or cook at a higher temp so it will finish in a more reasonable amount of time.

 

[SmokinAl]

That is a tough cook on a new smoker!
Good luck!!!!
Al

 

[daspyknows]

Going to increase temps a bit based on advice. Also bone-in pork butts $0.97/lb so putting one on to keep the brisket company.

 

[daspyknows]

Brisket at temp at 15 1/2 hours. Pork Butt took 9. I used a mixture of Oak, Cherry and Walnut this time. No pictures of taking it off the smoker since it was in the middle of the night. Temps were generally between 225 and 250 although when my son woke me up at 2 to take the pork butt off it was just under 200 as it was when I woke up at 4:30AM and 6:45AM. Both are wrapped and resting in the cooler although I did taste the pork that stuck to the grill. Yum. When I slice and pull will post a few more pics.

 

[1MoreFord]

Congrats on the first successful cook.

As you learn your cooker I think you will generally find offsets burning sticks like to run 250-275°F or maybe even a bit more for a good clean burn clean. Sure cuts down on cook time. Just watch rubs and sauces with sugar as they are apt to burn.

 

[daspyknows]

I used 60% oak, 20% Cherry and 20% Walnut With temps at 250 for the first 6 hours and 225 (mostly) the last nine. Here are the results. Definitely the best pork butt I have made and the brisket is one of my top two. Didn't get much sleep as the pork butt finished at 1:30, the fire was attended to at 2:30, 4:30 and 6:30. It hit temp and probed really soft at 15 hours. Wrapped in butchers paper and towels and placed in cooler for about 4 hours. Lots to learn and refine but can't complain about the results.