Preacher Man
Smoking Fanatic
I'm pretty new to smoking and have learned a ton from this forum. 2 weeks ago I found a Gen1 MES30 for $50 on Craigslist (used once). I really wanted to do a brisket in it (not my first brisket ever...but I've never done a good one). I read every word of this thread earlier in the week - great stuff!
I started at 3 am - named my brisket "Genesis" (for being my first in the MES30). She was a massive 17.88 lbs packer.
To make it fit, I separated the point and flat. I rubbed her with SPOG and placed the point fat side up on the top shelf, and the flat fat side down on the lower rack.
One probe of my Maverick 733 was on the very top rack to measure smoker temp, and the other in the thickest part of the flat.
My target temp to smoke was 230°, but it actually averaged out lower than that. I had a little trouble at first getting the temp evened out, but I never had any spikes one way or another.
I smoked it with oak pellets with from my 12" AMZNPTS until 12:30 pm when I wrapped the flat in pink butcher paper. I wanted a thicker bark on the point for burnt tips so I waited until 3pm to wrap the point.
I pulled it at 5:23 pm after a bamboo skewer went through it like a hot knife through butter. I'll include my temperature chart for everyone to see.
After letting it rest on my counter for a little over an hour, I sliced it at 6:35 pm. It was juicy. It was delicious. It was tender. A pencil thick slice held up under it's own weight, then easily pulled apart with a very light pull. It didn't have a smoke ring, but no matter - the oak tasted great on it.
And then as it started cooling off it quickly got dryer and dryer and dryer. Any ideas why that happened?
And is that a second stall that happened around 2:30pm when it went from 194-189?
I started at 3 am - named my brisket "Genesis" (for being my first in the MES30). She was a massive 17.88 lbs packer.
To make it fit, I separated the point and flat. I rubbed her with SPOG and placed the point fat side up on the top shelf, and the flat fat side down on the lower rack.
One probe of my Maverick 733 was on the very top rack to measure smoker temp, and the other in the thickest part of the flat.
My target temp to smoke was 230°, but it actually averaged out lower than that. I had a little trouble at first getting the temp evened out, but I never had any spikes one way or another.
I smoked it with oak pellets with from my 12" AMZNPTS until 12:30 pm when I wrapped the flat in pink butcher paper. I wanted a thicker bark on the point for burnt tips so I waited until 3pm to wrap the point.
I pulled it at 5:23 pm after a bamboo skewer went through it like a hot knife through butter. I'll include my temperature chart for everyone to see.
After letting it rest on my counter for a little over an hour, I sliced it at 6:35 pm. It was juicy. It was delicious. It was tender. A pencil thick slice held up under it's own weight, then easily pulled apart with a very light pull. It didn't have a smoke ring, but no matter - the oak tasted great on it.
And then as it started cooling off it quickly got dryer and dryer and dryer. Any ideas why that happened?
And is that a second stall that happened around 2:30pm when it went from 194-189?


