Smoking a Brisket Flat

[juevoverde]

I'm smoking my first brisket today on a BGE.  Started the cook at 250. After 3 hours I got the internal temp of the cut to 160, and wrapped it in foil.  There was no crust formed on the meat at that point.  Will the crust form while it is wrapped in foil?  After wrapping in foil, the temp in the BGE jumped to 275. Should I let the brisket just cook until  200 degrees IT? or work on regulating the BGE to 225 in the dome?

 

[noboundaries]

JuevoVerde, welcome to SMF!  Glad you are here and asking questions. 

You will not get a crust formed on the meat once you wrap it.  The BGE temperature spiked due to the influx of air into the burning chamber when you opened it to wrap the meat.  You absolutely can leave it wrapped and at 275F until the IT is 200F, or a probe slips into the meat like into warm butter. 

If you want, you can unwrap it to build some crust, but the temperature of the meat will most likely drop when you do so.  Personally I would leave it alone and do things a little different next time, waiting longer before you wrap the meat, say an IT of 180F, which is what I do. 

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[SmokinAl]

Personally I don't wrap my brisket, but then we like thick bark.

Al