1st hot & fast brisket


 
Rick P

Rick P

TVWBB Pro
I've done plenty of briskets, but this is my first hot & fast cook, and the first brisket on the 18.5" WSM. Costco Prime packer that I bought a couple years ago on sale. After trimming, it weighed ~ 7lbs.
Dry brined the night before, sprinkled BBBR. Avg temp was 375° and it took just under 6 hrs. I foiled in a pan at 170°, and let her go for 2 hours, and the probe slid in like butter. I didn't bother to check the internal temp.
Rested for 45 minutes. It was one of the best briskets I've ever made.
 

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Great looking brisket - any tips/tricks for getting your 18WSM up to 375F? Bowl in? Load?

I'm just asking for when I attempt my next brisket. :)
 
Erik Tracy said:
Great looking brisket - any tips/tricks for getting your 18WSM up to 375F? Bowl in? Load?

I'm just asking for when I attempt my next brisket. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Packed the charcoal ring to the brim with Kingsford Competition briquettes. Added a full chimney of lit charcoal and 6 chunks of hickory and pecan.
I left the all of the vents open, and flipped the door upside down and propped it open a little bit. The temp ran away to 400+, at first. I closed the top vent to about 1/2, until the temps came down, then opened the vent back up and it held between 350-375 for the rest of the cook. I was getting clean, blue smoke, after about an hour. At the 5 hour mark, I tossed in about 10-12 more briquettes, (the KB competition charcoal burns faster).
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Looks good, never done one that small. How cool is that!
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Thanks, neither have I. It was a lot bigger, before I trimmed it.
I bought it a couple of years ago, and stuck it in the freezer, in its cryovac wrapper. (they were practically giving them away at $3.29lb)
I've gotten prime packers from Costco before, but this was the fattiest one, by far. Some of the meat looked squirrely, so I went a little overboard, and I trimmed a lot more than I usually do for low and slow cooks.
 
Rick P said:
Thanks.
Packed the charcoal ring to the brim with Kingsford Competition briquettes. Added a full chimney of lit charcoal and 6 chunks of hickory and pecan.
I left the all of the vents open, and flipped the door upside down and propped it open a little bit. The temp ran away to 400+, at first. I closed the top vent to about 1/2, until the temps came down, then opened the vent back up and it held between 350-375 for the rest of the cook. I was getting clean, blue smoke, after about an hour. At the 5 hour mark, I tossed in about 10-12 more briquettes, (the KB competition charcoal burns faster).
Click to expand...
Looks great. A couple of questions. Was the water bowl in at all? Why is there foil around the edges of the brisket? Can you show how you get the door to stay upside down as I tried it last time and it kept slipping down and leaving the side open? I have a very hard time getting my 18 to stay over 250. Thanks
 
Erik Tracy said:
Great looking brisket - any tips/tricks for getting your 18WSM up to 375F? Bowl in? Load?

I'm just asking for when I attempt my next brisket. :)
Click to expand...
I put my BGE coal rake under the lid to keep it 1/8" or so opened, helps to get it up to that range. I also run an IQ110, with all of the vents opened, water bowl in but empty. Large load of regular Kingsford or Royal Oak. Holds 375-400 pretty steady.
 
Joe Anshien said:
Looks great. A couple of questions. Was the water bowl in at all? Why is there foil around the edges of the brisket? Can you show how you get the door to stay upside down as I tried it last time and it kept slipping down and leaving the side open? I have a very hard time getting my 18 to stay over 250. Thanks
Click to expand...
1. No. I never put water in the pan. I double foil it, and put an empty disposable pan, on top of the water pan to catch the grease.

2. Foil on edges of the grate because, (on WSM's), there is a small gap around the circumference of the grate where it's hotter. Usually not an issue, because most stuff that I cook on it don't hang over that gap.

3. It's snowing right now and the smoker is covered, so I'm not taking a pic right now ;). That being said, it's easy.

I read in another thread where someone flipped the door upside down, and rested the door knob on top of a chimney starter, leaving a gap. That's exactly what I did. Anything that's not flammable that can support the door should work, it's just that the Weber chimney starter is the perfect height.

Of note, the smoker burned through the charcoal at a greater rate. I added unlit charcoal later in the cook, as the temp started to drop. I think I tossed 10-12 of 'em in the firebox. This was, no doubt, caused by a variety of reasons, (KBB competition briquettes, increased airflow and the wind really picked up later in the day)

Hope this helps!
 
Rick P said:
Believe me, I was.
I was nervous until the bourbon kicked in, and the probe went in at the end of the cook.

I'll never do a low and slow brisket again.
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Agreed. 5 hrs for a 12lb brisket really helps with the preparation steps when company's coming. Also helps me to get more sleep and be a nicer person. ;)
 
Rick P said:
1. No. I never put water in the pan. I double foil it, and put an empty disposable pan, on top of the water pan to catch the grease.

2. Foil on edges of the grate because, (on WSM's), there is a small gap around the circumference of the grate where it's hotter. Usually not an issue, because most stuff that I cook on it don't hang over that gap.

3. It's snowing right now and the smoker is covered, so I'm not taking a pic right now ;). That being said, it's easy.

I read in another thread where someone flipped the door upside down, and rested the door knob on top of a chimney starter, leaving a gap. That's exactly what I did. Anything that's not flammable that can support the door should work, it's just that the Weber chimney starter is the perfect height.

Of note, the smoker burned through the charcoal at a greater rate. I added unlit charcoal later in the cook, as the temp started to drop. I think I tossed 10-12 of 'em in the firebox. This was, no doubt, caused by a variety of reasons, (KBB competition briquettes, increased airflow and the wind really picked up later in the day)

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Thank you. I have read about flipping the door many times but you're the first person to say you have to support the door with something. I was wondering what I was missing!
 
Joe Anshien said:
Thank you. I have read about flipping the door many times but you're the first person to say you have to support the door with something. I was wondering what I was missing!
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You're welcome.
I can't take credit for that idea.
I read about it in one of these threads.
 
So when you say the average temp of 375, I take that to me right off the bat when you started. 375. So you did not go a couple of hours on a lowest setting. For smoke.

Everything I've read states that you get more smoke at the low attempts even for a couple of hours. So I'm trying to reconcile how staying with the 375°, still allowed you to get plenty of smoke flavor.

Looks great, by the way.
 
Tony P in Florida said:
So when you say the average temp of 375, I take that to me right off the bat when you started. 375. So you did not go a couple of hours on a lowest setting. For smoke.

Everything I've read states that you get more smoke at the low attempts even for a couple of hours. So I'm trying to reconcile how staying with the 375°, still allowed you to get plenty of smoke flavor.

Looks great, by the way.
Click to expand...
Your smoke will be less at the higher temps, as the wood is free burning at that stage. I found that adding more wood did not help much, but adding stronger flavored wood such as hickory gave me the smoke flavor back. On lower temps I was using oak. Hope this helps.
 
Tony P in Florida said:
So when you say the average temp of 375, I take that to me right off the bat when you started. 375. So you did not go a couple of hours on a lowest setting. For smoke.

Everything I've read states that you get more smoke at the low attempts even for a couple of hours. So I'm trying to reconcile how staying with the 375°, still allowed you to get plenty of smoke flavor.

Looks great, by the way.
Click to expand...
Yup. 375, right off the bat.
I read the same thing so I used 6 chunks, instead of the usual 4. I put them around the edge of the ring, so they wouldn't immediately catch fire, when adding the lit charcoal. I also let the smoker run until the billowing white clouds of smoke were gone, which was around 45 minutes, or so

I tossed in another small chunk of pecan a couple hours into the cook. The smoke flavor was spot on.
 
C Lewis said:
Your smoke will be less at the higher temps, as the wood is free burning at that stage. I found that adding more wood did not help much, but adding stronger flavored wood such as hickory gave me the smoke flavor back. On lower temps I was using oak. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
I did add a chunk of pecan not too long before wrapping, and got a nice blast of smoke. I was nervous about using more, or anything stronger. I always err on the side of caution when it comes to the smoke.
 
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