3rd Time trying to smoke a brisket on WSM 18. I cannot get bark for the life of me, any help?

[James Bragg]

Hello! first time poster, recently got into smoking over the last summer with WSM. Love reading through this community and it's wealth of info. I see people all over the internet getting great looking bark, or hell just any bark, on their briskets with the WSM but I just can't.

I've always used water in the pan and foiled my cooks, so I decided to try something different. This time I did no water in the pan, just foil, and a little more smoke wood. The cooker ran hotter than expected at 300, but was rock solid the whole cook so I just went the host and fast route. The brisket was a 15lb packer, I may have trimmed slightly aggressively, but nothing unusual looking to me. Seasoned somewhat heavily with kosher salt and ground black pepper. I put it on and let it go, set my probe alarm for 160 to wait for a stall.

160 rolls around, I check to see how my bark is looking (first time opening the lid) and I'm still met with mushy seasoning that just comes right off. I had this thing laying over a big chunk of wood in the center and I didn't see any pooling. So I think well, let me just see what happens in the next 15 degrees. I check at 175 with similar results, maybe slightly more firm. So I said screw it and didn't end up wrapping the thing. I took it off a few hours ago when the flat was around 198 and probed great, but I could tell when I was handling it that the front part of the flat was burnt and did not survive. It did look somewhat barky, but it also seemed just burnt like that part of the flat. Not the good looking burnt. It is currently in a cooler at around 160 waiting to be sliced, and honestly I'm not expecting anything great from this cook, I'm expecting a dry, ruined brisket. But what gives? Every result on the internet to this question yields the answer of ditching the water pan, or not wrapping. But I see people do both of these things all the time with great results. I am doing something wrong here and I honestly cant figure it out, and it is discouraging me from cooking any more 70$ pieces of meat on this thing.

I used Weber Connect probes for both the meat and grate temp, probe was in the flat sideways by the point. KBB charcoal and about 5 bigger hickory chunks.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Picture may help. I expect it to taste fantastic. Was the water pan in place? Foiled? With insulating layer? 300 is not a bad temp. Too much salt? It seems like yoi are doing fine. How long did the cook take

 

[Bruno]

Did you wrap? Pics for sure would help.

 

[James Bragg]

Picture may help. I expect it to taste fantastic. Was the water pan in place? Foiled? With insulating layer? 300 is not a bad temp. Too much salt? It seems like yoi are doing fine. How long did the cook take

The water pan was in place, just foiled on the bottom and over the top. It indeed was over seasoned, that may have been the culprit it seems. It was overall done in about 10hrs but the point seemed slightly undercooked? Looked like the fat didnt render enough, i ended up pulling when the flat hit 203.

In the end the cook wasn't horrible, but some of the edges didn't survive. I think next time i will not over season it and maybe wrap the edges in foil during the whole cook.

 

[Bruno]

Ok I’m a rookie compared to some but, that looks like a hell of bark to me. I think u r overthinking it.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Looks like you pass the fingernail scratch test. And the flat does look a little overdone for my liking. I don’t think you’re far off.

Is your brisket at room temp right before to place it on the WSM grate?

I do like to do a salt only dry brine, exposed, in the fridge overnight and then pepper before getting it on the grill.

I pretty much always do a hot and fast up from for the first 90 mins (300° is fine) and will then wrap once I hit 157°+, usually once the bark is set.

I prefer paper instead of foil. To me, foil ruins the outside bark and steams the brisket.

If you were at 225° then 10-12 hours makes sense. If you were at 300° for 10 hours, that’s too much heat for too long. A HAF brisket is done at 5-6 hours when wrapped and then rested.

Here’s a HAF on my previous WSM 18









Hope these help. Ask away if you have more questions.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Looks great! Hope it tasted good. The edges of the smoker have the heat coming up, so the skinny edge of the flat gets the worst. Surprised the fat did not render even more. Looks good. You had it on a wood piece iirc. Wonder what the experts think. Congratulations.

 

[James Bragg]

Looks like you pass the fingernail scratch test. And the flat does look a little overdone for my liking. I don’t think you’re far off.

Is your brisket at room temp right before to place it on the WSM grate?

I do like to do a salt only dry brine, exposed, in the fridge overnight and then pepper before getting it on the grill.

I pretty much always do a hot and fast up from for the first 90 mins (300° is fine) and will then wrap once I hit 157°+, usually once the bark is set.

I prefer paper instead of foil. To me, foil ruins the outside bark and steaks the brisket.

If you were at 225° then 10-12 hours makes sense. If you were at 300° for 10 hours, that’s too much heat for too long. A HAF brisket is done at 5-6 hours when wrapped and then rested.

Here’s a HAF on my previous WSM 18

View attachment 43961

View attachment 43962

View attachment 43963

View attachment 43964

Hope these help. Ask away if you have more questions.

It only passed the scratch test after several hours. I threw it on cold, but it seemed like if i would have wrapped it in foil it would have been mush on the outside. Im thinking i had too much seasoning on there, because it was a tad over powering. My first brisket suffered from the mush because i wrapped it without the set bark.

The flat probed great everywhere but the dead center, which had some resistance. Maybe i should have just rolled with it.

 

[James Bragg]

Ok I’m a rookie compared to some but, that looks like a hell of bark to me. I think u r overthinking it.

Ha, it ended up being pretty barky in most spots by the end. I guess my problem is the bark not setting by the time i need to wrap it. Drives me nuts! Like i said elsewhere here, it was a little over seasoned. Would too much seasoning cause this issue?

 

[Brett-EDH]

Ha, it ended up being pretty barky in most spots by the end. I guess my problem is the bark not setting by the time i need to wrap it. Drives me nuts! Like i said elsewhere here, it was a little over seasoned. Would too much seasoning cause this issue?

Too much salt will pull moisture out of the brisket which could effect the bark setting. But you also domed your brisket with a wood chunk.

How long did you let your seasoning sit on your brisket before putting it on the grill?

 

[James Bragg]

Too much salt will pull moisture out of the brisket which could effect the bark setting. But you also domed your brisket with a wood chunk.

How long did you let your seasoning sit on your brisket before putting it on the grill?

Hmm, maybe about 45 minutes? I've never heard of any negative affects of laying the brisket over a foiled chunk of wood, what's the significance of it? I just couldn't jam this 15lb piece of meat in there flat.

 

[Bob Bass]

James :
2nd picture - that fat will never truly render. most often it is removed when trimming before cooking.
3rd & 4th pictures - looks like the edges crumbled. if so, you overcooked the brisket

Harry Soo and others will use a chunk of smoking wood under their packers if there is a space issue on the grate.
It is a tried, true, and taught method.

 

[James Bragg]

James :
2nd picture - that fat will never truly render. most often it is removed when trimming before cooking.
3rd & 4th pictures - looks like the edges crumbled. if so, you overcooked the brisket

Harry Soo and others will use a chunk of smoking wood under their packers if there is a space issue on the grate.
It is a tried, true, and taught method.

The edges definetly got obliterated, I was too worried about it undercooking. I have a qestion about that fat when trimming though. That deckle(?) goes all the way through the brisket it seams. I understand it's connected the point to the flat, but is it normal to leave some of that in there? I felt like if i kept going I would have severed the two pieces.

 

[Bob Bass]

We normally cut out the majority of that hard triangular wedge without separating the flat and point.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Hmm, maybe about 45 minutes? I've never heard of any negative affects of laying the brisket over a foiled chunk of wood, what's the significance of it? I just couldn't jam this 15lb piece of meat in there flat.

doming with a or two chunks of wood is common practice on a WSM 18. i did so all the time as a packer brisket won't fit any other way.

the doming stops moisture/fat from pooling atop your brisket and promotes good bark development so you're spot on in doing this method.

what was your cook temp across the cook? that's my only thoughts at this stage from your feedback/posts.

if you're burning or drying the edges of your brisket you're either too hot for too long; or you can stay hot (say 300F) but you must wrap at the 90 min mark/157-160F) and if you're going to cook at 300F you need to watch your times as 5-6 hours is your max and you should be hitting 197-202F on the point at that run time.

note, all fat will not render off. you want some of that fat when done. the point will always be fattier than the flat. that's its blessing, juicy and flavorful point meat.

personally, the flat, to us, is kinda boring. i'd rather turn it into a pastrami but some people do like the flat because they fear the fat of the point.

either way, i think you're very close to where you need to be on your brisket cook.

salt and pepper rub applied, let it rest at room temp for an hour, place it atop your 18, domed on 2 wood chunks, cook for 90 mins at 300F, rotate every 15 mins of the first 90 to ensure even cooking, pull at 90 mins and wrap in paper, place back onto 18 and maintain 300F or less till done, which'll run you 4.5-5 hours at 300F on a 15# cooking weight brisket.

if you're trimming a 15# packer weight, you're likely cutting of 2-3# of fat so that'll get you a 12# trimmed brisket which easily will fall into these time windows.

if you're still struggling, i'd recco you go down to 250F and do a low and slow. pretty hard to jack up a LAS cook, especially if you're using probes.

i don't own any probes so i just pay attention to the meat and check on it starting at 2-3 hours into the cook after the first 90 mins where i set my bark. brisket is VERY forgiving. just don't burn it.

 

[Jeff Boudman]

doming with a or two chunks of wood is common practice on a WSM 18. i did so all the time as a packer brisket won't fit any other way.

the doming stops moisture/fat from pooling atop your brisket and promotes good bark development so you're spot on in doing this method.

what was your cook temp across the cook? that's my only thoughts at this stage from your feedback/posts.

if you're burning or drying the edges of your brisket you're either too hot for too long; or you can stay hot (say 300F) but you must wrap at the 90 min mark/157-160F) and if you're going to cook at 300F you need to watch your times as 5-6 hours is your max and you should be hitting 197-202F on the point at that run time.

note, all fat will not render off. you want some of that fat when done. the point will always be fattier than the flat. that's its blessing, juicy and flavor point meat.

personally, the flat, to us, is kinda boring. i'd rather turn it into a pastrami but some people do like the flat because they fear the fat of the point.

either way, i think you're very close to where yo uneed to be on your brisket cook.

salt and pepper rub applied, let it rest at room temp for an hour, place it atop you 18, domed on 2 wood chunks, cook for 90 mins at 300F, rotate every 15 mins of the first 90 to ensure even cooking, pull at 90 mins and wrap in paper, place back onto 18 and maintain 300F or less till done, which'll run you 4.5-5 hours at 300F on a 15# cooking weight brisket.

if you're trimming a 15# packer weight, you're likely cutting of 2-3# of fat so that'll get you a 12# trimmed brisket which easily will fall into these time windows.

if you're still struggling, i'd recco you go down to 250F and do a low and slow. pretty hard to jack up a LAS cook, especially if you're using probes.

i don't own any probes so i just pay attention to the meat and check on it starting at 2-3 hours into the cook after the first 90 mins where i set my bark. brisket is VERY forgiving. just don't burn it.

Great information.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Great information.

i've made at least 1 brisket before

 

[Donna Fong]

James, how was your air flow during the cook?

 

[David-B]

I marinate mine for 24 hrs, put on smoker @250 with an empty foiled water pan....wrap in peach paper @170ish and cook to 205( also probed for feel)....measure temp in thickest part of flat near the point.....bark everywhere ....imo too much time in foil softens the bark too much but to each their own.....also you may find each brisket turns out slightly different from each other....the best brisket ive personally produced came off my stick burner but it was way, way more involved and work to get the results and it was slightly better than the wsm briskets

 

[MartinB]

Should have both reduced your temperature and wrapped it. but even a somewhat poorly cooked brisket is usually a pretty good brisket to eat,