Brisket and Butts on a WSM


 
A

a palombo

New member
So I was thinking about doing two butts and a brisket tonight on my 18.5 WSM. I have a lot of experience with the pork but this will be my first brisket. Planning on putting the butts on the bottom grate with the brisket on the top grate. Is there any problem with letting the brisket drip on to the pork?

Any tips for a first time brisket smoke?

Is foiling the brisket a must?

THANKS!
 
Putting the brisket on top is just fine -- and it is probably more variable in how it comes out. Just adds more flavor to the butts.
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As far as suggestions -- do the brisket separately the first time. I you have any problems, you will wonder just what might have been the issue. I have yet to ever foil a brisket (maybe about 9 of them?) until after complete to put in a cooler to stay hot.

Rich
 
I prefer brisket over butts, and foiling after it looks good. If measuring IT*, you might think about wrapping after it reaches about 160*. If you foil the butts as well you can feel confident about getting it all done during a day cook as long as you don't sleep in too long, but if wanting to cook overnight for a lunch, you can still foil and just keep temps lower so it's not all done too soon. Of course, I've also had fantastic results by using water in the pan and not foiling til resting as Rich does. I can't promise as predictable results, though.
 
I also prefer butts over the brisket. I do the brisket fat cap side down - my theory is that the fat rendered off of the butts will "baste" the top of the brisket. Who knows if it really works, but it always tastes good at the end!
 
I also prefer butt over brisket, and very much prefer foiling the brisket. I have had mixed success with briskets in the past...then I stated the following method...smoked to 170, then foil with some beef broth until 200. Split point from flat at 200, wrapped flat tightly in foil to rest, and cubed point meat, put in foil pans with more rub, and put back on the smoker for about 2 hours. I have done this method the last two times and they have been my best briskets by far.
 
Ended up doing brisket over the butts and it worked out great. One of my friends is Jewish so pork over beef ended up not being an option.

Brisket was on for about 4 hours at 225. Overslept a little bit so it got up to about 160-ish before I got it into a foiled pan with about 8 oz of low sodium beef broth. From there it took another 4-5 hours with the temperature fluctuating between 225 and 250.

Brisket and Butts were done almost the exact same time.

Everything was really juicy and the flavors were on but I didn't quite have the color I was looking for on the Brisket. I was hoping for the black crunchy outer layer.

Thanks for the input guys.
 
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