Brisket help please

[Robin R.]

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
I have a WSM 14.5 and have had good success with pork butt so I tried a brisket. I found a 8.5 lb. flat at Costco, prepped it per Franklin’s instructions and cooked it using Kingsford competition briquettes with hickory chunks added. 250 degree in the smoker got it to 205 interior meat temp. in 6.5 hours.
I wrapped it after the stall (about 165 degrees) and spritzed is a couple of times during the cook. A Maverick et-733 was used to monitor both the meat temp and the cooker temp. Confirmed the 205 meat temp with a thermopen.

The meat didn’t seem very tender when it reached 205 but I wrapped it in a blanket and put it in a dry cooler for an hour hoping that Alton Brown’s advice about resting the brisket that way will help tenderize it. The meat has good flavor and is not dry, but never developed much bark and is not the tender, juicy and succulent texture you expect from well prepared brisket.
What did I do wrong?

 

[Charles H.]

Per your cooking method the outside looks about like I would expect for a ~8lb chunk of meat.
The sliced pictures look like it needed to cook longer.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

Well, I'll say it looks super juicy but obviously must be undercooked. Somehow. I've never had one not be done with an internal temp of 205. One thing you can do to try to compensate is cut the brisket thinner. Also you should get used to cooking by feel over temp at least as far as the tenderness of the brisket. I use my thermometer probe and poke the brisket in several places. It'll go through like warm butter when its done. You'll eventually get used to it. Typically the lower the cook them the lower the temp when it's done.

6.5 hours seems super short for a cook time. It's probably why you didn't get much bark.

 

[Robin R.]

Thanks for the replies. I poked around the meat with a toothpick when it hit 205 and it was far from tender. Next time I'll try to cook it until it feels tender and ignore the temp. The pork butts (approx. 8 lbs) took 12 hours at 225 degrees to get tender which is what I expected. The brisket flat was thinner but I was surprised when it hit 205 after only 6.5 hours.
Thanks again for your help.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

I did not read the replies above so if this redundant please disregard. My opinion: You are cooking a brisket past done to tenderness. IOW temp is an indicator of when to start checking for tenderness. Take a skewer and check a few different places. If it meets resistance keep cooking. If it slips in without resistance you're done. Good news is you can still cook it in the oven to get there.

We've all been there so relax and keep cooking it until it's tender. Some critters are just more ornery than others. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited by law....

 

[Van DeWald]

Brisket is fickle IMO. I cooked one brisket to 203, and it was nothing but mush. The next brisket I cooked to 203, and it was like shoe leather. Each one is different.

 

[Dwayne M]

If it was just the flat portion a ton of fat that is normally between the flat and the point sections was probably removed, from what i read that fat layer is a major reason why its best to cook full packer briskets rather than trimmed down ones. I can understand why you went that route though due to the 14.5 but if you check out my thread in this section i did a small (10.5 lb) full packer on my 14.5 via some trickery using rib racks and it came out excellent besides the bark which got overdone because i think i had a bad pit temp sensor placement which caused my pit to run a bit hotter than i was shooting for (i use a bbq guru on my 14.5) and I also pulled it a tad late

 

[Charles H.]

I don't usually cook flats because they charge ~$7.00/lb for them and packers are ~$2.00/lb.
Even factoring in the fat that is thrown away packers are a lot cheaper.
I have not had any problems with flats being tender and juicy though.

 

[Robin R.]

My enthusiasm for smoking brisket is renewed! I put the brisket (wrapped in foil and sprinkled with a little water) in the oven at 275 degrees for 4 hours.
The internal temp rose to 210 degrees and the meat became very moist and tender. It was probably overdone on the edges as it fell apart like pot roast when I picked it up. It tasted great too. I look forward to trying another brisket soon. Thanks for all your advice.