Getting a Brisket Cook Right

[MartinB]

If you are using the minion method with Kingsford and have wood buried beneath the coals and you have the cooker at the temp you want to cook at, if the ATC is working correctly it should keep the burn pretty consistent with minimal smoke? If I start seeing alot of smoke in the middle of a long cook is there anything to minimize it or prevent it? The only charcoal the stores carry around here is Kingsford or Cowboy lump. Should i consider not using Kingsford which I would hate to do since i just picked up another 2 bags of it, but if it is garbage than I would rather waste the charcoal than another brisket.

Also, what do you mean when you say "I let temp get right, and line out for at least 1 hr"?
Thanks

I want only thin bluish gray smoke coming out I do not want to see white smoke. I I usually let it get up to temperature if my target is 275 I let it reach 275, and then I'll let it stay there for basically an hour or so. All the smoke dies down ti a trickle. All coals are hot, wood is hot.

I've used lots of different kinds of charcoal.
My favorite is probably Weber.
If I light a chimney of Kingsford , I have to change my clothes.
Not with Weber.

 

[Monty House]

always load the meat in as soon as I dump the few lit on the unlit and assemble the cooker. I have never waited for the cooker to get to some target temp.

Even though I let the WSM to get up, say, past 200 when I'm using the Minion Method, I think KK's right: It will normalize at some temperture seemingly regardless of what you do. Example was the my overnight brisket packer this last Thursday. Loaded the 17 lb. (pre-trim) brisket when it was 200-225 then went to bed for 7 hours; 248 when I went to check on it.