Mine came off very tough. I would have left it on longer, but at the rate that its temp was rising in combination with the time of night that this was occurring (around 11:00) made me not want to stay up and baby-sit it. I had planed for a cook that would make the meat done somewhere between 8:00 - 11:00 in the morning, letting me sleep through the night (I was going to a NASCAR truck race the next day at TMS so I didn't want to be a zombie from lack of sleep). The bad thing about this is that I had company come up from Houston this weekend who had heard that I made some pretty darn good Q and they were excited to try it. After this brisket, they had severe doubts about my Q?n abilities. I just decided to throw it in the trash and cut my losses. Anyway, the next day I stopped by Sam?s and bought a case of baby backs and cooked a few racks on Sunday morning. I redeemed myself quite well with those . After those, my friends were asking me where I bought the pit, how much it costs, what was in the rub, how long and at what temp I cooked them at. Heck they even wanted to know where I bought the redi-check thermometer. It was great, and my reputation remained in tact.