I finally gave up at 1:00 AM with the internal temp at 183.
Of course, no one was awake to enjoy it. (Thank god I was not cooking for a dinner party as the meat was only about 7 hours later than I had planned!!
) I was so tired I just cut of a few slices to taste, then wrapped it in foil and put it in the fridge!!
As best I can recall, it was pretty dang good (I had to switch to scotch about 8:00 because of the beer depletion:icon_smil). It was actually tender, juicy and had a hell of a smoke ring. Surprising, after 13 freekin hours of smoking, unfoiled, it had a nice bark, not too smokey or tough. I did spray occaisionally with apple juice the last 5 hours.
When I took it off the pit, I at first thought someone had stolen 1/2 of it. That 5.5 pounder shrunk up and looked like a rib eye steak instead of a brisket. Heck, I ain't cookin no more small briskets.
I will check out the accuracy of the pit probe on the ET 73 by testing in boiling water. The food probe is right on as verified by my Taylor instant read thermo.
Next time I am going to cook at a higher temp (close to 245) and I will foil when the bark looks good or at around an internal temp of 160.