Brisket is Driving Me Crazy

Wesman61

Wesman61

is Blowin Smoke!
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Seems like no matter how long I smoke, there's always a new curveball. I'm smoking a brisket in my drum. I've smoked a few briskets and have used my drum enough times to know how it cooks. So this blasted brisket decides to stall at around 150°. I've never seen a brisket stall when running the drum at this temp. I'm running it at about 325°. Unfortunately I hate unpredictability. Not a good personality trait for someone who loves to bbq.
 
9 hours at an average temperature of 300° and it only got to 155° I.T. I started with a full basket of lump and expended it all so in the oven it goes. Not a good start to bbq season. :roll:
 
Dude, you might have picked the wrong hobby. :heh: to me figuring out the curve balls is what keeps it interesting. If it all went as planned I might get bored. Every now and then brisket likes to kick you square in the junk.
 
Don't stress over it. Keep going and let 'er ride. It'll be fine.
 
It turned out okay. Not comp level but the family was moaning in brisket ecstasy. I used oak lump and oak chunks and rubbed with some rub I got from Black's bbq in Lockhart, TX. Plus I put extra cracked pepper on it. I realize that bbq will always surprise you. I got used to the idea that I can smoke a brisket on the drum in 6 hours. Then this brisket says "not so fast Bucko"
 
Something isn't right. No matter what size that brisket is, it's IT should be higher than that at the temps you said you were running. Either your therms are incorrect, or maybe reading the wrong thing, or temps didn't really avg out to 300 (i.e. spent a lot more time down at 225-250ish) than you thought.
 
I started thinking something was wrong too. I grabbed another thermometer and it read about the same IT. I wonder if it's my smoker thermometer. It's mounted a little lower than grate level. I have a Gateway drum. The thermometer seems to indicate the temp stays pretty even over the cook. If I make a small adjustment on the intake dampers it's reflected on the thermometer. I used to have a grate thermometer but I'm not sure what happened to it.

I always tell people how consistent my drum is then a brisket throws me for a loop. Oh well, I'll have plenty of chances over the coming months to figure it out.
 
OK, I think I figured it out. The therm probe is mounted between the bottom and middle grate positions. I had the defuser plate right above the therm probe most likely giving a false reading since the heat is kind of trapped right there. Lesson learned. Next time the defuser goes on the bottom grate position so the probe is above it. It's still not at the same level that the brisket is at during cooking. I wish Gateway would at least install a mounting port for another therm at the top grate level since that's where most of the cooking would take place.
 
Now some other things make sense. It seemed like the water in the water pan was lasting longer than I expected it to. Also, it seemed like it was running hot for as far as I had the dampers open (barely). LOL, oh well. At least I feel better knowing why things went wrong. That way I feel like I have control over it again. I'm a control freak like that.
 
Wesman61 said:
OK, I think I figured it out. The therm probe is mounted between the bottom and middle grate positions. I had the defuser plate right above the therm probe most likely giving a false reading since the heat is kind of trapped right there. Lesson learned. Next time the defuser goes on the bottom grate position so the probe is above it. It's still not at the same level that the brisket is at during cooking. I wish Gateway would at least install a mounting port for another therm at the top grate level since that's where most of the cooking would take place.
Click to expand...


That might just have been the problem. The most accurate thing you can do is to have a therm/probe sitting right on the grate a couple of inches away from the meat. If there is a plate under the meat for indirect heating, make sure that the probe/therm is over it as well. That will tell you grate temp. One of the problems with therms with short stems mounted in doors or in the side of a smoker is that it's only telling you the temp in the area where the stem is. That area might be a thermal updraft.





Push comes to shove, get one of those $4 oven rack thermometers and set it next to your meat. Not too close though as there is a thermal heat envelope around the meat that will throw off the reading.
 
Demosthenes9 said:
That might just have been the problem. The most accurate thing you can do is to have a therm/probe sitting right on the grate a couple of inches away from the meat. If there is a plate under the meat for indirect heating, make sure that the probe/therm is over it as well. That will tell you grate temp. One of the problems with therms with short stems mounted in doors or in the side of a smoker is that it's only telling you the temp in the area where the stem is. That area might be a thermal updraft.





Push comes to shove, get one of those $4 oven rack thermometers and set it next to your meat. Not too close though as there is a thermal heat envelope around the meat that will throw off the reading.
Click to expand...

Yeah, gonna pick up a couple of those over rack therms next chance I get. I felt so defeated today since the last few times I cooked a brisket when over so well. Thanks for your post challenging me to think harder. I knew something wasn't right but couldn't figure it out.
 
Wesman61 said:
Yeah, gonna pick up a couple of those over rack therms next chance I get. I felt so defeated today since the last few times I cooked a brisket when over so well. Thanks for your post challenging me to think harder. I knew something wasn't right but couldn't figure it out.
Click to expand...






You're welcome. Happy to have been some help. Definitely "been there, done that" a time or twelve. It is kind of funny in hindsight how we swear that everything this time was done just like it was the last few times, right up until you really start thinking about it then you start noticing little things that were different.
 
Yeah, dinner was about 2 hours late but my wife, kids and their spouses were all pretty patient. I even offered to get them something from a fast food place but they came for brisket. Made me feel good how happy they were once dinner was ready.
 
Glad it all worked out for you. Guess you learned something new about your pit as well.

I have a Jambo clone the tel true gauge in door will read 300, set a oven temp gauge on grate and it will reads @240, my two probe maverick 732 will read 260-275.

I have no problem with the reads. I just laugh and grab another beer. Brisket gets done when its done.
 
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