PBC Brisket - All Night

[fzxdoc]

MrPizzle , to get my PBC to run at 225° I did basically what you did, except I used KBB (Kingsford Original) and 12 lit briquettes on top of a full basket of unlit coals. The brisket turned out fine, but no more moist or flavorful than the many many briskets I've done at 275° in my PBC over the years. Plus I only tried smoking at 225° once on the PBC. According to my cook journal, I didn't fiddle with the fire and the temps stayed between 220 and 250 for the whole cook,

I feel that running the PBC at 225°, unless the initial lighting method is spot on, could require having to choke the fire with rebar plugs, etc. and run the risk of off flavors.

If you happen to have a kettle and SnS combo, for example, that's more amenable to running at 225° for a long briskie cook.

Kathryn

[pkadare]

I'm firmly in the camp of using the PBC that way it was designed to be used. Don't mess around with the bottom vent, don't try to block up the rebar holes to drop the temperature, in short, just let it do its thing. The only thing I do as far as temp control goes is to remove 1 of the rebars when doing poultry.

[MrPizzle]

Guess I got excited when I saw the 225 in her post, should’ve read it closer. Damn adhd! Lol. I’ve been babysitting a pork butt since noon, temps around 225. We’ll see how it goes, suppose there’s worse ways to spend a beautiful Saturday.

[cgrover60]

In my experience the only predictable "slow" cook is to let the PBC run as designed in the sweet spot Kathryn mentions above at around 275 degrees and just adjust cook times accordingly.

[MrPizzle]

For me, the PBC is a brisket machine, although I like the way it turns out on the WSCGC as well. I only did one packer low and slow in the PBC at 225° temps. Took a looong time with more temp maintaining and was no better than briskets cooked at my PBC's sweet spot temp 275°.

Kathryn

Hi,
I have been trying to get my PBC to run at 225, have any tips? As I type this I have 40 B&B Oak Briquettes tucked into 1/2 of the coal basket. I used 15 B&B Oak Briquettes in the chimney to start the beast. After dumping it went to 285-307 than settled down around 270. So I blocked off 2 of the rebar holes and moved the vent to about 90% closed and it’s slowly dropping but that brought up a question. Am I choking my fire and will that create bad flavor? I love this PBC, any tips or pointers would be appreciated.

[cashelton]

I've done a couple of overnight brisket cooks in the PBC, first one took 12 hours and the second took 8 hours. For me, the concern then becomes the brisket cooking faster than expected.
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[HawkerXP]

You don't say how many pounds your brisket is. I have never done an overnight with my PBC. I rather get up early. I seem to remember 10 hours total cook time. I do like Spinaker mentioned, wrap after stall. I use foil pans with just a little low sodium beef broth, cover with foil and into the oven. Your coals will be about done by this time anyway. Don't forget to leave time for cambro.

[HawkerXP]

Agree!

[Spinaker]

I usually do not wrap my briskets until I get up to about 185 F. That is generally when I have enough bark to make it just about right. At that point, you can always throw it in the oven to finish it off.

The PBC can develop some awesome bark on a brisket, just give it more time in the smoke before wrapping. Wrapping at 165 F just does not allow for enough time to develop that great bark. IMHO.

[fzxdoc]

For me, the PBC is a brisket machine, although I like the way it turns out on the WSCGC as well. I only did one packer low and slow in the PBC at 225° temps. Took a looong time with more temp maintaining and was no better than briskets cooked at my PBC's sweet spot temp 275°.

Kathryn

[hogdog6]

Definitely advise following Jerod Broussard if your not aware he knows his way around a PBC brisket. He has Many good posts on how too

[jfmorris]

A lot of how good a brisket will be is based on the the quality of the meat, whether you dry brine it and put a good rub on it, and of course, build up a good bark. You might have had a lousy hunk of beef that one time you tried, or not the right rub. A lot of folk turn out some amazing looking brisket on the PBC, so don’t give up. The fact it cooks faster is a bonus in my opinion.

[pbushlack]

Awesome. Thanks for the guidance Red Man

[pbushlack]

Thank you Jerod Broussard .

[Red Man]

Don’t go overnight, the PBC temp is too high. I rarely wrap in the PBC. The barrel is so humid the bark doesn’t usually get too hard. Don’t worry about wrapping at a specific temp, wrap if the bark looks good to you.