Lightning fast Brisket Cook? Almost done at 6 hours? Help.

[Mettius]

I'm not sure what is going on here. To date I've only done a few racks of ribs on my KBQ (stick burner) which I've had for about two months.
Prior to that all smokes I've done have been on my Big Green Egg. I've done over a dozen pork shoulders on the BGE and cooking at 225-230 degrees F, they always take 14-16 hours.

Today I set out to do a brisket on my KBQ. I picked up an 8.69 lb prime brisket. Salt and pepper rub. I trimmed off about 1 lb 5 oz of fat and a thin section of meat to shape it better. So we are looking at about a 7.25 lb brisket after trimming

I was trying to go for a 275 degree smoke, and I think I was in the range of 250-260 ish for the first few hours. I finally found the power adapter for my cyber-q and got the temperature probe in the brisket, and at the grate after about 5ish hours into the cook. The grate temp was holding in the range I wanted, but man the meat probe was reading 188 (inserted into the point). It is now up to 193 as I wrapped the brisket (butcher paper) and put it back in the smoker. While I had it out for wrapping, I checked the temp in several places with my thermapen. Flat is 195, thickest part of the point/flat end is something like 185.

I don't seem to have had a stall. I don't really know since I wasn't bothering to monitor the meat temp so early in the cook. Everything I've experienced with pork shoulders on my BGE and from Amazingribs.com, and my BBQ books all indicate I should expect about 12-20 hours for the cook. Franklin's book says about 12 hours at 275, Meathead says about 16-20 hours at 225.

Am I really going to pull this in about another hour to hold/rest the meat in the faux cambrio?

I was expecting this to be done at 3-4AM and was going to hold it until about noon when some friends are coming over. Amongst my friends, my BBQ is stuff of legend (legendarily late). Never finishing as quickly as I expect. So this is a new problem for me.

Has anyone else seen cooks go this quickly? It just seems crazy to be done in what is looking like 7 hours.
Granted, I've never done a smoke on this cooker with this large a chuck of meat. But still... Help?

[EdF]

Not sure what to say. I haven't done a classic butt or brisket in the KBQ yet (smoked things I'd done sous-vide). For ribs, chicken, I found that the convection makes the KBQ a lot faster than the BGE. Maybe 5 hours for SLC ribs, 4 for BBR, less than an hour for a 4 lb spatchcocked chicken.

[Huskee]

I've had a brisket that was, from a temperature standpoint, ready for the cambro at 4hrs. Freaked me right out. It turned out in hindsight I had trimmed too much of the fat cap, but I'm not sure if that was entirely the reason. If you hold it that long expect it to be a bit crumbly, speaking from experience.

Maybe I missed it, but are you sure your temp probe is reading correctly? Any other thermometer to check it against?

[Mettius]

I've had a brisket that was, from a temperature standpoint, ready for the cambro at 4hrs. Freaked me right out. It turned out in hindsight I had trimmed too much of the fat cap, but I'm not sure if that was entirely the reason. If you hold it that long expect it to be a bit crumbly, speaking from experience.

Maybe I missed it, but are you sure your temp probe is reading correctly? Any other thermometer to check it against?

Both the BBQ Guru probe and the thermapen agree. The thinner part of the flat feels a bit tough sticking in a probe but the point/flat end feels very tender.

Suggestions on what to do? Yank it when temp hits 203 at the thickest part and hold till noon tomorrow? Hold it for a couple hours, and eat some at midnight, then treat the rest as leftovers tomorrow? (I was going to do some ribs in the morning).

I'm not facing a guest disaster, as this was deliberately my "Test Brisket", and I only invited a couple friends over. This was the be my training wheel exercise before I do Summer BBQ 2017 and invite the 20-30 folks I usually get for my big cooks. But still dissapointing. I need to figure out if this is "normal" on my KBQ, so I can plan for the big event in August.

Huskee, how big was your brisket which finish in 4 hours?

[Huskee]

Suggestions on what to do? Yank it when temp hits 203 at the thickest part and hold till noon tomorrow? Hold it for a couple hours, and eat some at midnight, then treat the rest as leftovers tomorrow? (I was going to do some ribs in the morning).

Huskee, how big was your brisket which finish in 4 hours?

I think either option would work fine. Crumbly brisket is still great unless you're wanting those classic slices, but it'ss till very usable in other stuff of course- sandwiches, chili, omelets, etc. But there's nothing wrong IMO with snacking on some tonight, leaving it whole and reheating it tomorrow.

Mine was a full sized packer from SRF, northwest beef, non-Wagyu. It ended up being dry but I used a sauce and the company didn't know any better so they raved. Still better'n Arby's

[Mettius]

OK, more strangeness. While I was writing up these posts, I neglected the fire, and smoker temps dropped to 217 F.
I picked up the brisket and tried to do the floppiness test. Decided it didn't feel very floppy and I don't know what I'm looking for anyway, so I stuck the probe back in. Now I'm reading 185-188 with the Thermapen. I know the cook temp dropped, but I wouldn't expect to see a 10 degree drop in meat temperature from just 20 minutes or so of 215-ish degree cook chamber.

I don't know what is going on. Gremlins? The stall finally started? Both my temp probes are out of whack? Now I'm really not sure when to pull it. I had tested the Thermapen in ice water a few weeks ago, and it registered 32. So seems to be working.

[RonB]

I think that I would vac seal it when done, refrigerate it, and then put it in the hot tub for a couple of hours before guests arrive.

[kmhfive]

Was it dry-aged? What you're describing seems like a late stall due to water having a dickens of a time rising to the surface. Anything that toughened the outer portion of the meat could cause a higher temp at the stall. I've seen temps drops several degrees and was initially worried, but it recovered and the food ended up fine.

[Mettius]

Not that the package said. Also quite wet in the vac bag it came in if that means anything.

[dshaffes]

Just go by feel from here on in. When the probe goes in the thick part of the flat like butter, then pull it. Probably best to go with chopped brisket with your friends tomorrow, they will love it. You've got great bark and that will be tasty reheated with some butter and BBQ sauce on a slider bun with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions.

[Mettius]

When you say the thick part of the flat, you mean the part before the point starts?

[Mettius]

Well, I sit at 7 hours 26 minutes into the cook. Chamber temp is 245-ish. I'm watching the cyber-q meat temp probe bounce between 181 and 187. I'm not sure why it is oscillating. Maybe something wrong with the probe. I'll go out and poke around with the Thermapen and see what I get, and also feel for tenderness and "flop".

[Huskee]

Now your temps and timing sound spot-on for my typical cook. Are you wrapping? If so, I'd wrap now if the bark looks good. Give it another 1.5-2hrs to get to 195-200 or probe tender, then start the faux cambro hold....of course this is guess based on past experience.

[Mettius]

I'm wondering if I'm now in a late stall?

Also, it is already probe tender, but temp readings are giving me between 185-192 depending on where I poke it. I had already wrapped in butcher paper (was trying to go with the Franklin methodology). But since I'm a noob at brisket and this smoker, I finally pulled it and opened it up to have a look. (I forgot to take a picture). Bark is already great. the flat still feels a bit firm. but the point side of the brisket is already butter-like. I don't feel but a tiny bit of resistance pushing in the probe. So I'm feeling like I'm already "probe tender".

Also, it is now difficult to find the thickest part of the brisket as it is wrapped in paper. My poking through the paper to check temp is a bit more random than usual. So I guess the big question is, should I pull it now that it is probe tender, or wait until I get up higher in meat temp. Like 200 F?

[kmhfive]

So many questions in my mind. Do you have a SV water bath? Can you chill it quickly? Can you vacuum seal the whole brisket? The flat sounds like it may be drying out, but I'm not sure with those temperatures.

I guess I'd pull it now. Rest for about 2-hours in the Cambro wrapped tightly, then check by taking a slice at the flat. Worst case, make some burnt ends and use them for sammies during the day.

[dshaffes]

How was it?

[Mettius]

Well, after wrapping and placing back into the pit, the temperature of the meat dropped. Started reading 181-188. And the temperature probe just kept oscillating between 181-188 in a about 15 seconds. I started to question the reliability of the cyber-q probe, but a spot check with the thermapen agreed so. I went back to googling. It was at this point that I lost my coal bed and the fire was no longer remotely at temperature. After fighting with it a bit (and being too lazy and tired at midnight to start another half chimney of lump) I pulled it and took it indoors (still wrapped in butcher paper) and cooked for another 2 hours or so at 270 degrees in the oven. I pulled it at about 2AM and Thermapen registered 203 degrees. The flat was now tender and the whole thing was pretty jiggly (I temporarily unwrapped it) when I poked it at various places with my finger.

I forgot to take pics of it done. I wrapped it in towels and put it into the cooler with the plan of waking up at ~8AM and checking the meat temp. If it was below 140 I was going to put it in the over at its lowest setting (170) until my friends arrived. (I didn't actually roll out of bed until 10AM, meat was down to 126 internal temp, I put it in the over at this point.)

So all in all, it was held for 8 hours before serving. It turned out pretty good. Very tender, good fat rendering. Everyone liked it. About half of us thought it was a bit too salty, so less salt in the rub next time I think. The bark was too soft for my liking but it was wrapped for so long I wasn't surprised. (I normally cook pork shoulders with no wrap/crutch). It did not crumble when cutting it. 1/4 inch slices held together but pulled apart with the lightest tug. All-in-all I was happy with it. It was super rich. Lots of fat, and too much salt combined to make me not able to eat a giant plate of it, but of the 6 people who came over to try it, I only had about 2 lbs of leftovers.

So in the end I think I hit some sort of late stall or I was getting bad readings with the probe when I thought it was at 190 internal temp at only about 6 hours in. I soldiered through the cook until I was getting probe readings of 200+. So I guess I'm not comfortable at this point pulling just on feel alone, or I would have sworn it would have been ready at hour 6-8.

This was prime grade beef, and it was very very well marbled. We had a thunderstorm roll through for about half the cook, it was raining cats & dogs, and I had some water in the pan the smoker to boot. So it was about as humid a cooking environment as you can get. I don't know if any of that matters.