I’ve done one brisket, so this is a write-up of that. I haven’t experimented at all. If I was doing this again, I would cook it overnight. And then let it rest covered in oven/cooler to keep it warm for many hours. Instead of waiting to serve it when it’s ready.

1. Trim + Rub - The night before
2. Wake up - 5am
3. Turn grill on at 225
4. Wait for it to come to temp
5. Put brisket on
6. Wait until 160-165 internal temp (5-6 hours)
7. Wrap in foil/paper, put back on grill
8. Wait - internal temp 204 (3 hours)
9. Rest meat to allow the liquids to be re-absorbed into the meat - at least an hour - meat should be ~140

Notes

• 18 pound brisket since that’s the smallest the butcher had, this took way too long to cook.
• I should have pivoted to something else. We ate at 9pm instead of 5pm
• At 6k ft of altitude
• Added water pan to grill
• When moving brisket from the pan to the grill, I didn’t lift it up, and scraped a bunch of rub off of the bottom on the edge of the pan
• Cooked fat up
• Smoker’s probe was ~15 degrees higher than instant read thermometer
• Wrapped in butcher paper, and it stalled for a long time, maybe wrapping in foil, and adding liquid would have expedited this.
• Grease bucket was empty until ~190 degrees, and then it started to render fat
• Let it rest for 90 minutes. Some of that time was wrapped, and most was unwrapped.

Next time tips

• Get a smaller brisket, 12 pounds should be plenty
• Get in from the butcher more than a day in advance
• Cook fat side down.
• If on a timeline, Wrap in foil w/ liquid
• Let rest longer, and remove foil wrap, and tent with foil.