[Capn Kev]

Okay, so I have been aging my briskets for a while now. The one I put on the smoker last night I aged for exactly 40 days. It wasn't by choice, rather by circumstance (since I had one left over from last week's competition). I normally age around 30 days. So, I opened the package and the meat had a distinct "funky" smell. It wasn't rancid smelling, but definitely funky. It went away a couple of minutes after I started trimming. I had my daughter smell it, and she said it smelled like "meat". I've since cooked the brisket, and I'm in the final stages. I've tasted some samples as I'm foiling and cubing, and it tastes absolutely perfect.

Question: when and how do you know if a brisket is "bad" after aging?