Well, the faster you cook them the less smoke they pick up. Our 4 hour briskets we used to do on the weber didn't have very much smoke flavor. All I could ever taste was FAB.
I was gonna start my own thread about a my first high heat Kettle brisket that I made yesterday, but never took pics since the wife had the camera and I was doing yardwork all day long. I know the rule.....no pics dint happen.
I learned quite a few things. First, high heats can be very tasty, juicy, tender. I used Stubbs coal, the Kettle, and one fist sized cherry chunk placed on the grate just over the coals so it would burn slowly.
For the brisket, it was a small 8lb packer. I also wanted to try Funk's Dalmation rub. The amount of salt was something I wanted to experience. It was a Kosher salt, coarse pepper, and garlic powder rub. I made my own little variation and slathered the brisket with Louisianna hot sauce for stickage factor. I cooked at between 350-375 and the Kettle held a steady temp on one load of coals just like a champ.
I also didnt want to foil at all on this one. So when I hit a temp of 195, I pulled it, put it in a dish, and let it counter rest with a sheet of foil just resting on top of it.
The verdict..............not much of a smoke ring at all. I'll post a pic of the ring when I make brisket sammies for lunch. Smoke flavor was good for me. Could have used a little more, but was good as is. It cooked in a little over 4.5 hours. The Dalmation rub did bring some salt to the party, but what I noticed was that most of the salt bark got knocked off when I pulled it off the kettle, so that tamed the saltiness. The rub that was left on the brisket was just perfect to give each slice of meat the right amount of flavor it needed. Hot sauce gave this briskie a real nice color, didnt notice any big flavor from the sauce, but it added a nice deep red color. Overall, it was still oozing juice when I separated the point and flat and there was more juice in the pan then I've had come out of a briskie in a long time.
I will do high heats more often. The time factor is a bonus. We were eating dinner by 7 instead of midnight.:-D
I'll be putting what I learned and Wayne info together to hopefully refine the whole process. Thanks Wayne.