High Heat / Low Heat combo brisket, with Pron of course

My first attempt at a high heat brisket came out pretty good, but was lacking a little in the smokey flavor that I love so much. First experiment can be seen here: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62365


I'm doing two things different for this attempt. I'm going to go low and slow at 225 until I hit an internal temp of 140, then ramp the smoker up to 325. I'm hoping this will improve the smokey flavor. I'm also injecting this time since I made up a bunch of Dr. BBQ's beef injection for tomorrow's chuckies.
So here is the game plan:
1) 225 smoker temp until brisket hits 140.
2) Raise smoker temp to 325-345 until brisket hits 160, then foil for 90 minutes (I swear my next attempt I won't use foil Popdaddy, I promise!)
3) Remove foil to firm up the bark, and bump temps up a bit to 340-350 until tender.

The meat: 14 lb choice packer (previously frozen). Injected with Dr. BBQ's beef
injection.



Locked and loaded at 10:20AM. My standard sugar free rub.



1:40PM and internal temp is 140 degrees. Added a little more rub and opened all the vents to ramp to 325. I'm using the sand mod this time, so had to prop the access door a while to get the temps up.




My Fuel: Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. Probably my favorite IPA, although technically it's a double or imperial IPA. Just a wonderful beer.



3:30PM, internal temp is 160 so time to foil.



After removing the foil, added about 1/2 cup of defatted juice to a jar of Head's Red BBQ sauce. This BBQ sauce was sent to me by brother Bill as part of a trade, and I believe is made by another Brethren, but I forgot who Bill told me that makes it. It was very good!




Pulled at 6:45PM with internal temps around 203, probe tender.



Sliced up. Very nice bark, what I was shooting for.



Served up with some tomato, cucumber and vidalia onion salad. Some fresh dill and basil from the herb garden thrown in.



The verdict: I was very happy with how it came out. All that smokey flavor that was missing from my last high heat brisket experiment was there. Still got a 14 lb. packer done in under 10 hours, so I think I'm going to stick with this method. Next time I'm skipping the foil to make Popdaddy happy and I'll compare.

That's all!

helljack6 said:

I did however see on another website, that the guy does 14lb packers in 4 hours 20 minutes tops. Perhaps you might check out what he does and compare it to what you did and see where the process differs.

Click to expand...

That was actually the guide I used for my first high heat brisket, which was done in about 4 and a half hours. That one came out OK, but just didn't have enough smokey flavor and bark for me. This method was an attempt to combine low and slow along with high heat, so I could get more smoke and bark. This took a little longer than expected (about 8.5 hours), but I think it's a nice compromise in that I can start it aroundn 10AM and still have it ready for dinner.
I still have some tweaking to do, I might try a "medium high heat" brisket next at around 275 degrees and see how long it takes.

Barbarian said:

Just curious, did you let it rest at all??

Click to expand...

I tented it with foil on the cutting board and let rest about 35-40 minutes. I really like a heavy, crunchy bark so I didn't want to foil/cooler and end up steaming the bark.
I'm still struggling with the point though. I'm new to full packers, so I don't know how much fat usually renders out with a pure low and slow, but I'm ending up with quite a bit of fat in my points. It was literally falling apart, so there was no way to cube it. I just ended up chopping it, but it was difficult to remove all the fat.

thunter said:

I love how you foiled the ends early in the cook. I assume that is to keep the ends from burning because the WSM gets hot around the rim - excellent! I will definitely remember that! :-D

Click to expand...

Yes, I just take some heavy duty foil, fold it into a square and then wrap it around the two handles. Then I tuck the brisket into each handle. As you said, the WSM gets hot around the rim so it acts as a heat shield. It helps to spray the foil with some Pam also, as the brisket can get stuck to it.