Separate Point Before or After Resting For Burnt Ends

I cooked my first packer brisket overnight on my BGE and want to make burnt ends with the point. It was about 11.5 lbs before I trimmed some of the fat off. I put the brisket on the smoker at 8:50 PM yesterday and at 4:00 AM the internal temp reached 161. I wrapped it and just got up (6:30 AM) and the internal temp. was 205, which seems like kind of a fast rise. The smoker was about 235 when I went to back to bed and when I got up this morning it was down to 208. Most of the cook it was at 228 to 231. I hope the temp. didn't swing upwards and cooked it too fast.

Anyway I wasn't sure if I should separate the point and chop it up and put back in the smoker with extra rub and some BBQ sauce or rest the whole brisket and then separated for burnt ends? I decided to wrap the whole thing and make the burnt ends after resting.

I thought this brisket would take longer. Every time I make a pork butt it seems to take forever (6 lb. butt took 15 hours and an 8 lb. butt took 18+ hours) but this thing was done in 10 hours. I suppose I did wrap the brisket and don't wrap my pork butts so maybe that's one big difference. On the bright side it looks like I'll be having a nice lunch.

Next time (and yes there will be a next time :grin I will separate the point before I wrap. It turns out I didn't have to opportunity to make burnt ends. After I wrapped the whole packer to rest I talked to some family and ended up telling them I was smoked a brisket. Well that turned into a family lunch so I made some homemade macaroni and cheese (recipe from Dr. BBQ's Big Time BBQ) and homemade strawberry ice cream for desert.

By the time we finished eating and I gave a little away to to family I didn't have a whole lot of the point left over. So I vaccuum sealed it and froze for left overs when I have a craving for BBQ.

In case anyone was wondering I used Three Little Pigs Memphis BBQ Rub and injected with Butcher's Brisket Injection (I used water and left it a little thick so it wouldn't run out so quickly).

This is what it looked like. The knife was my grandfather's knife when He was a chef many years ago. It is my mother's favorite knife.

This was the first time I used it on a brisket and I really liked it. I've tried it on ribs before and they turned out well.