Might do some ribs today or tomorrow. But they had brisket packers on sale... I carefully selected my brisket looking for even distribution of fat and uniformity of the overall cut. These packers happened to be select-grade with a bit more fat than a super-trimmed brisket. Figured I got a nice 9.5 pounder after looking through the pile.
About 3 hours in at 150 slowly raised to 225 and held for the next 12 hours.
Put the brisket on about 1530 and pulled it from the egg at 0645 when finally tender. Sealed in pan with foil and wrapped in 2 towels. This was placed in an unlit oven while I went to bed. Just unwrapped the still very warm brisket at perfect serving temps. Quality control gives this brisket high marks. I used my own carefully crafted rub
after massaging the meat liberally with nước mắm.
I figured since this particular brisket was leaner than my usual "Choice" packer it would have to be lower and slower than usual. And it was. Normally I'd use temps up to 275 for 1.25 to 1.5 hours per pound with the cuts being about 10-12 pounds each. Use a water-pan when doing brisket for humidity and temp stability- this also catches the bulk of the grease that drips off the brisket. I found that in extremely long and low smokes that drip lots of fat directly onto the coals results in a funky flavor in my BGE. The smoldering greasy smoke imparts some of that nastiness to the bark and ruin the brisket. I'll have to say this has only been a problem with beef briskets, and not lamb, pork or chicken.