5.5 lb Beef Brisket on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker

BRISKET!!

I am smoking a 5.5 lb flat today.  I will add photos as the cook progresses.  The cook started by lighting the coals in the chimney starter at 6:30 AM.  The brisket was placed "fat side up" on the grate at 7:15 AM.

The seasoning this time is primarily salt and pepper with a very light touch of the modified Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning & Rub that contained a little more salt and paprika.  The wood used for smoking was three pieces of pecan and one piece of cherry.

I decided to use my "real camera" this time instead of my iPhone which I usually use for cooks because its convenient and the fact that my DSLR usually stays at my photography school. The images were taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens.

"Creosote Smoke" - not good for smoking.  Wait until the smoke is like the photo below.

"Thin Blue Smoke" - ideal for smoking.

One hour into the cook.

3.5 hours into the cook. The internal temp is at 155 degrees. The temp at the grate level is at 250 degrees. I have been spritzing the brisket with Swanson's Beef Broth starting at around 10:30 AM.

It's 12:15 PM and it's been 5 hours into the cook and the meat has stalled at 147 degrees.  The brisket will now be placed it into an aluminum foil pan and covered the top with foil.

I also put in some Swanson's Beef Broth in the foil pan.  Now I'm just waiting until the internal temperature hits 201 degrees.

The finished product.  It took a total of 9.5 hours.  While it was tender, it was a bit dry.  Thinking more about it, I believe the fact that I poured the entire can of the beef broth into the aluminum pan was a huge mistake.  Essentially, there was so much liquid in there that I essentially boiled the meat for hours in the broth!  Others use the liquid very sparingly just to keep the meat damp. But with a whole can of liquid and the meat sitting in it for hours in the smoker, it just boiled the meat!!  This is a contributing factor as to why the meat was dry after resting.  I won't do that again!

My first brisket was a lot better and looking back, I didn't put a lot of liquid in there.  I had wrapped that brisket in aluminum foil and so there was no way to put a lot of liquid in there.  But having an aluminum foil pan, it was easy to just pour all of the can's contents in there without fear of it leaking out.  Big mistake!  I'll do better next time.

Even though the brisket was a bit dry, the slices did pull apart easily and doing the "bend test", the slices did bend over when held in the middle too... so tenderness was not an issue.

Edit note:  A bit of advice from Jim Minion from the "Fans of the Weber Smokey Mountain" Facebook group: "...pull the brisket off the pit at 185 to 190 internal, wrap in HD Foil and place in a small dry cooler, the intenal will continue to rise 10 to 15 degrees. If you pull at 201 internal you are going to get the same bump in internal temp but that will get you over 210 and the flat has started to dry out. You can add a little moisture in the foil before going into the cooler but you won't need much."  Very good suggestion!  I will do that next time as well as limiting my liquids.  Beef is not as forgiving as a pork butt on the smoker!