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Karma, man. It's all about karma! If you need another hobby in retirement, I can hook you up and teach you to make your own beer. Been doing it for over 25 years. But, now in retirement, I'm hoping to scale up a bit. Construction is finishing up this morning as I type this, on my new brewing room in my basement. Finally, a place to brew, clean, keg, etc. without having to haul all my gear back and forth from the basement to the kitchen!

Hi all. Cooked a 4 lb beef brisket flat this weekend after the tryptophan wore off from Thanksgiving.... Brined it for 12 hours in OJ (quart), Habanero tabasco (2 Tbsp) and 1/4 cup of Kosher Salt. Poured the brine into a Ziploc and let it marinate overnight. Rubbed it (after patting it dry) with a liberal amount of yellow mustard and then a homemade rub (cup of dk brown sugar, 1/2 cup paprika, 2 tbsp coarse black pepper, 1.5 tsp chili powder, 1.5 tbsp garlic powder, 1.5 tbsp onion powder, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp kosher salt. Heat soaked the KK for an hour and brought it up to about 250* (thermometer) but the iGrill read 275* or so on the main grill surface. Did so with some ECC in the fire basket and 2 wax cubes (leave the dome open once I light them to get the fire going for a few minutes). Added a mix of apple, cherry and hickory wood (chunk of each). Let the KK go for about 7.5 hours (followed progress on my iGrill). Interesting that the meat plateau effect kicked in and took 2-3 hours at 160* where we simply moved sideways (all the heat being used to convert collagen to gelatin). Disconcerting because you think your cook isn't going well when you see it move laterally for so long but sure enough after some time it busted through the plateau and kept on climbing. Now don't laugh at me but it was pitch black when I took the brisket off the KK and when my iGrill read 200*. Wrapped it in foil and then in some towels and let it rest for an hour. Sliced it against the grain and 24 hours later it is all gone. Absolutely phenomenal. Tender. Moist. Juicy. Not a huge smoke ring and a wonderful flavor without anything too overpowering. Sorry for not having more photos. Next up - a whole packer brisket and my goal of doing some burnt ends! Special thanks to Robert (user 5698k) for all his help and advice on this cook and a bunch of others. - Noel

Second that. I would even suggest a bit higher: 375F - 400F to get crispy skin.

Gary, you can start the cook at 250 but don't finish it off at 250. From my experience you should cook chicken and turkey around 300 - 350 to get the skin nice and crispy. A brine or good injection will help keep your bird juicy good at higher temps. At 250 you'll have a tender juicy bird but skin will most likely be rubber. Larry,:miss you buddy! Craig

I'm partial to my Jack Daniels and Maple Syrup Brine found here - http://komodokamado.com/forum/topic/2336-jack-daniels-and-maple-syrup-brined-turkey/?hl=%2Bjack+%2Bdaniels+%2Bmaple Video of the cook here -

LK - I've done several turkeys on TheBeast, a KK BB 32. Every one was easy peasy. No problems at all and it's dead simple. I brine my birds AND i inject. Yes, both. Starting two days ahead of when I want to eat the bird, for my brine I generally use salt, sugar, some herbs ... rosemary & thyme come to mind, some citrus peel ... orange and lemon, and let it sit overnight. I then pull the bird and let it dry in my refrigerator for a day. You want the skin bone dry. Then the day of the cook I oil the skin with a high temp oil, generally grape seed oil and I inject with butter, garlic, onion, and powdered thyme or rosemary or sage and some maple syrup. Notice there is no stuffing in the bird cavities. I will also ice down the breasts so that they are done around the same time as the leg'/thighs. I bring TheBeast up to 350F and let it heat soak a couple of hours. Then it's on the grate with some maple wood for a light smoke. At 350F it takes a 20# bird something like 2:45 - 3:00 hours to reach my pull temp of about 155F. Thermal momentum will carry it to 165F easily. You'll get a nice crispy skin on a turkey with the 350F and grape seed combo. I don't do low-n-slow on turkey ... the temp doesn't get the skin temp high enough to crisp up. Also, most meats only absorb smoke until the outside of the cook hits 170 or so. Nothing much happens after that, so a long low-n-slow doesn't gain you very much. Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving!