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Well, here's the results: the good news is, the Snake River brisket is, as advertised, very high quality- though not noticeably better than the prime brisket I can get at Costco for, of course, a lot less per pound. Maybe there could be some debate about this, if you are a real brisket fanatic, maybe you can discern some significant difference: I can't. Second, after all the issues with the early part of the cook, I got it done, and it was....decent. Very good bark (as you can see). I might have even trimmed too much fat- hard to tell. I'm not Aaron Franklin, but I am sure he would know. Good smoke- I like post oak better than anything else I've used (fruitwoods, hickory). The family was happy with and practically inhaled about 2/3rds of the finished brisket, as you see from the middle picture. I also was able to send enough home with them for lunch today for 5. Then, the bad news and the diagnosis: I've had brisket from some of the best- Franklin, LA Barbecue, Snow's, Truth, Mickelthwaite...I know what it CAN be. My flat was tasty but a bit dried out, and therefore not as tender as it could and should be. The point- the fatty part- was more moist and tender but not as good as the best. It may end up as brisket hash tonight, which is not bad. Now, the debrief. Why was it dry? The last one I did came out pretty close to perfect, though not perhaps exactly 'Franklin-level". So remember, the night before I had started the brisket at about 325* and tamped it down to a whisper, thinking it would fall to 275-300. I NEVER thought I'd get up and find the KK nearly cold 5 hours later, at 6 AM. There are several good pitmasters, like John Mueller, who cook at 300*, so I wasn't worried about it starting off hotter than my normal 250*. The meat was still at 135* when I started it back up and brought it up to 275-300 for the rest of the cook. So why did it dry out? We don't know what temp the meat reached at maximum before falling to 135*. So it might have been up as high as 165-70, for all I know, and maybe it dried out in the second phase of cooking. I certainly wouldn't recommend a two-stage cooking method. Also, there is the matter of the "rest". I thought the brisket would finish at 3 or 3:30 and be served at 6- that would have been nearly ideal. It finished faster than I thought- about 1:30-2 and immediately went, wrapped in its butcher paper, into a very tight disposable styrofoam cooler that we had available. Next, dinner got pushed from 6 to 7:30, so the brisket stayed in the hot cooler, "resting" from 2 to 7. It was still 155* when I pulled it out to slice it, just before serving. So maybe I should have rested it less long, and maybe used a cooler which would have allowed for more heat dissipation? It will be different next time, but any brisket cook is a difficult timing challenge. If, for example, you want to start dinner at 6PM, working backwards, you want a 2-3 hour rest, a 12-14 hour cook for a good 15-17 pound brisket. So for a perfect schedule, you'd start the brisket at 2-3 AM or so for a 6PM dinner, and you'd be taking it out to wrap around 6 hours more or less into that. Starting a cook at 2AM really doesn't work for me. If you wrap in foil to keep it moist, you can destroy the bark. So it's a challenge- I will be interested in the thoughts and suggestions from this group, which has many skilled and experienced KK cooks.

You can close close the lid pretty much right away after you get it lit. It probably takes an hour to get to ~500 with the pizza stone in starting from a cold start. And maybe another 20 min to get from 500-650/700. Everyone’s experience is going to be a bit different depending on setup.

I'm doing pizza for dinner tonight. I just lit the KK and when it got going well (over 200F) I put in the pizza stone on the upper grate. I'll take note of the time it takes to reach 475F on the pizza stone (I have an IR thermometer).

Braai-Q- I had a Lang reverse flow stick burner before I switched back over to the KK (had a Richard Johnson Kamado for 12 years before that. Good, but not nearly as well constructed as the KK). The logic of the Lang is that is has a false bottom running the length of the cooking area, and the smoke and heat are supposed to travel the length of bottom, enter the cooking chamber, and exit through the chimney which is on the same end as the firebox. (It looks really strange.) It is supposed to even out the temperature in the cooking area and eliminate hot spots. It does that pretty well. Since I put my water trays on the bottom, underneath the cooking area grill, I don't think there was very much radiant heat from the false bottom area. It made pretty great barbecue. My beef with it (no pun intended) was that it was extremely labor-intensive. One is always adjusting the fuel, the air flow, etc, trying to maintain a constant temp. You can't walk away for 30 minutes. It's about a 15-minute cycle and you are handcuffed to the smoker. A brisket cook would be a marathon. Other than that, build quality was excellent and it worked great.

I suggest that you put blue LocTite on the nuts when making this adjustment. DO NOT use the red stuff! That is meant for parts that are never or rarely ever dismantled. The blue holds quite tightly but you can loosen it when needed.

Paul I have the spit and the cradle. I thought the cradle would be good to jam larger cooks in, however, I’ve never used the cradle. Many times the spit. Others have said the cradle is tough to clean. I can see how it would be tougher. It would into my dishwasher afterwards, if I used it, so I don’t see cleaning it as a problem. Here is my grate storage solution. Two large decorative iron hooks and can easily play musical chairs with them to uncover the desired grate. I thought fishing them in and out of drawers would be a pain. Those iron geckos have a tail( hook) that stands out just short of 2 inches and can hold 4 grates. The moose could do the same....... but then where could I rest while I cook? Mascots everywhere now! [emoji3] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk