A few reports and observations on last night's brisket cook, still going on now at 11 AM this morning. First, here's the prime Costco brisket as I took it out of the fridge yesterday to prepare it- approximately 14.5 pounds untrimmed. The second photo shows it trimmed and dusted with Maldon salt and coarse-ground pepper. It went on the 32" KK at 1 AM with the Guru set at 225*, I wanted it to cook a little more slowly than typical, because if I were actually trying to time it for dinner on Sunday at 6, working backwards, I would have started it at 4AM, and sorry, I am not getting up at 4AM to start a brisket. So....the third photo is brisket at 9AM, ready to come off and be wrapped. The Guru was reading the cook temp at 216- the KK's thermometer was showing it a bit higher, maybe 240. The Guru's meat probe was showing the brisket at about 175-180 at this point. The last photo is the brisket, tightly wrapped, and ready to go back into the smoker. At this point I raised the Guru temp setting to 280*.
Here's the rub: it is now 11 AM and the brisket is nearly done- one probe, the Guru's-showing about 198* and some probing with my Thermapen, is showing low 190's in some other parts of the brisket. So what's going on? If I follow all the standard instructions- Franklin and the like- I should expect this brisket to take 12-14 hours and then I should rest it for 2 hours. It looks to be now like it will be done 12 and will need to come off. If this is the case, I should be getting up at 6AM to put a brisket on and serve it at 6PM (6 AM being acceptable, 4AM, not.)
What are your experiences? How long does it normally take you to cook a 14-15lb brisket? At what temps? When do you wrap?
BTW, this is a BEAUTIFUL brisket.