No I don't really know what I'm doing...we'll see how it goes. Big gamble too as it is for a BBQ party tomorrow afternoon with friends.
Beautiful, huge piece of meat. 13lbs though I trimmed probably a pound of fat off it. Simple Rub I got off the net: equal parts brown sugar, black pepper, salt, paprika and chile powder. Applied it with a bit of mustard to make it stick.
Put in ceramics for indirect and drip pan with water (paranoid about moisture). Cheap lump coal from the hardware store with some Applewood mixed in.
Can see a picture here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5380&p=46614#p46614
Challenge #1 -- brisket didn't arrive immediately right before I needed to start. So had to apply the rub and put it straight on the grill.
Challenge #2 -- Temperature overshoot. Partly because I'm not familiar with the grill. Partly 'cause I don't know what I'm doing. Partly because I didn't believe how little air I needed for this temp (even though I read it on this forum), and partly because I've realized my lid leaks a bit of air (will need to adjust some other day).
Anyways -- by time I prepped the meat the grill was at 290 degrees. I started choking it off. But (1) I remembered reading how long it takes for the grill to come down because of all the thermal mass and (2) at 1.5hrs per pound I was already running way late for eating time tomorrow. So made the call and put it down hoping I'd get it to temperature.
It's been about an hour. The dial on bottom is but a sliver. The top cap is closed beyond the point where I felt the friction of the gasket -- but I can still see a bit of smoke coming out (a little more is escaping from the front of the lid near the latch). Now down to about 245 from the original 290
So 2 questions so far
(1) Anything else I can do to try to bring it even a bit further down in temp without snuffing the fire?
(2) An hour between 245 and 290..probably an hour more before down the the proper, near 225 temperature -- will it be ok? Anything I should do to compensate?
----
Anyways -- thanks for any tips. Will post updates so you can track the saga!
Best,
Michael