First (real) cook and observations

[GrillnBrew]

Cooked a brisket from a local farm on Saturday, cook went pretty well as I am learning my vent settings and configurations.  I started with a full basket of Fogo black bag, and started it in one spot.  With my KJ, I leave the lid open for about 10 minutes to make sure I have a good fire going, then close the lid and close down the vents.  I did the same thing on the KK, and couldn't believe how quickly the charcoal caught and the fire I had going.  I closed and sealed the lid, shut the cap down all the way and then opened it up about 3/4 turn.  I opened the bottom left vent about 90 degrees and set the right vent on the pencil sized hole.  About 5 minutes later the dome was reading 400, I knew the fire needed to be choked down more.  I closed the left bottom vent completely and set the right to the pencil-sized hole.  About 30 minutes later I was at 250, so I added some pecan chunks to the fire, when I could smell the pecan, I put the brisket on and the temp was at 265.  After 3 hours, I went to check (pic below) and the temp was about 265, a little higher than I wanted but nothing to be concerned about.  Opening the lid, my sunglasses fogged up from the moisture, never had that happen before, and I could see condensation on the gasket.  The aroma was incredible, I thought I had smelled "good smoke" before when it was thin and blue, but the intensity of the pecan and beef from the kk was a totally different level.  A few hours later I went to take a temp reading as I knew it was nearing the stall, and the grill temp was up to 300.  I wrapped the brisket, closed the cap down all the way and opened it up about 1/3 turn and set the lower vent to the smallest opening.  Two hours later I went to probe and the temp was up to 330, again I wasn't worried as the brisket was wrapped, but I was surprised the temp had continued to increase.  I could still smell the pecan, so I thought maybe another chunk had caught fire and thus the temp increase.  When I removed the brisket, the grill temp was about 340, so I shut the cap, the lid and the bottom vent.  I let the brisket rest about 90 minutes (people were getting hungry), and then sliced it.  After smelling the meat all afternoon, people were grabbing slices as quickly as I could cut them.  The flat, which I have always used for sandwiches or tacos, was really tasty, not dry at all, I actually put a couple pieces on my plate.  The point was melt in your mouth heaven, my hopes of making burnt ends disappeared as quickly as the slices I was cutting. Thankfully I didn't cut it all and I do have some for leftovers.  Overall, I was impressed with the way the KK performed, and I'm guessing the top cap is going to be my key to nailing my temperature.  The other thing, I had put the lower rack in and put the drip tray on that.  I then put a foil pan in the drip tray hoping to collect some of the rendered fat from the brisket.  Everything in the pan was burnt, there was not even any juice remaining.  What is a better way to set up the pan to collect juices and fat without burning?  And thanks for all the posts so far, I doubt my brisket would have turned out as good as it did if I hadn't researched everyone else's cooks first!

 

 

[braindoc]

Sounds great!

How much did your brisket weigh?  Also curious, how many hours were you cooking?

[Syzygies]

2 hours ago, GrillnBrew said:

The other thing, I had put the lower rack in and put the drip tray on that.  I then put a foil pan in the drip tray hoping to collect some of the rendered fat from the brisket.  Everything in the pan was burnt, there was not even any juice remaining.

What drip pan? KK sells a double bottom drip pan, to lessen this effect. While one never needs to use a "water pan", a brisket might survive having some water in the drip pan, which might last enough of the cook. This is an experimental question.

I've found that enough salt to properly brine or dry rub my meats makes the drippings too salty to use. Forced to choose, I like the effect of the salt on the meat, and I give up on the drippings.

[tony b]

If the 32" behaves similarly to my 23", your top vent was too open for the target temp that you were shooting for. On mine, 250F is about 1/8 turn off the seat. The bottom vents don't really control temperature, as long as you're not starving the fire of enough air to keep burning. 

Agree with @Syzygies - The double drip pan from Dennis would be the way to go if you want to keep the drippings.

As long as your guest were enjoying the meat, you did a proper job! We've all had to learn from someone who went before us. That's one of the best things about this Forum - members willingness to share what they know and their "failures" as well. 

[GrillnBrew]

22 hours ago, braindoc said:

Sounds great!

How much did your brisket weigh?  Also curious, how many hours were you cooking?

I would say about 10 lb after trimming, and it was on the grill 9 hours plus and hour rest.

[GrillnBrew]

22 hours ago, Syzygies said:

What drip pan? KK sells a double bottom drip pan, to lessen this effect. While one never needs to use a "water pan", a brisket might survive having some water in the drip pan, which might last enough of the cook. This is an experimental question.

I

I used the drip pan which comes with the grill, basically it's SS round serving tray.  The double bottom drip pan is on my wish list.

[GrillnBrew]

2 hours ago, tony b said:

If the 32" behaves similarly to my 23", your top vent was too open for the target temp that you were shooting for. On mine, 250F is about 1/8 turn off the seat. The bottom vents don't really control temperature, as long as you're not starving the fire of enough air to keep burning. 

Agree with @Syzygies - The double drip pan from Dennis would be the way to go if you want to keep the drippings.

As long as your guest were enjoying the meat, you did a proper job! We've all had to learn from someone who went before us. That's one of the best things about this Forum - members willingness to share what they know and their "failures" as well. 

I think it may take a few more cooks to get the "feel" of the top cap down.  I tighten it all the way down, then loosen until there is very little resistance from the gasket and make my adjustments from that point.  I'll be doing my burn in either Sunday or Monday, and I will play with the low temps before I really start to heat it up.

You are right, the proof is in the taste, and like the beer I brew, I am my own worst critic as I know the little things that didn't go quite right and I am looking for those things when I taste it. I had a couple of slices of the flat for lunch today and it was still really good, it did not crumble at all like I have had the brisket cooked on my KJ do.

[Forrest]

Nice cook!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[braindoc]

2 hours ago, GrillnBrew said:

I would say about 10 lb after trimming, and it was on the grill 9 hours plus and hour rest.

Thanks for the info.
The last brisket I cooked was about 14 pounds post-trimming.  I cooked it the day before we planned to eat it because I was not keen on doing it overnight (this was on my now departed large BGE).  I was not too concerned about maintaining temp because I would have been using a Flame Boss Controller.   I’ve been wrapping with pink butcher paper after they hit the stall and really don’t want to get up in the middle of the night to wrap.  I suppose I could just do an unwrapped brisket and sleep soundly.  Decisions, decisions.

[tony b]

17 hours ago, GrillnBrew said:

like the beer I brew,

Glad to see another homebrewer on the Forum. There are a few of us here.