06/18/2026
First time smoking brisket!*note* im not in the US and the cut i got was a relatively small New Zeland brisket, way leaner than i expected on the flat but the point was DRIPPING and all of it was super super tender and the entire family devoured it
Lets get into what the process was like
Smoked on a pit boss pellet smoker:
- Seasoned it an hour before smoking with salt and coarse black pepper and jack daniels beef rub
- Set the smoker to 225F and had water pans in the bottom rack and the brisket on the top rack (fat side up, mistake)
- Smoked it overnight from 9PM till 6:30AM uncovered ofc
- Temp was 170 when i woke up and bark looked great
- Since i knew it was a lean cut, i put it in a foil container with some smoked beef fat & spritz with water then crimped the edges to seal
- removed the water pans (Big mistake)
- cranked the heat to 250F & Let it cook for 2 more hours (another big mistake)
- Pulled at 9 am and rested for 4 hours in an oven to eat by 1PM
So lets get into what i think went wrong:
1) By the time i woke up at 6 am the water pans were dry and all the water evaporated
2) I removed the empty water pans instead of refilling
- both these led to the bottom of the the brisket drying up in the middle a bit, honestly my wife LOVED the dried up bits so no issue (you can see it in the left side of the point cut a bit)
3) I only have an instant read thermometer and not one i can keep in the brisket which i can monitor from my phone (next purchase for sure) so after 2 hours i checked it and it was at 212 when i pulled, just made thicker slices and i was good but i think that dried up the already lean flat a bit more that i wanted it to
4) cooked the brisket fat side up and the heat
5) I shouldve trimmed the mohawk a bit more
All in all.. it tasted AMAZING, not much effort at all, maybe im gonna try to inject the next one in the flat next time? Still really proud of this one for a first try
