I've always done up. I just want to try down and see how it goes.

I just hate moving it too much and disturbing my bark.

As someone mentioned above, the pit does have something to do with it as well. I have two offset stick burners and one vertical and they do cook differently. But I still start fat up and turn down once wrapped on all of them. I find that it helps maintain my smoke ring because once wrapped my bark is not saturated in the jizz.

A cooked a few times in a competition and the smoke ring made a difference in a tight race. My opinion is f the smoke ring and cook it as you like.

Understood! But when you cook 11 cookoffs a year for 27 years, you don't cook many briskets at home! My home BBQ is normally Chicken or Pork Butt.

It's neither. What you need to do is hang it from a hook in a vertical smoker above an aluminum pan. Once the meat isn't strong enough to support its own weight it will fall into the pan, that's how you know it's done.

I honestly don't think it matters unless it's close to the heat source. If it's close then I would probably go fat side down. Otherwise I would say rest is the most important once it hits your desired temperature. Let sit in a cooler for at least an hour.

I prefer down. With it up, it seems to wash off more seasoning. I don't think it really matters much. The thing about the fat melting and making the brisket moist is bs.

I'm going with what my Bryan homie says.

https://www.smokedbbqsource.com/smoking-your-first-brisket/

If the heat source is directly underneath the meat, my experience is it's best to do fat side down or at least flip it to protect the meat.

On an offset smoker I've always done fat side up.

Regardless of the debate of fat side up or fat side down (fat side down is the right answer, by the way), God gave us two hands: one to tend the smoker/meat and the other to hold a beer while we are doing it.

I have an offset stick burner. Never tried anything beyond fat cap up, and don't see any reason to. My brisket turns out just fine as is.

Turned out really well. Little tough on the flat. Flavor was great. I hit 202 and let it rest for an hour. It only stayed on for 7.5 hours, which is a little shorter than I would've liked.

Oyster DuPree said:

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This close to the vernal equinox, you'll want your fat cap perpendicular to the precession of the moon. That ensures maximum ketchup absorption. I have a proprietary brisket gimbal that I've set up for this purpose

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John Cornyn? That you?

Had another cookoff this weekend and got 8th and 12th in Brisket out of 44 teams. Not our greatest showing but not bad. Obviously several teams had more than one spot, so they got more than one turn in.