I'm in unchartered territory (I've never smoked a brisket this large). Here's the backstory. We're having 16 adults and a couple of kids over on the 4th, and I'll be smoking a brisket, that I'll be serving around 2:30 p.m.

Normally I'd buy an 18 pound Prime brisket at Costco. However, for reasons unknown, every brisket at the local Costco (Knoxville, TN), is Choice and no bigger than 12 pounds. Found that to be the same (small briskets) at just about every grocery store in this area...nothing bigger than 14 pounds. Finally found a National Beef choice brisket at a Kroger over near Gatlinburg, but it weighs 23.4 pounds. Yikes!

Working backwards. 25% trim loss takes me to 17.5 pounds. Figure 75 minutes per pound. Will smoke it on a Weber Smoky Mountain between 225 to 250. Would like to rest it for 4 hours.

I'm thinking I need to get it on the smoker no later than noon on the 3rd.

Any input/perspective is solicited. Thanks in advance.

If it were me, I would not trim to keep more moisture in it, I'd assume 1 hour per pound at 225, and I would plan to wrap it when it got to about 170. Working backwards, I would start it around 10am. If it gets finished early, there is nothing wrong with letting it rest another couple of hours wrapped up in a cooler. Cooking it closer to 250 will get it done quicker, but will risk drying it out more.

Stick with your existing plan, throw some hotdogs on to keep people happy until the brisket is ready.

Wow big brisket! Normally I don't trim Briskets anymore but, in this case, I think you're dealing with an excessively fat brisket so I would opt to trim a little removing some of the heavier fat areas. My guess is this cook would take me 12 to 14 hrs.' my way from putting brisket on to pulling it off at 203 degrees. I would smoke at 225 degrees for six hours then pull brisket and wrap. I would increase temperature to 300 degrees and start to probe at 12 hours hoping to reach the 203 temp at the 12-to-14-hour mark. Trick is to wrap that big of a brisket really good so no juice escapes. You will use a lot of foil. I would then let brisket rest at least 1.5 hours then open up and pouring juice into pan which I might slightly drizzle over meat after being sliced. Good luck on this cook. Thats a big brisket!

Trim well, keep trimmings for rendering.

For somethign that big, a water pan would be a good idea and I typically don't bother with them.

1.5 hours per pound at 225-250, once bark is set wrap with butcher paper and increase the heat to 275-300. 4 hours rest is not necessary, but won't hurt. I'd budget a good 30 hours total, and if it finishes early then so be it.

Make sure you have plenty of wood for the fire, running out would be no bueno. I'd say you could always finish in the oven, but honestly - not sure a brisket that big would fit in most ovens.

Not to hijack this thread….. but you guys that arent trimming your briskets anymore….. does this include deckle fat????

alvtimes said:

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Not to hijack this thread….. but you guys that arent trimming your briskets anymore….. does this include deckle fat????

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Would like to understand this too.

There's also that layer of silver sinew on the meat side.

For me, I'd trim it to about 1/4" of fat and remove some of the big chunk of fat between the flat and the point.

Cook it at 325 until it hits about 180, wrap and continue until it's done by feel, probably 200-205.

It would likely be done somewhere between eight and ten hours. Then, hold in a cooler several hours, if possible.

Gotta trim the hard deckle fat and then start low and slow at 225-250 until the stall. Then wrap and bump the heat up to 325 if needed after. Still plan on .75hr per pound at minimum

For some reason I misread the OP title and these guys were my first thought.

alvtimes said:

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Not to hijack this thread….. but you guys that arent trimming your briskets anymore….. does this include deckle fat????

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If the fat cap is excessively thick and hard, I will trim it down to around 1/4 to 1/2" of fat. But most of the ones I buy at HEB are smaller (<8-9#) and have already been trimmed to some degree.

I love it when a plan comes together.

IMO choice normally does better.

Trimmed you will be about 18#. I find that most are done in 18-24 hours.

I recently started using a fillet knife for trimming brisket. Works quite well.

Always 1 to 1.5 hour per pound.

I'm using a Weber Smoky Mountain Smoker. It has a vertical design, with the heat source on the bottom, a water pan above it, and the grate above that. It's 22" in diameter, which only allows me to smoke one brisket.

The heat source is charcoal. I'll place several 2" x 3" pieces of red oak within the charcoal. Typically, I re-load the charcoal and replenish the water about 8 hours into the smoke. Because of the volume of water, 275 degrees is about the max I can get, unless I remove half the water.

I really like the idea of rendering the fat from the trim and baste it on the brisket later. I also wrap, though I'm intrigued by Goldee's method of not wrapping theirs. I'll save that for another day.

I appreciate the comments. 24 hours ago, I was quite apprehensive about this. At this point, I'm looking forward to it.

Don't forget to braid it!

Weber Smokey Mountain

That size I would split it

Shoot you better start the fire now

For the tallow

agenjake said:

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Anytime we talk briskets I think people should include what part of Texas or which foreign country they are from. There's got to be a geographic factor on how long we cook our briskets. I'd allow1/2 hour per pound and someone else says 1 1/2 hours per pound. And we're both right.


*South Texas mesquite user, hot and fast advocate.

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True. So many factors and I've struggled with many of them.
I only got in the brisket game about 8 years ago so my experience is fairly limited.

The first factor is the size and quality of the meat.

When I lived in Sydney, Australia, I had to go to my local butcher in Narrabeen and usually take whatever they had in stock which could range anywhere from 2kg to 7.5kg (about 4lb - 16lb in American).
https://devittmeats.com.au/
These guys used to be my boys:


Since moving back to Los Angeles, I've found 3 stores close by that sell brisket but it varies in size and quality - usually between 12lb - 20lb.

Smart and Final has an 18lb - 20lb packer brisket with a lot of fat for about $3/lb but they're almost never in stock. Pavilions used to have 13lb - 17lb packer briskets in stock but they'd usually only have one and went up to about $11/lb once the "supply chain" issues hit.

That sent me over to Whole Foods where I can usually get something between 12lb - 15lb, grass fed, for what was $6.50/lb but is now about $10/lb. So before I spend $150+ on a brisket I've got to make sure I'm fully committed to cooking it properly.

I find that with the grass fed brisket from Whole Foods, about .75 hours per lb is about right. The other briskets take longer. And that assumes you pay attention and don't let your fire die out at any point.

Wood or charcoal is the next factor

In Australia, I had no way to source Mesquite or really any other kind of wood for cooking so I had to use charcoal. They did have briquettes and lump but Australian charcoal is terrible compared to Kingsford.

At a local Mexican market like Vallarta, I've found a couple of Mexican sourced lump charcoal manufacturers that are even better than Kingsford. I think in Texas, y'all might even have more charcoal options.

I have been able to buy the .75 cu. ft. bags of Mesquite or Hickory at Home Depot but, that is pretty expensive.

I've also used some of the trimmings from a grapefruit tree and a tangerine tree in my backyard.

Your pit is also a factor

I got started with a 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain that I bought at a Home Depot for $300 back in 2015. They're $450 now. I checked it as luggage back to Australia and it was hilarious checking it because the counter agents couldn't understand that there was no gas bottle, it was essentially just metal.

In 2021, I bought a Lyfe Tyme pit at HEB in Waco, rented a U-Haul trailer and brought it out to California. It's taken some work to try to figure out how to use the pit (air temp, hot spots, etc.) and the differences trying to cook with wood versus charcoal.

Using meat thermometers versus rule-of-thumb

My first thermometer was one meant for cooking in an oven. It was difficult to find but I got it at some fancy cooking store called "Sur la table" in Santana Row in Santa Clara, CA. The head unit is fine but the meat probes were meant for a short cook in an oven, not a long cook in a BBQ pit.

After those probes failed, I got some of the Weber probes and they've been pretty good although I broke one of them too. Personally, I always start a stop watch running when I put the brisket on. That way if the thermometer fails, I can fall back to the total cook time as a guideline.


So yeah, before we start spouting off random advice, we should include a few details about what we're working with and how long we've been at it.

ToddyHill said:

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I'm using a Weber Smoky Mountain Smoker. It has a vertical design, with the heat source on the bottom, a water pan above it, and the grate above that. It's 22" in diameter, which only allows me to smoke one brisket.

The heat source is charcoal. I'll place several 2" x 3" pieces of red oak within the charcoal. Typically, I re-load the charcoal and replenish the water about 8 hours into the smoke. Because of the volume of water, 275 degrees is about the max I can get, unless I remove half the water.

I really like the idea of rendering the fat from the trim and baste it on the brisket later. I also wrap, though I'm intrigued by Goldee's method of not wrapping theirs. I'll save that for another day.

I appreciate the comments. 24 hours ago, I was quite apprehensive about this. At this point, I'm looking forward to it.

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I've done a few overnight cooks, mostly back in Australia for New Year's Day. I managed to stay up most of the night playing Call of Duty and stoking the fire every 3 hours or so with charcoal briquettes.

Where I lived at the top of Collaroy Plateau, we regularly had high winds. And of course frequent rain. Those conditions made for difficult cooks.
https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=101006

My 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain had two grill grates which sat above the water pan. I found a couple things that pertain to your cook.

• A 23lb brisket would not fit on a 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain so right away, I'd be looking to cut it into two pieces and put one on each grate.
• You can put too much charcoal in and get things too hot although the water pan does a great job of regulating the temp. You will need to refill the water pan periodically. I found that a 750ml wine bottle does a great job of allowing you to pour water directly into the water pan and not splash onto the fire below.
• Using both grates, I would usually put the leaner piece on bottom the the fattier piece on the top grate.
• I found that with charcoal, 3 hours was the right refresh frequency to keep the fire going at a hot enough temp.
• You've got to use meat probes if you're serious at all. I recommend spending about $100 on the Weber brand ones. They've got several levels and brands and you can spend as much as you want, even getting ones that will report to an app on your phone.
• Use multiple probes in different parts of the brisket. Every once in a while you get a probe that just doesn't read properly, or you get a radically different reading between the flat and the point.

Don't freakout if the stall takes 4-6 hours for a brisket that size. It's difficult to not freak out by the way when it just sits there at 165F forever.

Once you reach 203F, pull it and wrap it in heavy aluminium foil and let it cool for a few hours until you're ready to serve. I find that usually after about 2 hours, the brisket has cooled to about 160F or so. "They" say to cut it around 140F so I usually don't wait that long due to the timing and logistics of when people are ready to eat.

For 23lb, even if you trim it to 20lbs, I'd give yourself 1 hour per pound plus another 4 hours buffer just in case you miss a fuel refresh in the middle of the night.

Good Luck!

ToddyHill said:

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I'm using a Weber Smoky Mountain Smoker. It has a vertical design, with the heat source on the bottom, a water pan above it, and the grate above that. It's 22" in diameter, which only allows me to smoke one brisket.

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You should have 2 cooking grates according to the documentation on Weber's site:
https://www.weber.com/US/en/charcoal/smokey-mountain/smokey-mountain-cooker-smoker-22/731001.html

I've used the 2 cooking surfaces to do things like smoke a brisket that is going to take 10 hours on the bottom grate but smoke some sausages on the top grate that will only take 1 hour and we'll eat for lunch while waiting on the brisket for supper.

EDIT: Funny, the web site says $419 for the 18 inch but the street price in the store is $450.