Ok...here's what went down.
Saturday early afternoon I trimmed the brisket from 19 lbs down to about 14.5...It was a choice brisket, but I did notice that there could have been more fat in the flat, although it wasn't too bad. The point was very thick with lots of fat so that made me happy.
I went with simple 50/50 blend course kosher salt and black pepper, and decided upon straight Oak to use as my smoke. With such a large piece of meat I wasn't too worried about over smoking it, so I put in 6.6 oz of wood chunks.
After rubbing, I put it back in the fridge for about 3 hours, took it out at 6 p.m and left it out on the counter at room temp until 7, putting it in to the Amerique cold, and set the temp for 250. I use a Thermosmoke "Smoke" dual probe thermometer, and set the first alarm at 165 to check in the middle of the night and make a decision on when to wrap.
I woke up on my own right at 2 am, and rolled over and looked at the remote display (bluetooth) and saw the temp was at 162...I got up and opened the smoker to examine the meat and noticed that it had a nice bark and good color so I decided to pull it and wrap it in pink butcher paper. In hindsight, I might have let it go a little longer before wrapping it just from a bark standpoint, but decided it was close enough and wanted to go back to sleep. I returned the meat back to the smoker and closed my eyes again.
At 6 am i got up and made a cup of coffee and checked out the temp...still only at 165...ugh. Stall time. we had intended to leave our place at 1 pm to travel an hour to my buddies house to his Super Bowl party, and knew at this point we'd be cutting it close.
Well, along with a watched pot not boiling, this thing stalled FOREVER! at 10 the temp was only up to 170 and barely moving. My wife and sister now starting to get nervous that we're not going to get on the road when we were supposed to...Chill, ladies and have a beverage. So they did...and so did I.
At noon, the brisket it at 175 and I increased the smoker temp to 275...1 pm rolls around and its at 180. I finally make the decision to pull at 190 win, lose, or draw and ret it in the cooler.
2:15 and the probe hits 190. I open the door and reach in to grab the brisket and when i remove the probe, i slid it back in, butter...I smiled.
Wrapped in some old towels and threw it in the Rtic cooler and made the trip up the mountain. Thankfully there was tons of food up there and people weren't starving, but i still got hounded to bring out the brisket when we pulled in the driveway. Patience, children...it needs to rest another hour.
Finally at around 4:40 I pulled it out and cut into the end of the flat.
It was a little done in the flat, but certainly not overcooked, just not as much internal fat as I would have liked to have seen, but very edible, and according to everyone else, delicious. I went ahead and sliced the flat into a little bigger than pencil sized slices and served them in a big tin pan, and accompanied it with some Kosmos Original barbecue sauce. Left the point loosely covered with tin foil on the cutting board and covered it with a towel to let it rest a bit more.
Upon cutting into the point it was a sight to behold...perfectly executed. My takeaway was that I didn't feel as though it had enough smoke, so next time I may end up adding a little pecan with the oak, but over all, not over seasoned or over smoked, or over cooked. I divied it up and left some with the host, and a couple other sets of friends, and still had plenty to bring home for us for leftovers.
I have to say, I am so impressed with this smoker. For one, the temp never wavered too far from the 250 mark, although it was outside and it got down to 20 degrees out here in the desert. I never did tell the Mrs. how much the smoker set me back, but at this point I think that she would know that it was worth every cent.
Thank you all for the replies and advice! Hopefully this helps someone else out in the future as well.
Cheers!
MeatE.Or