25 deg. IT diff. in brisket

was the brisket frozen before smoking? maybe it was not thawed all the way through. also cut the deckle off and make some fine burnt ends! adapt. overcome.

If you weren't an experienced cook, I'd say that you were testing the point instead of the flat.

Could be the way it was positioned in the smoker?

I had a probe in both the point and flat. The point temp, was of course, lower than the flat. I always remove the point for BE.

The middle of the flat was around 200. The end of the flat (the flatter and thinner part) was the 175 area.

I ended up pulling the brisket with the mid area at 205 to 207 and the cooler end at 185. It wasn't too tender. The 205 area fell apart--had to cut it a bit thicker to hold it together.

re: the positioning it was laid right across the rack horizontally. pretty standard.

Choice brisket from sams