Best Brisket (Could be Meat Quality)

From "abysmal" to "some of the best"? It is possible that it was this piece, but did you do anything differently than you normally do? The quality of the cut will certainly make some difference, but you are descibing a HUGE difference.

What grade is the meat you get from Costco? The Angus part is a brand thing. Not that it's a bad thing, but the grades themselves are strictly USDA supplied. Select and Choice are the ones you normally deal with as a consumer.

What are you paying for the Costco brisket? If the price is less, try this... Buy one Costco brisket and one brisket from your new purveyor, smoke them at the same time, with the same prep, and see how they come out. Another consideration is that you said you bought this Angus brisket from a meat market. If you mean that you are dealing directly with the person that is selling you your meat, it might be worth some extra money to build a relationship with this person.

Just a few thoughts! Glad your brisket came out great!

I've cooked the angus and the kroger specials both in competition and have done well with both. As long as I take my time sorting through the cuts at kroger/sam's/wally world/heb and choose nice briskets I can not tell any difference between the 2. I opt to save the $3.00 a lb. and buy more beer

Funny that this came back to the top as I tried another one of these Angus briskets from the same butcher last week. Same excellent results.

After the initial meal, I had about 4 different variations over the next week from the same piece so I really got my money's worth. When I was throwing those cheap ones out after trying to eat them I was not feeling too thrifty.