I'm far from an expert, and I'm somewhat lazy, too.
This year a followed Stuart's brine recipe pretty much with a few tweaks of my own. I added about a cup of dried minced onion. I heated the brine to disolve the salt, sugar, spices, and to rehydrate the onion. I let the brine cool, and then brined a 18 lb turkey for 36 hrs. When I took it out of the brine, I put it back in the frig for a couple of hours to help dry, and then put it right on the smoker. I didn't use rub or anything else.
I smoked at 180° for about 1-1.5 hours and then kicked it up to 325°. I sprayed it a few times with the butter flavored cooking spray, and pulled it when it reached 165° in the breast.
It came out a nice golden color, and turned out to be the best looking and most flavorful, moistest turkey I've ever done.
I've never messed with the cheese cloth. Like I said, I'm somewhat on the lazy side. With the results I got this year, I don't plan on changing a thing.