We have neither of those places, this is a one horse town lol. Guess it’s time for a road trip

That’s a common misconception. Most dry briskets are undercooked. It doesn’t sound like yours was but that is the usual culprit. When you cook a steak the myoglobin and other moisture is what is “juicy”. Myoglobin is the red liquid that people usually confuse with blood. When you cook a well done steak the proteins squeeze a lot of this moisture out of the steak which is why it’s dry.

Briskets do this too. We just cook past that point. A brisket with an internal temp of 175 is dry as a bone. The long cook relaxes the proteins which causes tenderness, but you can’t replace the liquid. When you get a hot enough internal temperature the marbled fat starts to render out which takes quite a bit of time that marbled fat is where the juiciness comes from. It takes hours to render. That’s why people say probe tender instead of temperature. If you cook at 275 and have little marbled fat your brisket may be probe tender at 200 degrees. If you cook at 225 and have a lot of fat it may be 212 degrees. This is also why people say to rest for hours in an ice chest. It keeps the temperature high enough to render fat but doesn’t cook the brisket anymore.

Remember wrapping wasn’t intended to give you a juicier brisket. It was to help push your brisket through the stall at about 160 degrees. I’ve had plenty of never wrapped briskets that were excellent. But I don’t like a four hour stall. Each wrapping method will produce a different brisket.

If I had to guess, and it’s only a guess, I would say the freezer was your culprit. Fat doesn’t freeze well for more than a few months. I would suspect some of the fat hardened up and wouldn’t render during cooking which is why it came out a tad dry.

I wish someone would explain this stall. What is the scientific reason/proof why an object in a controlled heat environment would increase in temp to a set point and then stop for several minutes/hours and then start changing again? Also curious why the thickest part of the brisket the point would be 10 degrees hotter than the thinnest part.

That's basically it. When I said you cook the juiciness out of it that's where it is going. To the surface of the meat, where it evaporates and cools the brisket back down. That's why it will hold temperature for so long. The same thing happens if you baste something with liquid continuously, it slows the cooking down.

Evaporation cools. Think about working outside. Your sweat is basically the same temperature as your internal body temperature. So how would sweat cool you down if you and the sweat are the same temperatures? Chemical reactions take ENERGY. Evaporating liquid sweat is a chemical reaction. When your sweat evaporates off of your skin it takes ENERGY in the form of heat with it. The actual evaporation is what is taking the heat with it. That's why it "feels" hotter in super humid areas. Sweat has a more difficult time evaporating when the air is saturated. That makes your body cool less effectively and you stay drenched in sweat. When the proteins tighten in the brisket and squeeze the myoglobin and water out it is effectively sweating and cooling down the brisket. When the liquids are gone it will keep on climbing.

Your second question has to do with fat content I believe. Fats thermal conductivity can change the cooking speeds and "doneness" levels. For example, a medium-rare on a venison steak is about 125°f versus a medium-rare on a ribeye is 130°f. I believe the fat in a slow cook will also help insulate the meat and make it cook slightly faster. The point has a much higher fat content than the flat.

Think that is the best explanation of the "stall" that ive ever read. I still dont cook with a thermometer in my brisket though. I just poke it.

Well—it’s complex, luck, one cow to the next, what type of cooker, pellet or offset, wood?, temps, about a thousand other things. I personally like offset, deep mesquite bark for six hours, wrap till tender. But, but, like a rifle choice, if you like it-that’s all that matters. It looked good!

It ate good. A tad over done but man it was tender. You can tell by the fall off and the thick slices. It was like jello when you poked it.

I use a Camp chef pellet grill set to high smoke which is 225 degrees. I start at midnight and between 6-7 am I wrap in foil and contuin to cook till 203 degrees. Sometimes brisket will stall at 195-199 and never reach 203. At this time I pull it and rest in cooler till 140-145 then slice.
Good bark, tender and moist.

I use a Kamado, never used the "crutch" method. No foil, no paper until reaches 203 degrees, then foil, towel and ice chest for at least 4 hours.

I never had one myself but the best prime rid I ever had was up in Kansas at a NSTRA trial .

I've only had my RecTeq a couple of months & I haven't done a brisket on it yet. Its hard for me to get away from my stick-burner for brisket. I did my first pellet grill turkey breast the other day & I'm always worried about it getting too dry. I injected it with Kosmos moisture magic & it came out fantastic. I've never tried the stuff on a brisket but my bro swears by it. He says its the cure/insurance-against a dry brisket(?)

Just FWIW...