Brisket, up or down?

Age old debate of cooking a packer trimmed brisket low and slow with the fat side up or down? I see recipes calling for cooking them both ways. I have a 14# well trimmed whole brisket on the Traeger currently and have the fat side up.
Your preferred method?

Low & slow/indirect heat - fat side up.

Hot & fast/direct heat - fat side down.

You've got it right.

I wasn't aware that there was even a debate. Here's my current situation...

not saying it's a bad thing, I just don't think I have ever cooked a brisket on direct heat

Bubba has it right.

Up.

I think it depends on the smoker. I did my last one down, it turned out rely good.

always up............

Fat up when smoking

It absolutely depends on the smoker & heat source.

I have always been a fat side up on the Traeger but last night I was looking at brisket recipes on the Traeger site and found about half calling for fat side down.
Anyways, I started smoking at 9 last night for 4 hours. Then raised Temp to 225 and cooked till it hit 160 ( about 4 hours) wrapped it in foil with some Coca Cola and finished till it hit 204 about 3 more hours. It’s resting wrapped up in the ice chest till family, friends and “ others” get here at 1:00 for lunch.
It was a “triple cook for the chef...... Herradura, shots last night, Bloody Mary early and now beer. Cook and meat will be perfect shortly.

Hanging.... LOL in a Pit Barrel.

Back when I had a pellet pooper I cooked fat side down until I wrapped it at about 165. I flipped it then. Always turned out great.

Me too

On the stick burner I always went fat side up, on the pellet smoker I go fat side down. You can also get away with a lot more trimming on the pellet smoker. I smoke over a water pan too

I've cooked several out working on the road in an Ol' Smokey & Weber Kettle, fat side down/direct heat. Turned out surprisingly well, just keep your fire small. Not as good as my usual briskets but sure made some meals.

I always put fat up and the point end towards the fire.

Fat side up seems to keep the meat juicer if it’s smoked right, never cooked one on direct heat!

Helps keeping the meat most.

I smoke mine starting fat side up for two hours and theN Flip it for another two hours. After that I wrap it fat side up and finish it in the oven or pit without anymore smoke. I really don’t think it matters. It will always turn out good as long as you cook it low and slow.

100% the only thing IMO that matters is the heat source location. If it's directly under the meat like a barrel smoker, vertical smoker, kamado joe, etc. the fat goes down. This keeps the fat between the heat and the meat which keeps the meat from drying out. On an offset, the hottest part of the grill is towards the top of the lid. So fat side up for the same reason.

At the end of the day, it depends on how picky you are. All the little crap you do makes your brisket a little better. Do none of the little stuff and you can have a really good brisket. Do all the little stuff right and it will be great. But how much work do you really want to do to make something really good just a little better? I'm talking injecting the meat, let it sit seasoned overnight, keep full airflow to the fire and don't choke it, adjust the wood every 20 minutes to keep the temperature where you want it, don't use pellet grills, spritz the thin spots so the whole brisket cooks at the rate you want it to, buy specialty pepper and then age it, and all the other crap.

agree on location of heat source and heat flow thru the pit. I have a LyfeTyme double door with vertical smoker. The heat flows high in the horizontal chamber and I put fat side up. In the vertical chamber, the heat comes out of the horizontal portion to the far side and then up, so I got fat side down. Growing up, we used 2'x8' open pits (had 10-12) and we would start fat up, but flipped about every hour between mopping.