Rant: My brisket stall took 11 hours and nobody warned me about the bottom heat

I spent 14 hours on a brisket last Saturday thinking the stall would be maybe 2 hours tops. Instead it hung at 160 degrees for almost 5 hours and I nearly lost my mind checking the smoker every 20 minutes. What nobody told me is that if your firebox sits too low, the bottom of the brisket gets way more heat than the top. I finally rotated the meat and propped it up on a foil pan and it broke free after another 6 hours. Has anyone else had to rig their setup mid cook because of uneven heat from a cheap offset smoker?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas20d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that sounds brutal, I've been there with a cheap smoker and it's pure misery.

barbarahill20d agoTop Commenter

Oh man, I feel your pain. My first brisket was a total comedy of errors where I ended up using a brick wrapped in foil to prop one side up because my cheap offset had a terrible hot spot near the firebox. The bottom was basically jerky while the top was still raw, so I had to flip it like a pancake and pray. Nothing like learning about heat distribution through pure panic at 2 AM with a beer in one hand and a meat thermometer in the other.

olivia_webb10d ago

I've heard that flipping the brisket and rotating it is a lifesaver with uneven smokers. Some guy on a BBQ forum said he rotates his cheap offset every hour and lines the bottom with fire bricks to soak up the heat.