Inaugural run of my new Brinkmann smoker

Well it's a little delayed but my first ever smoked brisket has been completed, and was both a success and a failure - a learning experience from which I gleaned more lessons than delicious meat.  But regardless of the outcome, it was fun, it was relaxing, and it was great practice for the upcoming holiday meals.

I started off by setting up the smoker, filling the water pan, and soaking the hickory chips while my brisket rested.  Once everything was ready I went to put the brisket in the warming smoker and realized that - in my zealous attempt to try out my smoker with an enormous brisket - I had purchased a cut of meat that was too big to fit.

LESSON 1: Make sure your equipment can handle the task at hand, or at least think ahead with a plan.

After cutting the brisket in half I finally got it to fit into the smoker... And away we go!  I was checking it every 15 minutes or so and after about the first hour I noticed that the fat had started oozing through the rack - which lead to my second lesson of the day...

LESSON 2: Place the meat fat-side up to allow it to congeal in the smoker and get the best flavor (this will also help with clean up).

About 90 minutes in I was becoming famished.  I decided it couldn't hurt to have a snack, but it turns out that when you're famished like I was you can't just stop snacking  - so I ended up stuffing myself full (thinking it would be at least another four hours before dinner was ready anyway...).

It was about that time that I decided to check the internal temperature of the brisket.  Expecting it to be 95-100 degrees I found that by cutting the brisket into two smaller pieces, it cooks much faster.  The internal temperature of my brisket was already 140 degrees!  Which leads me to lesson #3:

LESSON 3: Use your brain, you idiot... smaller pieces will cook faster than larger ones (of course in this case I'm referring to myself as the idiot - not you).

Panic began to set in as I realized that the brisket would be done far sooner than my appetite would return, so I turned the heat down as low as possible to prolong it's completion as much as I could.  During my waiting time I began considering what wine I should have with this (hopefully delicious) brisket, and knowing nothing about wine I decided to turn to the expert.

George Miliotes (@TheWineExpert on Twitter) is one of only 170 Master  Sommeliers in the world.  Usually working on finding new wine selections for the Capital Grille steakhouse (which I'm excited to dine at later this week) he was my first choice for some great wine advice - and he did not let me down!  He recommended not one, not two, but THREE vintages of Zinfandel that would hold up well against the hickory flavor of the beef.  Thank you, George!

After about three more hours of low and slow smoking the internal temp of the brisket was 160 degrees and I could not let it cook any further.

LESSON 4: Never cook your beef that well done (in my opinion it just has better flavor cooked to a nice medium-rare).

As always, I gave it a few minutes to rest before cutting into it.  The internal temperature of beef will continue to rise even after you take it off the grill.  The outside was deliciously glazed and flavorful... the inside however was quite dry.

LESSON 5: Baste or brush your meat with a marinade or sauce periodically to help it retain it's juices while smoking.

Like when I ran my first (and only) triathlon - I made a few rookie mistakes when I smoked my first brisket.  Unlike the triathlon, however, I'm extremely excited to smoke more meals very soon.