Yoder Smokers Community Forum

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Yesterday I smoked my first brisket on my new YS480s. I started it 250. After about 3 hours increased to 275. A probe on the grill at the back left corner, adjacent to the point of the brisket, was then 245-250, which is what I wanted. The other probe was in the meat; it came up steadily.

The meat temperature hit 200 at about 6 hours. It had been a pretty steady rise to that point. Then held pretty steady. At 8 hours it was at 204. I pulled and wrapped it, put in a cooler. I let it rest another 2 hours, at which point the temp was down to 168. I would have liked to let it sit a little longer but it was dinnertime!

It came out really good, except that bottom (lean side) was charred. Past bark/burnt end. Any ideas? Lower temp? Flip half way through?

With that exception I am very happy with my first attempt. One of the best briskets I've ever done. I like the set it and forget nature of a pellet smoker, and the consistent temperature. I also the graph feature on the phone app. No question when the stall started!

Next time, put the fat cap down. Yoder cookers cook from the bottom up, so place the fat cap down to help prevent what you experienced. Cooking at higher temperatures, and the fat cap being up, is what I would guess happened.

Thx. that makes sense.

I had the exact same problem with my new YS480s. I'm new to pellet smokers too, and have cooked briskets in my stick burner without this issue in the past. So I will try the fat cap down and try and run it at 225 (measured with a probe in the cooking area) throughout the cook. Thanks Yoder_Herb!

On another note, I have used water pans and water in the bottom of my stick burner cooking chamber in the past to help hydrate and even out the temperature fluctuations when I cooked briskets and ribs. I was thinking of cooking my next brisket in the YS480s on the top shelf furthest away from the heat source, and through trial and error found some apparent hot spots on the top shelf especially in the back right corner. I experimented with placing different sized water filled aluminum pans on the lower shelf in different spots to try and even out the temperature on the top shelf where the brisket would be and think I found something that works. I was thinking using the water filled pans on the bottom shelf mainly to even out the heat in the cooking area in the top shelf and act as a buffer from the radiant heat from the heat source and also to provide some extra hydration during the long cook. I don't wrap the brisket and usually it is a straight cook for 12 hours +- until it is done.

Any thoughts on the use of water pans like I described?