Both meats turned out great! I had 1/2 lb left over from the 24 lbs I cooked. Couple of lessons learned (there are always lessons learned):
1. My smoker temperature is too low: Sometimes (either as a result of fuel, low ambient temperature, wind, etc) your smoker won't keep the temperature you want/need. Despite your best attempts to add more fuel, use a welder's blanket, whatever the technique - you just can't keep the temp you need. In cases like this - best to move indoors and finish your cook in the oven. Word to the wise though - use an oven thermometer that is seperate from your oven as most oven's are off from their stated temp. Mine is about 40 degrees off. That's a huge difference (that needs to be fixed by the way).
2. Brisket stall: Briskets will stall (meaning they stop climbing in internal temperature) at about 160 - 180 and will remain at this temperature for hours. Many novice BBQ'ers will freak out wondering what is happening and ruin their cook by applying more heat. Learn about the stall and learn how to control and manage it.
3. Don't use a serrated knife to cut brisket: I forgot a good knife and the only one I had in my tailgating bucket was a cheap, serrated knife. My meat was so tender that the knife shredded it (notice the pulled/shredded apperance). Still tasted great and was moist but didn't have the pretty brisket slices I wanted.
*** Tips for Cooking Brisket and Pork Shoulder - especially when things go wrong: For some reason my smoker had a hard time keeping temperature about 9 hours into my cook. I tried adding more fuel but that didn't work. I had a 10am hard stop and was concerned the meat wouldn't cook fast enough so I removed both the brisket and the shoulder and placed them in the oven at my desired cook temp. I watched the internal temperature like a hawk but it wasn't climbing (even after tenting with foil to expedite getting through the stall). Come to find out my oven thermometer is about 40 degrees off. Heck of a time to find that out! I cranked up the oven temp to hit my target temp and finally got the meat to 198 degrees (my internal temp target for both).
