Finally figured out why my brisket stall was always 3 hours longer than everyone elses

Been doing competition BBQ for about 5 years now and could never get my briskets through the stall in under 4 hours while guys next to me were done in 1.5. Tried wrapping, spritzing, raising temps everything. Last weekend I watched a buddy set up his smoker and realized my firebox air intake was half the size of his. Swapped to a wider intake pipe and my last brisket flew through the stall in under 2 hours. Anyone else ever miss something that simple for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese5502d ago

That air intake thing is a good catch for sure, but I gotta disagree a little bit. Plenty of people run smaller intakes and still push through stalls fast, they just manage their fire differently. The real trick is learning to read your smoke color and fire bed depth way before you ever touch the intake size. If you're dumping fuel in and choking it down with a tiny intake, yeah that's gonna suck. But a smaller intake can actually give you better control over your thin blue smoke if you know how to run it. I swear half the battle is just being patient and not panicking when the stall shows up. Different strokes I guess, but bigger isn't always better when it comes to air flow.

spencer_wood3d ago

That thing about the air intake size makes so much sense now that you mention it. I had a similar issue with my offset for years where my temps would just bottom out no matter what I did. Finally a buddy who builds smokers took a look and pointed out my stack was too short and narrow. Swapped it for a taller wider one and the airflow difference was night and day. The whole fire just breathed better and the temps held steady way easier. It's crazy how one little measurement can mess up everything. I bet half the guys out there are fighting airflow and don't even know it.