WTS Brisket question

[KyNola]

Randy beat me to it again as usual.  Mesquite is a very strong smoke and some would say maybe an acquired taste.  Randy has given you good advice in switching to a bit of a milder wood and decrease the smoke time to develop your personal taste preference.

Sounds like it turned out well for you otherwise.  Congrats!

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Well, if everything else turned out good for your first brisket, then take a bow.  Great work !

One other thing, a braise finish will tend to dilute and/or spread the flavors of the rub and smoke throughout the meat more so than a naked cook.  Many prefer that, others prefer a wake-you-up highly seasoned bark against the ore sublime meat as a contrast.  Both version are excellent and both versions win in competition.

The amount of smoke, like other taste elements, is a very personal thing.  If you found the smokiness to be too much, do as FLBR and KyNola have suggested next time -- cut the smoke time in half, try different woods, etc.  Experiment and have fun with it until you figure out your preference.  There are no bad results, just different flavors along the way.

[chooch]

... and used mesquite for 4 hrs.

The  Bradley Mesquite, IMHO, is the strongest smoke you can use in a Bradley Smoker. I would switch to, say, Oak and cut the smoke to two hours and see what you think.

Sounds like a plan. I've got all the smoke, save for the cherry since I saw somewhere there was a carcinogen concern. I'm curious to try the oak, and I just got an actual packer from the market a few days ago. After I go through the two bacon trials I have curing I'm gonna try the packer with oak at 2, maybe try and spice up the rub a bit more with some more cayenne and chili just to try and find more "kick".

[chooch]

I shoulda read page 2 before posting that last one.... thanks for the incentives!

When I got this smoker I was thinking I'd be doing more jerky drying than anything else, I do like smoked butt and smoked meats generally but not so much to the point where everything I cook needs to be smoked. I can say that of the two things I've done so far, the smoke was just too much since it kinda just killed off any other flavors. I'd be happy to smoke a good long time as long as I can keep the flavor of the rub up on the same level as the smoke. I get what BLSH is saying when he mentions braising tends to meld all the flavors together... the ribs, now the brisket, it seems that this is exactly what happened both times... everything mixes into a kind of blah mash of undefined flavors except for SMOKE.

For now I think after those first two attempts I'd like to try something more like BLSH mentioned which was: I'd like a smack in the face spice or rub flavor to be full on with a healthy compliment of smoke. My thinking of smoking is more that I'd like the smoke to be "added" to the rub and meat flavor rather than rearranging all the flavors into something I can't discern. I've only done two things, but the braising thing seems to have suppressed all the vibrancy of flavors into a mash, although I appreciate the tenderness an all day smoke and braise offer. I don't mind some meats fighting back as it were, not that I have to use a steak knife to cut but a bit of resiliancy is more to my tastes when I grill. My wife prefers meat to fall off the bone with ribs, and when there's a blast of flavor from the sauce, that's OK. Me, I kinda like a little fight in the meat with that blast, it's what I remember about ribs at the picnic more than the more "gourmet" version we seem to lust after when we get older.

Anyways, I have 2 bacon slabs to do, then I'm gonna try a different approach for more initial vibrancy from spice then slowly back into the smoke. I'll let you know how it goes.... once again, my thanks for all the feedback.