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Brisket stall temp
If you’re wondering what the temperature is for brisket during the stall, for any cook, it is usually around 150°F to 170°F.
There are a variety of factors that can impact a certain brisket’s temperature range for the stall.
The most notable of which is the actual grade that you happen to be smoking.
That means that for prime brisket, you can expect an average temperature range for the stall to be anywhere from 160°F to 170°F.
That is simply because of the fat content and marbling within the meat.
There is more connective tissue and collagen between all of the muscle fibers to begin breaking down and causing the internal temperature to flatline for several hours.
For choice grade cuts of meat, you can expect the standard 150°F to 170°F for any particular brisket stall range.
All of this to say however, these estimations are purely guidelines to follow and you should monitor your briskets accordingly depending on its unique amount of fat content.
This also applies to when you actually decide when to pull the brisket off the smoker because even though it may be temping out at 200°F, there is more or less connected tissue present within each individual Brisket, so just keep these little tips in mind.
When does the stall usually occur
Depending on the grade of meat you have and how much it weighs, the brisket stall can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to actually reach its peak in the cook.
To get even more specific, the average temperature range for a brisket stall is around 150°F to 170°F.
Despite the amount of collagen within the meat, you also have to pay attention to the actual weight of a brisket.
This can also serve as a factor as to when, and how long it will take to actually reach the stall itself.
That means that on average, the brisket will certainly reach the stall anywhere from 150°F to 170°F, but what you need to understand is that there is a wide variance in the length of time it takes to actually reach that point in the cook for each individual brisket and that is where the weight comes into play.
For smaller cuts of brisket, expect the average wait time to be a lot lower than those of higher weight Packer style briskets.
Brisket stall temp range
If you want some quick guidelines to follow as to when or what the average temperature range for a brisket to reach the stall at, follow this advice.
The average stall temperature range for any brisket is anywhere between 150°F to 170°F.
As noted above, you should always use this as a pure estimation and should plan accordingly throughout your smoking session.
Brisket stall temp going down
One of the main characteristics of a particular brisket stall is that the temperature will actually seem to go down rather than up.
That is simply because the moisture is being rendered out at a rate equal to the ambient temperature, which causes a phenomenon that makes it seem like the brisket is actually decreasing in temperature.
The brisket however, it is actually cooking all the way through so you just have to be patient.
If you are overtly concerned about the temperature decreasing, make sure that you have plenty of charcoal and wood burning and consider putting more fuel into the fire to crank the ambient temperature up even more.
This should help expedite things and get your cook going a lot quicker.
Another great method that some like to use is wrapping the brisket during the stall.
This basically is another method that can greatly increase the rate at which the internal temperature pushes through the 150°F to 170°F temperature range.
All of the residual heat that otherwise would’ve been expounded from the brisket is then trapped within the encasing of either butcher paper or foil which has the effect of making the brisket cook a lot quicker than usual.
What temp does the brisket stall end
You can expect the brisket stall to end at around 170°F.
That is when the internal temperature starts to increase a lot quicker than it had previously, and you should not have any flatlining of internal temperature going forward.
Even though you’ve spent several hours tending to the fire and perhaps increasing the ambient temperature, just know that now the brisket will experience an exponential growth in the internal temperature and will certainly get to the famed 200°F reading very quickly after this point.
Just make sure to quickly monitor the brisket and the temperature readings every hour or so going forward to make sure that it does not get over cooked.
How long does the stall last for a brisket?
Once your brisket reaches the internal temperature of around 150°F, you can expect a flatlining of temperature readings to be consistent throughout several hours until it reaches 170°F.
That is known as the brisket stall and how long it will take for it to conclude.
How do you get past the stall on a brisket?
Getting past the brisket stall is super simple.
All it takes is a little bit of patience and perhaps even some tweaking in the ambient temperature of the smoker itself as well as wrapping the brisket to push it through quicker.
Increasing the internal temperature for a brisket during the stall can be done by increasing the ambient temperature at which you are smoking it.
For example, if you happen to be smoking a brisket at around 225°F or 250°F, but want to push the brisket past stall quicker than it currently is cooking right now, go ahead and crank the heat up to around 300°F.
This should effectively cut the stall time by over a half and get the cook overall done a lot quicker.
If you would rather just wrap the brisket to try and push it to the stall quicker, that is certainly an option as well.
Some wrapping techniques for pushing a brisket through the stall include wrapping it with foil and wrapping it with butcher paper.
Both can be excellent methods to use, and it’s something I’ve personally used myself.
Brisket stall temp 180
Some Pitmasters have reported that their brisket stalls occurs at around 180°F.
This can certainly be the case in larger cuts of brisket with lots of marbling and fat content that need to be rendered down, but if someone is experiencing this phenomenon, they need to check their thermometer probe accuracy.
The most common temperature ranges for a brisket stall to occur is around 150°F and 170°F.
Not 180°F.
To properly test your accuracy of your probe, just place it in a flask of boiling water and measure the variance of the temperature readings.
This should help you quickly determine whether or not the brisket is actually stalling at around 180°F or not.
Even if it is actually starting at around 180°F, just continue to use the tried and true methods of pushing it past this point in the cook.
That means either wrapping it or increasing the temperature even more.
More importantly, just have a little bit more patience and rest assured that the brisket will be done very quickly.
Brisket flat stall temp
Brisket flats definitely experience stalls just like any other type of brisket.
The only difference regarding special brisket cuts like a flat only kind of meat is that it takes a significantly less amount of time to actually reach the stall itself than it does for a large Packer style brisket.
Final thoughts
Reaching the Brisket stall and knowing what temperature readings you can expect are very important. The brisket stall usually occurs anywhere from 150°F to 170°F.
There is really nothing you can do about it outside of wrapping it to help increase the internal temperature a lot quicker, as well as increasing the ambient temperature at which you are smoking it.
Besides those two methods, it is recommended that you just have a lot of patience and don’t make any rash decisions.
Robert is a certified Pitmaster, with over a decade of experience in smoking the best meats you’ll ever feast upon. He also has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio. When he’s not researching technical topics, he’s most likely barbecuing in his backyard.