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How long will it take to smoke a brisket?
If you’re wondering how long it will take to smoke a particular brisket, you have come to the right place.
For starters, it will usually take anywhere from about 1 pound to 2 pounds per hour of cook time to fully render a brisket complete.
This is the most common cooking ratio that many seem to follow, myself included.
There should always be a temperature variance when smoking brisket, at around the 225°F Mark to around 300°F. These two different variances are known as hot and fast and low and slow.
How long will it take to smoke a brisket per pound
There is a very specific ratio that people follow when calculating the average cook time per pound for a brisket.
For low and slow cooks, at around 225°F, expect about a 1 pound per hour of cook time. For hot and fast cooks, expect a temperature ratio of about 2 pounds per hour.
How long does it take to smoke a 6 pound brisket?
Taking the same cooking ratios mentioned above, let’s quickly calculate a 6 pound brisket cooking length.
For low and slow cooks at around 225°F, a 6 pound brisket would be done in approximately six or so hours give or take.
For hot and fast style of cook, you can expect a 6 pound brisket to be completed and fully rendered down by about the 3 to 4 hour mark.
This is strictly an average, and each brisket that you have may vary slightly in terms of the overall cook length.
How long does it take to smoke a brisket at 225?
It should take about 1 pound per hour to fully cook through a brisket of any size or weight, assuming it is smoked consistently over the entire cook at 225°F.
That means that if you happen to wrap your brisket, that will start to increase the internal temperature cooked through rate, which would decrease the overall cook time even though you may have been consistently smoking it at about 225°F.
If you are smoking at that low range, and don’t wrap it, but happen to be opening the smoker chamber quite a bit, then you could certainly prolong the cook past a 1 pound per hour cook time.
How long should it take to smoke a brisket?
Since we’ve covered the different options available to you as a pitmaster, the question becomes which one should you choose?
The cooking temperature I would recommend that you choose is hot and fast.
That is because it basically cuts down the cooking time of smoking a brisket low and slow in half.
The results are pretty much the same, and in some cases a lot better.
That means that the length of time that it should take to smoke a brisket is about half as long as a brisket smoked at low and slow temperatures.
How long should it take to smoke a brisket at 250
If you happen to be smoking a brisket at 250°F, then you should know how long it should approximately take. Specifically, a brisket smoked at that degree mark, would rather take 1 pound per hour to fully cook through.
The difference between 225°F versus 250°F is really not that large, therefore an easy way to calculate how long a particular brisket would take to cook at that temperature range, is to simply use the low and slow cooking ratio of 1 pound per hour.
Take that ratio and multiply it by the weight of your brisket to determine your overall length of time.
How long to smoke a brisket at 200
Since most briskets are anywhere from around 10 to 20 pounds, It’s important to plan ahead and know in a general sense how long you will be expected to fully cook one through.
Even at 225°F, you will be smoking a brisket for up to 10 to 20 hrs.
That’s why I recommend that you do not even consider smoking a brisket at 200°F.
That’s because it will be less than just a one hour Per pound of cook time to see any brisket through to the end.
You lose quite a bit of time in the process, not to mention all the fuel that would be needed to sustain that length of cook.
The temperature range you should be smoking at for quicker results
Temperature range that you should always consider smoking a brisket out for the best results, it’s hot and fast. This is at anywhere above 275°F.
Final thoughts
Since you want to know how long it will take to smoke a brisket of any weight or size, you need to adequately prepare and plan ahead in determining the overall length and how it fits in with your schedule.
If you do not have much time on your hands, or don’t like to waste time to begin with, then you should always consider smoking a brisket hot and fast.
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.