Prep Work:
The day before cooking:
⦁ Go ahead and trim the Brisket (keep the fat trimmings), apply generous amount of Dry Rub and store brisket in the fridge uncovered (fat side up). Place it on a rack w/ something underneath to catch drippings. Note: you want air circulating all around and underneath the brisket!
For the dry-rub I use: 1tbs powder garlic, 4tbs black pepper, 3tbs salt. I switched from Kosher salt to table salt. The Kosher salt doesn’t do much for me! Feel free to experiment with your own or other dry rubs out there.
⦁ This is a good time to start working on the Beef Tallow by placing all fat trimmings into Slow Cooker and let the cooker work on low heat. You can add a coup of water and Stir every hour or so to prevent burning. Keep in mind, fat rendering can take 8+ hours. Strain after all is done and keep the Beef Tallow aka ‘Liquid Gold’ for later use. You can also go with store purchased beef tallow.
⦁ Proceed with prepping your grill, in my case it’s the Kamado Joe 18” Classic III. Its charcoal basket I load full of lump charcoal. Add couple large pieces of hard wood for the smoke placed underneath the charcoal (Hickory in my case but Pecan is great as well).

Cooking Day:
⦁ 1hour before cooking, start the fire and let the grill reach its ‘stable’ operating temp of ~275 Fahrenheit. It can be anywhere between 225F and 300F. However, 275F temp produced the best results for me on this Kamado Joe Grill that’s cooking w/ indirect heat.
⦁ Also 1 hour before cooking take the Brisket out of Fridge and leave it on the counter, to reach room temp. I keep the brisket ‘fat side up’ all the way throughout. Proceed with injecting Brisket with the Beef Tallow. This process will further warm up the meat from inside.
⦁ Place your temp monitoring device into the middle of thickest part of the Brisket.

Phase1 (Smoking the Brisket till 180F internal):
⦁ Make sure grill has reached its operating temp of ~275F.
⦁ Time to start cooking/smoking phase. Place the brisket fat side up.
Note: when smoking fat side up, there is NO need to spray the brisket. For those smoking fat side down, spray every hour or so with solution 50% apple cider vinegar / 50% cheap beer.
⦁ Keep monitoring grill’s temp and make sure it never exceeds 300F! Also, keep monitoring brisket’s internal temperature. It’s time to remove when brisket’s internal temp reaches 180F. Tho, you can be anywhere between 175F and 185F. I like 180F! Other things to watch for: Check bark moisture isn’t pooled, and it evaporated. Brisket has dark bark.
Note: this phase can take anywhere between 6 and 10 hours to complete. With outside temp at 45F on non-windy day it took 17lb brisket to reach internal temp of 180F in 7hrs and 16min. This is in my Kamado Joe smoker.
⦁ Towards the end of Phase1 proceed with prepping the wrapping paper. Go ahead and spread enough butcher paper onto your counter to wrap the entire brisket. Coat the paper with beef tallow. If butcher paper isn’t available, you can use parchment paper instead.

Phase2 (Cooking the Brisket (wrapped) till 203F internal):
⦁ While brisket reached its internal temp ~180F, go ahead and remove temp probe and wrap the brisket in butcher paper.
⦁ Place the temperature probe back in and brisket back on the grill. Keep grill temp at ~300F. Note: depending on your grill type, this might be a good time to reload charcoal. Thanks to Kamado smoker’s thermal properties, there is no need for me to do that. Also, keep in mind smoke production isn’t needed from this point on. That’s because meat is wrapped in the butcher paper. Also, if it’s too cold outside; this step can be done indoors in your oven by placing it on 300F.
⦁ Keep an eye on internal temp and take the brisket out when temp reaches 203F. For me it took 1hr and 30min for Phas2 to complete.

Phase3 (Allowing Brisket to cool down to 180F):
⦁ Take the brisket out and leave it on the counter while still wrapped.
⦁ Leave temp probe inserted to monitor internal temp at all times. Target temp is anywhere between 165F and 180F. I like to go by 180F. Note: this step can take up to an hour or so!

Phase4 (Brisket resting in cooler, 2hrs minimum):
⦁ After brisket cooled down to 180F it’s time to remove temp probe and wrap it in thick towel. Keep the brisket in its butcher paper. Don’t loose track which side was up, and which side was down. In my case, the fat side is always up.
⦁ Put the brisket into a cooler and let it rest.
⦁ Resting recommended minimum of 2 hours. I read somewhere ideal would be 8-12hours of rest time.
Note: Brisket in this video rested full 6 hours.