Took me 4 hours to figure out why my brisket stall wouldn't break

Ngl, I kept cranking the heat on my offset smoker but the temp just sat at 160 for what felt like forever. Turns out I had a clogged exhaust vent from creosote buildup, and clearing it took maybe 15 minutes - should have checked that first. Anyone else ever waste half a day on something that simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

betty_kelly91mo ago

Had a buddy spend three hours chasing a leak before realizing his temp probe was busted.

spencer_coleman1mo ago

@betty_kelly9 gotta love a good probe failure... at least his was only 3 hours though, not a whole Saturday afternoon like mine. Guess we all learn the hard way that the simplest fix is usually the right one.

mason_lopez1mo ago

Betty nailed it with the probe failure thing. I swear, I've done that exact same dance where you blame the meat, the smoker, the weather, maybe even the alignment of the moon before you realize your thermometer is reading 20 degrees low. It's like we all have to go through the five stages of grief over a piece of metal that costs twenty bucks. I once spent two hours wrapping and unwrapping a pork shoulder because I thought it was stuck in a stall, only to find out my leave-in probe was dead and the thing was actually at 195 the whole time. Felt pretty dumb pulling it off and slicing into it like a science experiment gone wrong. At least you caught the clogged vent, that's way more of a real problem than my fake one.