Brisket - Negative stall?

[michaelt1959]

Hi all.  5 hours into a 20lb brisket.  Stall at 155. I'm patient. It's been an hour now ....but she is moving backwards. I am now at 151 and dropping slowly.  My temp is VERY consistent @ 225.   This is probably my 50th brisket in 18 months and never experienced a negative move.  Is this to be expected? Anything special I should look for?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, as always.

 

[bmudd14474]

it is normal to have a stall that goes backwards a bit. Be patient

 

[michaelt1959]

Now 4 hours. She's stuck @ 149.

Glad we had a lot of Vodka, Champagne, and side dishes!!

 

[mneeley490]

Yeah, I've had briskets cool a few degrees during the stall. It does look weird but it'll all work out fine.

 

[paul6]

ump the temp 25 degrees when you get it moving up putt back to 225 I have done this in the past on stalls.

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Just hold your hr orses and be patient . you need not up the heat . If you are running a 225* , leave it go . .

Thus my tag line ,below . . .

 

[erikz]

As long as your smoker temp is consistent, I wouldn't worry.  I've had a pork butt drop a few degrees during a stall.  

 

[daveomak]

The negative stall occurs when you start to drive the moisture out of the meat.... The meat is basically sweating and cooling itself off... Foiling stops that.... smoking at a lower temp, below the boiling point of water, also helps... I prefer to cook meats at 200-205...

 

[michaelt1959]

Thanks to all who took the time to help me out.  Yes, I have now learned that what I was terming a "negative stall" can indeed occur so thanks for all the tips and suggestions.  As luck would have it, I had a dozen people waiting on the Q so after 5 1/2 hours of stall I finally was "encouraged to do something to it" so I wrapped it for another hour and then we ate .... unfortunately, the flavor was there, color/appearance was there, but the texture? Not so much.  She very simply needed several more hours. We ate at an internal temp of about 182 after the wrap.

After we ate I quickly triple-wrapped her up while she was still warm and I awoke this morning @ 6am to a tender brisket. So I ended up with about 5 hours of cook time @ 225, 5 1/2 hours of stall time @ 225, and another 12 hours of warm-wrap time. So basically 22 hours of some type of cooking. Lost my bark due to the extended wrap, but at least I still have 15 lbs of meat that is edible. Not my best, but salvageable.

Thanks again to everyone. "Till next time!!