Late brisket stall

[Dantij]

So I decided to do an 8 pound brisket flat Sunday morning for the football games later in the afternoon. Woke up at 4:30am to get started. What I've done in the past and works well for me is I smoke it on my Lang for the first 5 or 6 hours, then wrap in butcher paper and transfer it over to my WSM. That frees me up from tending fire for another 6 hours in the cold! It was snowing out Sunday morning so I decided to not use the Lang and just smoke the whole time on the Weber. Well, I was out of briquettes so I used lump charcoal which I've used in the past for 5-8 hour cooks, not for 12 hour cooks. Ended up running out of lump so I transferred it over to my gas grill. This is where things got interesting. The brisket temp was 188° so I didn't have much more to go. When I moved it over to the gas and set the probes for the thermoworks, the temperature began to drop... and drop... all the way down to 182°. It stayed there for 2 plus hours!! Wouldn't budge. After 11 hours, I opened it to check it and the temp with the pen was between 188 and 192° . It was tender in some places but not everywhere. I pulled it because one of my friends had to leave and I wanted him to have a few slices. It only rested for @ 20 minutes. It was delicious but a little dry on one end. I'm pretty sure it needed another hour or so. Taste was spot on. Salt, pepper, pinch of chili powder, pinch of garlic, pinch of habanero. My question is was that an actual stall at 188°? That has never happened to me. At 160 or 165 yes, but 188°!? Baffled. What do the experts think?
One thing I noticed about cooking the whole time on the Weber vs. the Lang is appearance. The Lang produced a much nicer color on the bark. I think I'll have to do a side by side taste comparison this spring. I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful it turned out. Nice smoke ring too. Sorry no pics. Started drinking a little early and you all know how that goes!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Was it wrapped when you moved to the gasser?

 

[Dantij]

It was wrapped in butcher paper.

 

[TNJAKE]

My guess is the gas grill was running a lower temp than the lang

 

[bill1]

My guess is the gas grill was running [at] a lower temp than the lang

Agreed. Also, gas grills are pretty much designed to concentrate their heat at the grate level. Note the words grate, rack, & grill and used interchangeably in that world. What you wanted at that point was for the heat to uniformly surround the meat, which is what ovens are good at. Smokers are more like ovens than grills.

 

[Dantij]

Kind of makes sense. I Figured 260° was 260°, whether its in a stick burner, a bullet smoker, or a gasser.
I literally watched the temp fall one tenth of a degree at a time. The temp in the Weber was @250, the temp in the gasser probably dipped down to 150 or lower before I had a probe at the grate level and closed the lid. Took a few minutes for the gasser to recover though. The probe that was in the meat was never moved either. Interesting perspective.

 

[Fueling Around]

I finish most of my pork shoulders and briskets in the oven. I smoke until an internal temp nearing the stall. Anything beyond is a waste of smoke IMHO.
My briskets are foil wrapped on a elevated rack in a sheet pan.
I usually start the oven at 300° to avoid the dip and just get on with melting the fat and collagen into submission

...
Smokers are more like ovens than grills.

Yes, gas grills are not ovens.
A kettle grill in offset mode is a wonderful oven.
I recently finished a smoke in the kettle after the Big Chief element failed.