The brisket I ruined at the American Royal in 2019 taught me more than any class

Phoenix Hall · 2026-10-10T12:15:03.835859+00:00

I was cooking my first competition at the American Royal in Kansas City back in 2019 and I thought I had my temps dialed. About hour 8 my fire spiked to 325 and instead of riding it out I panicked and choked the intake way down, then the temp crashed to 190 and sat there for almost two hours. I turned in brisket that was dry on the flat and somehow still tough in the point, and we finished 187th out of 200 teams. What I learned is that fighting the fire every 15 minutes is way worse than letting it drift 20 degrees and leaving the lid shut. Now I barely touch my vents unless something is really wrong, and my scores went up a lot the next season. Anybody else learn their biggest lesson from a total disaster instead of from a class or a book?

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The brisket I ruined at the American Royal in 2019 taught me more than any class | BBQ Pitmasters - Babble Community