WSM - Whole Beef Brisket, Chicken Quarters and ABT's

Well the weekend has arrived! The Beef Brisket prices around my area haven't been on sale for quite awhile but I picked a whole un-trimmed packer Beef Brisket 12+lbs @ $2.22lb, which was a lot less then several other large supermarkets.


Prep and Rub

Purchased 2 packages of dried chiles. Pasilla Ancho and New Mexico chiles. Even though they are dried they contain a lot of moisture so I cut open the chiles and de-seeded them and then placed on a cookie sheet into a 220° oven for 20mins. After they are left out to cool then directly added to a coffee/spice grinder.

The Brisket was trimmed of a lot of fat(optional) as I wanted the rub to penetrate closer to the meat. I then added the following for the rub. Granulated Onion & Garlic, Chili(ancho pasilla), brown sugar, Chili(new mexico), fresh ground pepper, allspice, kona coffee, thyme, etc. Lightly salted with Kosher salt before adding rub.


I'm updating as the cook progresses so thats what I have thus far. The WSM is cruising along at 345° for a high heat cook and I'm enjoying my first beer and trying out my new remote Thermometer.

update - 1:50pm - peeked in on Brisket and its looking good and smells great, smoker running 345ish and the Brisket is at 150

Update 2:30pm - removed brisket from smoker, was around 160° and after foiling returned to smoker for finishing. Good color, burnt end was tasty, when sliced it'll be good to see if it needs anything additional (rub was a low salt version)

Updated 5pmish - Wind picked up last few hours and the charcoal is running low so I just let it slowly do it's thing. Smoker temperature steadily lowered and temps around 250° before brisket was removed. It's still resting but I took a small piece to appease the cook before the feast

Update: sliced after resting-
nice color inside, the flat was easy to slice as it was a little firmer than the point.  The point was very tender and moist with great flavor due to the additional fat in the area. Mostly eating the brisket as is and using the additional Red No. 5 sauce every so often. Here are the updated pics after slicing

 

Brisket flat

BBQ links to forums and helpful information

• The Virtual Weber Bullet BBQ forum (wsm smoker) 
• TVWB High heat brisket discussion (here) another (here)
• My other BBQ cook logs with Pictures Here
  

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ParkZone Radian - What A Few Months Off And No Coffee Equals

A recipe for disaster. The winds the morning I woke up early where nearly non-existent and in my rush to get out to the park and avoid the crowds I hastily grabbed my flight bag and the Parkzone Radian. I was excited to finally get it into the air for the first time in over 2 months. I had just returned from Lake Tahoe, where I was on vacation and was planning on bringing the Radian to get aerial videos of the the lake and surrounding area. There just wasn't enough room in the vehicle without damaging the Radian so I left it at home. So now, finally getting the chance to get the Radian in the air, I grabbed my flight bag and was off to the a local park where I fly.



Upon arriving, there was just a small family on the nearby playground equipment and a morning walker or two. I made my way onto the expansive green park lawn with basically the whole park to myself. A 350 yard stretch in one direction by another 150 yards in another, rare in this area for a freshly cut grass landing. I caught the attention of a young Father with his two kids who started to make his way to my start location to watch the launch. I put together the Radian, checked voltages on my batteries, checked wing alignment and trim on elev and rudder, did a range check and readied my stopwatch to keep track of the flight. The Father and his two kids settled on the park bench about 15 yards back and we exchanged good mornings as he told his kids to watch the airplane take off. I walked off to my usual starting point and hand tossed the Radian in the air under a little more the ¾ throttle, easily making altitude before I throttled down and began to familiarize myself with the flight controls and flying the Radian, cobwebs were steadily disappearing just under 2 mins into the flight when during a left hand turn one of the wings came off! The Father says, "OH NO!", I respond "OH NO is RIGHT!" I'm shocked while watching the Radian, nose first with one wing still intact in a death spiral, no input on rudder or elevator is affecting the inevitable. It crashed pretty hard into the grass about 120 yards away, that I can be thankful for. The rogue wing decided it wanted to take a more slower and graceful flight back to earth then gently landed about 20 yards from the plane with no damage soon after. I took the walk or jog of shame with my DX5 radio in hand to survey the wreckage. Embarrassment, disappointment, and the lack of knowing what the heck happened fueled my rush to examine the plane and get back to my flight bag to see if it is repairable.

Picking up all the litter was hard, all the work and time I spent on adding the paint and strengthening the fuselage and other various items. This was the first time really where I had a major crash that was going to require a lot of time and worse MONEY to recover from. The Radian is filled with expensive electronic equipment and the parts like the wing and fuselage are not cheap by any means. It becomes quickly apparent that I will not be flying anymore that day, or the next day for that matter as the fuselage is split and the wing damaged on initial inspection. I got back to my flight bag and original launch area hoping that my accident wasn't noticed by too many on lookers. Thankfully the young Father spared me the embarrassment of having to show him the damage as he left with his kids allowing me a private moment with the remains of my favorite plane =). So off to my vehicle with a ravaged Radian and my head low knowing I was about to spend a lot of time at the Hobby shop ordering parts.

edit- I just added some post crash pics of the Radian for those of you who enjoy my misery lol. I already have the parts ordered from my local Hobby shop but just recently noticed my ESC has sustained damage! The crash was the result of the carbon spar rod not being installed in wing. It was left at home and the only thing holding the wings on were the neodymium magnets I installed when I first purchased the plane. I only realized this after returning and going over the damage and realized the spar was nowhere to be found. I thought it came off in the wreck and I perhaps missed it when retrieving the wreckage.






Here are some links that I used for the repair:

1. Parkzone Main - parts listing home(parkzone.com) 
2. Hobbyzone.com Radian parts listing(auth retailer)
3. RedRocket Hobbies Radian parts listing(auth retailer)
4. EBAY - search on "Parkzone Radian"
   

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