I have a smoker that my brother-in-law made for me (he is a welder by trade, actually it is pretty sweet). Roughly the size of a Bandera-version. I have basically been just using the firebox/grill part for burgers, fajitas, sausage.... I want to try out a brisket in a couple of weeks. I was thinking of smoking it at ~200F for roughly 1 pound per hour. Halfway through, I am going to wrap it in foil. But let's say for a 8-10 pound brisket, I need the fire to go for about 8-12 hours. How much charcoal do you need to do that, how often do you have to refill the coals to maintain the temperature?
Get some wood -- good logs of oak, pecan, or hickory. Surely you can find some. If they're good logs, you won't need to add one more than every hour or two. For an 8 hour smoking session, I can usually get by with 6 logs or so, give or take. Start your fire with coals, then just add the wood. Smoke at 225 or so for about 8 hours for a 9-10 lb brisket. Then wrap in foil, continue cooking at 225 (either in smoker or oven, it doesn't matter once it's wrapped) for approx 3-4 hours. Open foil, let it rest for 30 mins before carving.
For an 8-10 lb brisket you don't need any more than 8 hours of smoke. If you run out of charcoal after that, you can move the foil wrapped brisket to the oven. I can't help you with the amount of charcoal that you need since I rarely use any. I'm pretty sure that 1 20lb. bag should be enough. Get a second one to be safe. It's not like you won't use it.
Where would I get the wood? Obviously I need it to fit in my firebox though so are these "6-7 logs" that size?
I wouldn't use regular charcoal other than to just start it. Use wood or lump charcoal. I made a thread a few days ago about my last brisket with too much smoke/weird taste and I think it was from using Kingsford charcoal too much
I use a charcoal chimeny to get the thing started and to establish my heat. Once I put the meat on, my fuel is 80% wood 20% charcoal at most. I use lump charcoal only.
I would definately avoid using something like Kingsford on a brisket or anything else you plan to slow smoke. There are a lot of "fillers" in commercial charcoal. Either use lump charcoal like B&B or use logs or wood chunks. I believe academy sells B&B, and I'm pretty sure Central Market and Whole Foods both sell it as well. Academy sells bags of good sized wood chunks in various flavors (Hickorey, Mesquite, Oak, etc) I start my fires with a handfull (10-12 briquettes) of charcoal, then add wood chunks. When the first batch of wood chunks have burned down to mostly coals, I'll add a big log, choke down the vent, and put the meat on. From there, follow the brisket cooking instructions that have been posted here 1000 times.
