Slow-Grilled Smoky Beef Brisket with Beer-Based Mopping Sauce and Homemade BBQ Sauce

Ohmygosh! I almost forgot about sharing this recipe that my husband made, back in May. Today, is the "unofficial" end of summer, in our part of the hemisphere. Though, I'm not so sure I'm going to play by the rules.

(Pssssssst. I wear white after Labor Day.)  We are known to grill in October and November. We can, still, buy fresh strawberries in September.   Our Weber grill doesn't get it's winter cover for at least another month, so we shall continue to grill

There's a local restaurant that serves excellent brisket, according to my husband.  It reminds him of his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.  They slowly grill beef brisket, over oak wood-- nice and slow, for 15-20 hours.  It's served with sauce on the side, and Craig gauges the quality of smoked brisket by the "smoke rings".

While my husband is the first to admit that he's not a cook, he has done a fine job of learning how to grill.  We give all the credit to this book:

The step-by-step photos has helped the two of us to better understand how to use our Weber grill, how to use indirect heat and how to work with wood chips, to create that smokey flavor that we've come to love so much.

Because of the size of our brisket, this took close to three hours to make (the recipe said 4-5 hours), but it's worth the effort.  I made the rub in the recipe from this book.  (If you want more details on how we use indirect heat, for grilling, click here.)  I decided to make a beer-based mopping sauce, to keep the meat moist as it slow cooked.  We mopped the brisket about every 20-30 minutes. NOTE: This was our first time working with a mopping sauce.

We're not big fans of vinegar based sauces, but this mopping sauce was less "tart". The sauce has beer, cider vinegar, water, vegetable oil, BBQ dry rub, Worcestershire sauce and coarsely ground pepper.

I finally had an excuse to use this BBQ accessory.

While the brisket was slow cooking, I decided to make a BBQ sauce to go with it.  I found the recipe here: 

The ingredients list sounded like it would be a good blend of savory, sweet and smokey.

As most barbecue sauce, we always begin with sauteed onions.  Here, we add bell peppers, chili and garlic powder.  We add ketchup and chili sauce...

Apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, lemon juice and honey...

Last, but not least, Maple Syrup (not pancake syrup).

A little bit smokey and sweet.  Ready to go.

Craig adds more coals, about every 45 minutes, which he pre-starts in the a chimney.  He also adds wood chips that have been soaked in water for at least 15 minutes. He pats the chips dry, so that they don't put out the coals. 

He covers the meat, opens the vent holes and here comes the smoke!

That's flavor, baby!

See those red smoke rings?  That's what we're talkin' about!  Let the brisket rest for at least 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

We like our brisket with sauce on the side.  It's moist, and tender, and delicious!  

We served this with Campfire Beans and Creamy Cole Slaw.

You might be wondering if you can achieve the same results with a gas grill (and we own one of those, too).  I don't think it's exactly the same, but I've heard that you can buy a metal wood chip box to create that smoky flavor.  We like the convenience of our gas grill, but when it comes to cooking it low and slow-- there's nothing like a Weber!

Tomorrow, we're grilling our Santa Maria Tri-Tip and inviting a few guests for dinner.  I'd better seize the moment to make a pie from the last of our summer stone fruits.  Wishing all of you a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend.  Go grill!

A printable recipe card for the brisket, mop sauce and BBQ sauce is at the end of this post.