Mk4 Brisket AAR: Lessons from a UK Egghead

Just finished my fourth brisket on my Large BGE  and figured I'd share the after-action review. Some things went well, others definitely didn’t. Posting here partly for my own notes, partly to get your take but definitely to add some color to this community– gotta have some L's in here sometime and some posts from non-US based eggheads!

Setup:

1. Fat side down
2. No binder (regret this)
3. Light 50/50 S&P rub (overcorrected from my third attempt which was too salty and straight up burned that I won't mention it again)
4. Targeted 250°F grate temp while using a mix of marabu charcoal and oak chunks

Problems started early:

1. Meat went on straight from the fridge (~40°F), and the ambient temp plummeted. BGE couldn’t recover even with small vent tweaks.
2. Ended up opening both vents wide just to get things moving, then tried to stabilize again.
3. Midway through, both my temp probe failed; I lost both internal and ambient. From that point on, I was just eyeballing bark development and dome temp which is tough when you're cooking in the middle of the night/early morning

Cook & Wrap:

1. Let it ride for ~8 hours unwrapped. Bark passed the finger test: dry, firm, nothing rubbed off.
2. Wrapped in butcher paper, poured a bit of rendered smoked tallow over the top.
3. Back on the BGE for 3 hours.
4. Rested for 2 hours in a preheated 60°C oven (oven off during rest).

The result:

1. Bark looked ok visually, and the whole thing had good jiggle
2. The flat was dry and a pain to slice. I ended up ditching my carving knife for a bread knife.
3. Flavor was underwhelming. Needed sauce to carry it. It didn’t taste like some of the roast beef tasting brisket I get here in the UK, but not proud of the outcome.
4. Forgot grain direction on the point, so the slicing was all over the place.

What I think went wrong:

1. Fire wasn’t properly stabilized before the brisket went on. I didn’t give the ceramics enough time to heat soak.
2. Cold meat nuked my temp.
3. Losing probe data mid-cook was brutal. I couldn’t make informed wrap/pull decisions and I'm definitely not experienced enough to know what "right" looks like from sight and feel alone.
4. No binder meant weak rub adhesion. Bark was present but not flavorful.
5. Two-hour rest wasn’t enough. Should’ve gone at least 3.

Next Steps Plan:

1. Switching to FireBoard 2 Drive + G3 blower to lock in fire control.
2. Letting meat come up to room temp before it hits the grate.
3. Bringing back mustard binder.
4. Sticking with 50/50 rub but actually weighing it out this time instead of guessing.
5. Planning a longer rest in a 60°C oven or cooler.

Questions for you all:

1. Anyone here running FireBoard + blower on a BGE? Should I nail cooking a brisket manually first before using a gadget or will doing that just ruin the hobby for me?
2. Is it easier to control the temperature with certain fuel sources? From my limited experience, I had an easier time controlling temperature using Big Green Egg brand oak and hickory lump but have had terrible experiences trying to control the temperature with marabu.
3. After over-seasoning one brisket, how do you dial salt back in without going too far the other way?

Appreciate any thoughts. Always learning.