What temperature is the brisket stall?

Usually while the center climbs through about 150 to 170°F. On the Amazing Ribs whole-packer timetable the stall is plotted around 6 hours for a 12 to 15 pound packer at 225°F, when the center is about 150 to 165°F. Your graph can sit anywhere in that band.

How long does the stall last?

Often a few hours if you leave the meat unwrapped. Wrapping in foil ends it sooner because the wrap stops the surface from evaporating. The cook plan uses that foil window as the shorter brisket, about 12 to 14 hours instead of 16 to 20 for a reference packer.

Should I raise the pit to beat the stall?

Check the grate first. If the grate is still at 225 to 275°F, the stall is the meat. Cranking the fire to 'push through' can dry the flat. Wrap, or wait, on purpose.

The brisket stall | SimpleFood365

The brisket stall is the stretch where the center temperature barely moves, usually around 150 to 170°F, because moisture evaporating off the surface is cooling the meat as fast as the pit heats it. The fire is often fine. The flat is sweating.

Why it happens

Water leaving the surface takes heat with it. That is the same cooling you feel when you step out of a shower. On a brisket the surface is large, the pit is only a little hotter than the meat at that point, and the two can balance for hours. Amazing Ribs describes this evaporative stall, and their packer timetable puts it near the 6 hour mark for a 12 to 15 pound brisket at 225°F, with the center around 150 to 165°F. This site's brisket calculator plots the stall from that 6 hour reference and scales it with weight and grate temperature.

A dead fire looks similar on a graph and different on the grate. If a grate probe has fallen, you have a fire problem. If the grate is steady and the meat is not, you have a stall. The dome on a kamado is a poor witness. It sits above the grate and runs hotter. Use a probe, from the notes on meat thermometers for smoking.

What to do about it

Pros

Waiting it out keeps the surface drying, which is how a firm pepper bark happens.
You learn what your pit actually does, which makes the next packer less surprising.

Cons

The unwrapped window for a reference packer is 16 to 20 hours at 225°F. The stall is a big piece of that.
Dinner does not move just because the physics is interesting. If you are late, wrap.

Wrapping stops the evaporation. The meat stops cooling itself, and the temperature climbs. Foil does this fastest and softens the bark. Pink butcher paper slows the drying without sealing the way foil does, and it often adds about 1 to 2 hours compared with foil on that same packer timetable. Both are on butcher paper vs foil.

Do not wrap the moment the line goes flat if the bark is still pale. You will steam off the crust the stall was building. The timing is when to wrap brisket. The rub you are protecting is the brisket rub.

What people mistake it for

The meat isn't done yet. Done is around 203°F and probe-tender, on brisket internal temp, which is a long way above this pause. Slicing here gives you a tight flat, because the connective tissue hasn't softened. A pork butt stalls for the same evaporative reason, usually near 150°F, and that page is pork butt stall. A Meater that drops at the same hour feels like a broken thermometer, and sometimes the radio really did die. Check Meater not connecting before you blame the stall for a blank graph.