Low & Slow = no sleep?

[wagonface]

Hi, I got a Pro Q Frontier for my birthday and want to do pork butts and briskets for family BBQs.

Maybe I am missing something, but how on earth do you get the timing right if you want the food ready at 14:00? Is the only way to start really late at night and then get up during the night to check on things? I have the ProQ and a maverick thermometer, but no fancy fan/temp controller.

Thanks for your help.

[Clayfish]

Set it up late and go to bed, rely on the alarms on the Maverick to tell you when something is going astray.

If the meat is ready early, double wrap in foil and hold in a cool-box stuffed with towels, I've held butts for nearly 6 hours like this and they pull like a dream and are still very hot.

I've got a WSM rather than ProQ (but they should perform the same) and I don't have a controller either – I've never had to get out of bed during an overnight cook.

[BraaiMeesterWannabe]

Put a brisket on at midnight last night. Did stay up until 1am to ensure heat stable after open/close to put brisket in. The. Slept like a baby until 7am relying on Maverick alarms.

No alarms all night....love heat beads

[wagonface]

Thanks for the replies. Once I am comfy with how stable my Pro Q is I will just stick it on late at night and let it do it's thing.