Hey guys, I'm sorry for not responding. I hate when people post and disappear, but I'm guilty this time. The answers are: I did not brine. And we were not using a weber. We were using a brinkmann smoke n grill. My brother in law (see other post, same guy!) bought it before T-giving for $30 (we're looking for a WSM we can afford). So the temps were "low" and "ideal" with most of the time it being in the low range. We had a hard time getting the temperature up. And yes, we used a water pan. Kept burning off, kept filling it back up.