What smoker do you have? I've been hit and miss with brisket, so I tend to do more pork butts and ribs. I'll be doing a brisket next weekend however.
My friend has cinder blocks.
No, really. It's a stack of cinder blocks. One or two at the bottom are sideways to let a bit of air in, the top has a big tinfoiled rack to keep the smoke in. He has enough blocks to smoke a whole pig, but we usually still with pork butt/shoulder/Godsfavoritebbqmeat. They're pretty cheap, I think we got the first bunch for free.