Just finished my first brisket

It should keep warm in the cooler for several hours. Let us know how it turns out

Wrap it in a beach towel and leave it in the cooler. It will still be steaming hot when you pull it out.

Many people will recommend 3-4 hrs of rest, but most typically don't have time to do that, so they give it about an hour or so. I would use 140F as the min temp, and anything above that is good to go. I don't see it dropping below that by the time you need it, but you can always transfer it to your oven at the lowest temp. Mine goes down to 170F, and I've done that before. I bet it comes out very good.

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The bark is meh, definitely could be better but I wrapped at 165-170

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By meh on the bark do you mean it turned kind of mushy or not crisp enough for your liking? If so buy you some pink looking butcher paper off Amazon for your next brisket to wrap instead of tin foil. It seems to me that brisket wrapped in tin foil keeps the brisket moist but that bark gets mushy. It steams that bark I suppose. Far as sitting in that ice chest that long you will be fine. I prefer a crispier bark and that butcher paper seems to allow the brisket to breath instead of steam or braise. I cooked a brisket a few week ago and didn’t even wrap it. Just spritzed it’s. I wrapped the brisket with a towel and threw it into an ice chest for about 3 hours and when company come over we ate it. Sometimes I think most people over think cooking a brisket. If you start off with a great quality brisket you usually end up with a great brisket at the end.

I thought it would be more crisp and firm. But once again this is my first rodeo. Only decent pic I have. Wife had my phone taking pics of son all day.

Looks good to me. A lot of people don’t know this but if you are trying to finish at a specific time you can cook it the day before to about 170 degrees. Rest it then place in the refrigerator. The next day finish it off and the results are amazing. Briskets are weird because they are done when they are done and none of them cook the same. I pulled one off at 185 degrees several months ago. It was so tender you could stick a fork in both the point and flat and turn it. Had I cooked it much longer it would have cooked the tenderness right out of that thing and I would have been eating shoe leather.

Looks great broseph

Leave it wrapped in foil/butcher paper, wrap in towel/blanket, place in cooler. If you don't have a good cooler, you can add a brick that was heated in the smoker or oven to help keep the temp longer.

I've kept brisket resting, wrapped in an ice chest for 4+ hours and it came out piping hot still

Looks good!