Pork butt usually stalls when the internal temperature hits roughly 150–170°F (65–77°C) , with many cooks seeing the stall most often right around 160°F.

Quick Scoop

  • Most common stall range: about 150–170°F.
  • “Typical” stall point people talk about: around 160°F.
  • How long it can last: 2–6 hours , sometimes longer on big butts or low smoker temps.
  • Why it happens: evaporative cooling as moisture moves to the surface and cools the meat, slowing down the temp climb.

In forum-style cooks and BBQ blogs, you’ll see tons of posts like “stuck at 160°F for 3 hours, is it ruined?” — that’s the classic pork butt stall showing up.

What temp does pork butt stall?

In real-world cooks (not just theory), pitmasters and BBQ sites consistently report:

  • Internal temp rises steadily up to about 145–170°F.
  • Then it “parks” in the 150–170°F band, often 160–165°F , for hours.

A few concrete examples:

  • One smoked pork butt guide notes that the temp climbs normally until 145–170°F , then hits the stall and “stays steady for quite a while.”
  • A detailed temperature cheatsheet calls out a stall temp of 160°F when smoking pork butt low and slow.
  • Another BBQ explanation says pork butt “stalls between 150 and 170°F ” and may appear to stop cooking for several hours.
  • A pork butt stall FAQ simply summarizes: “at around 150–165°F.”
  • A smoking how‑to mentions the meat “lingers around 150°F ” during the stall.

So if you’re watching your probe and it stops climbing somewhere in that 150–170°F window, you’re not cursed — you’ve just hit the normal pork butt stall.

Mini FAQ (for quick cooks)

  1. Is my pork butt broken if it’s stuck at 160°F for hours?
    No. That’s exactly where many stalls happen, and it can sit there multiple hours and still finish perfectly tender.
  1. When will it start rising again?
    Once enough moisture has evaporated and the surface dries a bit, the internal temp will resume climbing toward the usual finish range around 195–205°F.
  1. Can I speed it up?
    Common approach is wrapping (foil or butcher paper) once you’re in that 150–170°F range to push through the stall faster.

Bottom line: For “what temp does pork butt stall,” the practical answer most BBQ folks use is around 150–170°F, with 160°F as the classic stall point.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.