The bark purists will tell you to let it finish cooking and wrap it to keep it.

I'm OK without the super crunchy bark. Combine that with the opinion of many smokers that once you hit 3-4 hours the meat doesn't take on more smoke flavoring, and I just figure I get a more consistent product by wrapping in foil at that point.

I've tried the methods some have of spritzing with apple juice every hour, or whatever. And what I've found is that pork really doesn't take much work to get a consistent result - and it's forgiving enough that the timing doesn't even have to be perfect.

If we're eating any time from around lunch time or later, I'll throw the butts on the smoker at 225 right after work - between 5-6pm. I'll usually leave them there until bed time - but I'm not super consistent with timing or temperature. It could be 4 hours, could be 6. Honestly, I'll hit them with the thermometer to see where they are, but I don't wait till they hit a certain temp before wrapping them in foil.

After 4-6 hours I wrap them. I like the large heavy duty foil rolls from Costco. they're large enough that I can tear two sheets, place them cross-ways from each other, drop the butt in the center, and wrap it up. I'll throw in maybe a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar before wrapping them up. The foil comes up around the pork well enough that as long as you don't puncture it, it will hold any juices.

Then it goes back on the cooker - still at 225 - until I wake up. I typically wake up sometime between 5am-7am - I don't bother setting an alarm. Check the temp. Most of the time it's about done at that point, sometimes it needs to cook a little longer. You'll want it to cross 200. Some people get really precise and will tell you it needs to hit 203 or 204. I just get it at least to 200. In my opinion, even if you hit up to 210, you're going to have a good product that everyone will love - so no worry if it goes a little over.

Once it hits temp, I'll usually put a towel down in the bottom of my cooler. If I'm worried about leaking, I'll put a garbage bag on top of the towel - a large enough one to have it come up the sides and hold anything that does leak. Then I'll put the wrapped butt in, put a towel over the top, and close the cooler. I have honestly kept butts this way for 5-6 hours, and they're still 160 degrees when I take them out (you need to keep them above 140). If I'm worried about that at all, I'll either drop the temp on the smoker to 180 and put them back in, or I'll put them in the oven at 180.

The foil will soften the bark some - but I've never had anyone complain about the bark not being barky enough. I suppose if you have a purist you're feeding, it could happen.

My bottom line - pork butts don't require a lot to come out really good. You don't have to put too much effort or thought into it, and you'll have something you're happy to eat and proud to share.