If I put a pickled brisket in my smoker to turn it into pastrami, what kind of wood chips do I use? Hickory? Apple? Something else?
I don’t need answers fast, BTW.
Apple is pretty mild for pastrami. Hickory would work well, as would cherry.
Not sure the smoker will produce noteworthy pastrami. I think the smoke flavor will overpower everything else and all you’ll have left is smoked brisket (which is not bad, but different from pastrami)
Personally? I’d use oak, or a mix of oak and hickory. I like to go light on the hickory, personally. Oak is my favorite all-around smoking wood–assertive, but never overpowering. Apple is pretty mild and I don’t find cherry to be much stronger, either. Those are good base woods, too, but I almost always add a little bit of hickory to anything with apple or cherry in it, unless I’m doing poultry that I want to keep the smoke flavor fairly mild.
Well, depending on whether he cold-smokes it or hot-smokes it, he either has pastrami or what some people call “fauxstrami.” It’s close enough to real pastrami. It’s not simple smoked brisket, as the beef is corned before smoking. I mean, that’s what pastrami is–a beef brisket that is cured (corned) and then smoked.
Isn’t Pastrami given a long lasting and strong Black Pepper, White pepper, Molasses Sugar, Salt, and Coriander Crust/Bark? I’d maybe smoke in alder if given that Basturm.
It’s a hot smoker. Offset style, cheapo Char Broil.
My goal is to pickle my own brisket, then smoke it. Why? 'Cuz I want to.
Yeah, black peppercorns and coriander seed are the usual suspects for pastrami, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that combo. (I’ve seen recipes with juniper berries instead of coriander seeds, or with the addition of mustard seeds, allspice, ginger, etc.)
Alder should work well, too. It’s quite a bit subtler than the other woods, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. (Although for beef, I do prefer a little extra sharpness.)
The truth is, you really can’t go that wrong with choosing your hardwoods. Just remember to be very careful with mesquite (which can easily overpower your food–in my opinion, it’s better used for grilling than smoking) and be aware that hickory is on the stronger end of the wood scale, and you’ll be fine. (You can do a straight hickory smoke, if you want, but I find that much hickory to be a bit aggressive.) Pretty much every other commonly available hardwood is relatively mild, as long as you have proper airflow in your smoker. I always base my smokes on oak, maple, or fruit wood, and then add hickory as an accent.
That’s all the reason you need. 
Good luck in your endeavor. You probably have the method down, but in case you want some tips, there’s this archived page with some valuable information.
Sorry for three posts in a row, but I just realized you said you have an offset smoker. Here’s a tip:
Do not use wood chips. Use wood chunks or even split wood quarters. What you don’t want when you’re smoking is billowing white smoke. Thick white smoke = bad, bitter smoke flavor (creosote). What you want is a clean burn, with wispy whitish blue smoke. Wood chips tends to just burn, and soaking your chips just causes them to smolder, which also makes a bitter smoke flavor. Wood chunks and splits start up with an initial flare up and thick white smoke, but then settle into a nice, clean, burn. This is what you want.
Today was my first attempt at this. I have no idea what I made, but the results were awesome.
I used a commercial corned brisket. After moving, I could not find my crock to pickle my own, and I sold the extra fridge two weeks ago anyway.
I used apple chips. Yeah, I know about apple being too light, and to use dry chunks instead of wet chips, but Lowe’s didn’t have any chunks of any type. I picked apple anyway.
I did get a chimney, and I used that to start my charcoal. I like it, and I did a :smack: for not using one 20 years ago.
I did a brisket, a pork loin, and a couple types of sausage. The brisket and loin were on for a total of 4 hours, with temperatures kept 200-250, then finished them in the oven for an hour at 325.
Both are moist, not stringy, and very flavorful. The pork loin showed a pink smoke ring of about 1/8 inch depth all the way around; couldn’t tell on the brisket.
I have plans for fauxstrami Reubens for lunch this week… 
Congratulations on a job well done! When are we expected over?
You mention the smoke, but you left out the rub? Tease.
What makes this good pastrami?
The fauxstrami rub I used was the seasoning pack that came with the corned brisket.
For the pork loin, I used a tried and true one that I usually reserve for chicken.
4 parts sugar
4 parts salt
2 parts paprika
1 part black pepper
1 part garlic
if a ‘part’ is 1/8 cup, this makes enough to coat 2 cut up fryers.
ETA: I don’t know that it is good pastrami, I just liked the results of an experiment.