This past weekend Big T'z Q Cru was once again on the barbeque trail, this time engaging in our biggest challenge yet--two competitions in one weekend. All season I went back and forth as to whether or not to do this, simply questioning if we had the stamina for it. After hearing from fellow competitors that it was not as bad as it seems, and actually quite fun we decided to do it.
The dual competition scheme brings in a lot of competition. I can only guess that this gives the teams in the running for KCBS team of the year an opportunity to double-down on the points they may receive from doing well at either or both events. That, and it gives you the opportunity to do two competitions while only rolling out for one-saving both time and gas. Last year, one of my mentors, Rod Gray from Pellet Envy took Grand Champion in both events! As far as I know, that had never happened before in the history of KCBS. And yes, he was going to be there this year to defend his back-to-back wins.
Because of the dual competitions as well, for my preparations, I was desperately trying to think of ways to get some sleep. I can handle staying up most the night one night for a competition, but two--I was afraid I might go Comatose in the middle of turn-ins. The strategy was to get a Stoker temperature control system. This heralded machine automatically controls the temperature of most any cooker by blowing on the coals with a fan if the cooker is too cold, or shutting off if it gets too hot.
Due to problems sourcing some of the parts of the Stoker, John Jackson, the inventor, proprietor of the Stoker system was unable to get me the Stoker right away. At one point I thought it would not arrive in time so I had set a sleeping schedule for me and my buddies to tend to the cookers so we could get some sleep. A day before i headed out for the competition, I received a call telling me it would get here on Friday. "Perfect! you just made my day!" I yelled over the phone--the lady on the other end probably thought I was crazy.
I was still afraid I would get there on Friday get everything set up and it wouldn't work as well as a thought or at all. Much to my utter joy the Stoker worked flawlessly the whole weekend, right out of the box! The only reason I didn't get some sleep on Friday was that my buddies kept me up partying and carrying on. Saturday, everyone was a little more tired so I managed to get a whole 6 hours of good sleep, probably twice as much as I normally get.
The first competition was held in downtown Waterloo. We were fortunate enough to be placed right next to some of our best friends on the circuit, Smokehouse 72 and Tippy Canoe BBQ Crew. Being nearby them made for an awesome evening.
Once again friends and family alike were able to make the geographically proximate location, it is always great for me when this happens as it relaxes me and puts everything in perspective.
Friday was a great night with a lot of fun had by all. Late that night everyone got hungry, so I cooked up what I coined a "midnight loin" which, even though a good seven pounds was quickly devoured by everyone within earshot of the Weber Kettle it was cooking on.
The morning quickly came and it was time to put everything together. Even though staying up most of a night tending the big meats is the most tiresome part of a contest, from about 8 am on Saturday morning to 1:30 pm is easily the most physically taxing.
Everything came off and on the cookers as planned, and although the rib cooker had some problems keeping temp everything we cooked that day was solid, but once again it was up to the judges.
Before awards we had enough time to head down to the location of our next contest, LaPorte City, Iowa and set up camp, so that it what we did. Our camp this time was precisely the opposite of the comfortable location we had before. Instead of being placed by all our friends, we were put right next to and were indeed surrounded by a veritable hall of fame of championship BBQ teams. I found this to be equally exciting and downright scary. Thankfully two of these teams were my mentors, so that helped, but I could do a whole blog post on the achievements of the teams that surrounded us that evening.
We quickly set up camp and went back to Waterloo for the awards ceremony. Our friends Smokehouse 72 got the first call of the day for 2nd place on their side dish--a skillet full of delicious baked beans.
Then came the main four meats. We were fortunate enough to get a 6th place call in Chicken, 3rd place in Pork, and 2nd place brisket. Once again we went without a top ten call in ribs so we had no idea where we were in the overall rankings. However all was well as we heard our name called for Reserve Grand Champion! Congratulations goes out to a fellow Ames, Iowa team, Meadow Valley BBQ for getting the call for Grand Champion!
There was little time to waste to celebrate the victory as we needed to get back to LaPorte to get set up and prep the overnight meats. We were all settled in a pretty park in the middle of town. It was a pleasant evening with live music and hanging out with friends enjoying our success in Waterloo.
Unlike Waterloo, in which people partied well into the night, because almost all the teams in LaPorte also cooked Waterloo, things got really quiet around 11 o'clock--everyone was dead tired.
After cooking in Waterloo the day before things went really smoothly in LaPorte--I felt everything we turned in was solid, but now once again our fate was to be determined by the judges. I even got a few extra minutes to talk with and snap a picture of Rod and Johnny as they were discussing how things went that day.
The dual competition scheme brings in a lot of competition. I can only guess that this gives the teams in the running for KCBS team of the year an opportunity to double-down on the points they may receive from doing well at either or both events. That, and it gives you the opportunity to do two competitions while only rolling out for one-saving both time and gas. Last year, one of my mentors, Rod Gray from Pellet Envy took Grand Champion in both events! As far as I know, that had never happened before in the history of KCBS. And yes, he was going to be there this year to defend his back-to-back wins.
Because of the dual competitions as well, for my preparations, I was desperately trying to think of ways to get some sleep. I can handle staying up most the night one night for a competition, but two--I was afraid I might go Comatose in the middle of turn-ins. The strategy was to get a Stoker temperature control system. This heralded machine automatically controls the temperature of most any cooker by blowing on the coals with a fan if the cooker is too cold, or shutting off if it gets too hot.
Due to problems sourcing some of the parts of the Stoker, John Jackson, the inventor, proprietor of the Stoker system was unable to get me the Stoker right away. At one point I thought it would not arrive in time so I had set a sleeping schedule for me and my buddies to tend to the cookers so we could get some sleep. A day before i headed out for the competition, I received a call telling me it would get here on Friday. "Perfect! you just made my day!" I yelled over the phone--the lady on the other end probably thought I was crazy.
I was still afraid I would get there on Friday get everything set up and it wouldn't work as well as a thought or at all. Much to my utter joy the Stoker worked flawlessly the whole weekend, right out of the box! The only reason I didn't get some sleep on Friday was that my buddies kept me up partying and carrying on. Saturday, everyone was a little more tired so I managed to get a whole 6 hours of good sleep, probably twice as much as I normally get.
The first competition was held in downtown Waterloo. We were fortunate enough to be placed right next to some of our best friends on the circuit, Smokehouse 72 and Tippy Canoe BBQ Crew. Being nearby them made for an awesome evening.
Once again friends and family alike were able to make the geographically proximate location, it is always great for me when this happens as it relaxes me and puts everything in perspective.
Friday was a great night with a lot of fun had by all. Late that night everyone got hungry, so I cooked up what I coined a "midnight loin" which, even though a good seven pounds was quickly devoured by everyone within earshot of the Weber Kettle it was cooking on.
The morning quickly came and it was time to put everything together. Even though staying up most of a night tending the big meats is the most tiresome part of a contest, from about 8 am on Saturday morning to 1:30 pm is easily the most physically taxing.
Everything came off and on the cookers as planned, and although the rib cooker had some problems keeping temp everything we cooked that day was solid, but once again it was up to the judges.
Before awards we had enough time to head down to the location of our next contest, LaPorte City, Iowa and set up camp, so that it what we did. Our camp this time was precisely the opposite of the comfortable location we had before. Instead of being placed by all our friends, we were put right next to and were indeed surrounded by a veritable hall of fame of championship BBQ teams. I found this to be equally exciting and downright scary. Thankfully two of these teams were my mentors, so that helped, but I could do a whole blog post on the achievements of the teams that surrounded us that evening.
We quickly set up camp and went back to Waterloo for the awards ceremony. Our friends Smokehouse 72 got the first call of the day for 2nd place on their side dish--a skillet full of delicious baked beans.
Then came the main four meats. We were fortunate enough to get a 6th place call in Chicken, 3rd place in Pork, and 2nd place brisket. Once again we went without a top ten call in ribs so we had no idea where we were in the overall rankings. However all was well as we heard our name called for Reserve Grand Champion! Congratulations goes out to a fellow Ames, Iowa team, Meadow Valley BBQ for getting the call for Grand Champion!
There was little time to waste to celebrate the victory as we needed to get back to LaPorte to get set up and prep the overnight meats. We were all settled in a pretty park in the middle of town. It was a pleasant evening with live music and hanging out with friends enjoying our success in Waterloo.
Unlike Waterloo, in which people partied well into the night, because almost all the teams in LaPorte also cooked Waterloo, things got really quiet around 11 o'clock--everyone was dead tired.
After cooking in Waterloo the day before things went really smoothly in LaPorte--I felt everything we turned in was solid, but now once again our fate was to be determined by the judges. I even got a few extra minutes to talk with and snap a picture of Rod and Johnny as they were discussing how things went that day.
The streak continued in LaPorte as well, as it turned out to be our best event to date. We even got a call for fourth place in ribs! I was about as happy about that as getting our 3rd Grand Championship of the year! Here is how we ended up:
1st Place Chicken
4th Place Ribs
5th Place Pork
1st Place Brisket
GRAND CHAMPION!
We were also fortunate enough to see the Boondoggle Boys get a call for chicken, which up to that point had been their Achilles heal. We also were happy to get our butts kicked in ribs by our friends Smokehouse 72 who placed first in the categoy after bombing on them in Waterloo. Way to go guys!
Now it is back home for the short week, before heading out to Mason City of the Up in Smoke BBQ Bash. I have heard it is a great contest, and we are looking forward to it. Hope to see you all there!
No comments:
Post a Comment