FBA - Thomaston, GA 4/1 - 4/2/11


 

Terre Hooks

TVWBB Fan
Anyone else going? I think Josh McDowell is, we (Kudzu Q) are pumped up.

This is a great contest, the boys that put this on are a great bunch to deal with. This is a charity event for their hometown and they work their butts off.

Friday night will probably have a huge crowd from the public, country singer Marty Stuart will be there in concert. Yes, it is going to be a wet week and it might be soggy down there, but these boys are well versed in how to handle that. They had to pull every team in with a tractor in 2009 due to horrible rains the week before.

Looking forward to it, looks to be cold temps Friday night, so bring your blankie.
 
Terre,

See you down there. We should be in around 10a Friday.

Just sent Andy an email, how is the place under these wet conditions? Should I tell everyone to bring there muddin boots ?

I think I only have enough room left for beer, not blankets. Should work though.
 
Not gonna be able to make this one. I'm supposed to go pick up my trailer probably tomorrow and get it ready for Dothan Alabama.

Russ
 
Josh,

I would bring some boots and/or some shoes that you don't care about along with extra socks/etc. Use your own judgment.

This is a relatively piece of flat pasture land with some slight elevation changes, best I can remember. Here are some pics from last year:

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Hopefully some draining will take place today and with the sun and slight wind tomorrow it should be getting dried out late Friday.

BTW, that is not mud/wet ground you see...that is worn out grass and dirt.


Make sure you bring something to keep the EZ UPs from taking off.


They do a good job of keeping the trash picked up and they also sell ice there.
 
Thanks Terre.

It was extremely windy at the Atlanta BBQ festival, I used 5 gallon buckets w/ water to keep ours down. Unfortunately a drink vendor did not and theirs flew up in the air and hit my truck when we were unpacking. No dents, but it ripped off my bug guard.
 
That is basically what we do...buckets of water cinched or bungeed to the tent frames.

The team went through a rough thunderstorm and tornado warning last weekend in Ashburn and from the sound of it they didn't get the buckets out during setup...

You really should do the weight thing no mater if you're expecting wind or not.
 
So what did you think Josh?

I hope you don't need me to expound my thoughts on our "results".

You must have had a darn good brisket.
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I had a great time and learned a lot. It was our first time doing all 4 meats in FBA. Our goal was not to get last, so at least we did that. I think we will have some good improvements in Barnesville. We got killed in presentation, and rightfully so after looking back at the pictures.

I also ran out of cayenne, and the normal place I get it from was completely out (Who runs out of cayenne?). I use very little in my rubs, but the stuff I used ended up being much spicer than normal and I am sure that really hurt us.

Our group that did the vending did okay, but our location killed us. Sold out of all the sauce I brought, so I was pretty happy about that.

I think I can read your mind on your results

I couldn't figure out what you meant about the brisket, just checked the scores and now I see
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Scott cooked 2 briskets. One came out perfect, the other wasn't quite done enough. He started slicing the good one and a fat vein was running through the middle. He turned that one in anyways as the other was still too tough.

It was great to meet you, even if it took a couple of walks around the place. Barnesville is our next one, which I don't think yall are doing. I am booked up with other events in May, but looking for some cooks for june/july/august if you have any to suggest.
 
There were a few teams standing around after awards wondering WTH was going on. These are teams that usually do fairly well, especially in GBA. No, GBA is not the same level of competition as FBA and KCBS, but nevertheless, they put out some good food. I'd like to include us in that group.

We honestly felt like we should have had a top-10 overall and walked a couple of times. We turned in some good food. It seemed that one judge killed us on chicken and brisket. The chicken was some of the best I've ever had. I felt like our ribs were not the best (hey, I can say that, I cooked them), but they were our highest scoring meat.

Don't know what the judges were looking for as far as pork, but it was good.

My brisket was very tender, not falling apart and not dry. I did not dip it in pan drippings, as I felt it was too greasy.

I'm kinda ticked that as time goes on, it appears that BBQ competitions aren't meat contests, they are appearance and sauce contests. There's something to be said about great tasting meat that has little or no sauce to camouflage the lack of flavor.
 
I was pretty shocked at some of the scores on some of the teams.

I understand that my chicken was spicier than I would have liked, but not sure why my tenderness scores were so low. Skin was perfect and meat was great.

I'm with you on the pork. My tenderness and flavor were great, and had a couple 9.5 & 10.0... and then a couple 7.5s. How do you get a 10.0 from 1 judge on appearance and 7.5 from another ?

I wish appearance would just go away. I understand the whole it needs to look good thing, but honestly I care more about how meat taste.

For us, we are just trying to get out there and have a good time, do as well as possible, and get the vending thing going. We want to open up a place one day, so we figure getting out at the events is a good way to start. Of course restuarant BBQ and comp BBQ are completely different, but it is still a way to get the name out there.
 

 

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