TippyCanoe BBQ Crew

Smokin’ on Big Creek – Pleasant Hill Missouri

2011-04-03T09:37:00.001-07:00

We had an amazing weekend in Pleasant Hill Missouri at Smokin’ on Big Creek. This is a fantastic event. Jeff, Stan, and their group of volunteers put on a first class BBQ event. To top it off the weather was great!

With 77 of the best teams in the Midwest in attendance it was one of the toughest fields we will face throughout the entire year. These early season contests attract large fields and tough competition. Our cook was fairly uneventful and overall we were very pleased with the food we turned out.

It was our first event using the new Memphis Pro Wood Fire Grill in competition and it performed flawlessly as usual. It turned out some amazing chicken that propelled us to the Reserve Grand Championship on Saturday! Category results: Chicken 14th, Ribs 6th, Pork 7th, Brisket 12th.

Todd Johns of Pork Pullin’ Plowboys was Grand Champion and pulled off an amazing feat getting first place calls in Chicken, Ribs, and Pork! Congrats Todd!!

Memphis Pro

2011-03-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

With the weather finally warming up a bit I had a chance to do several practice cooks with the new Memphis Wood Fire Grill. I cooked my competition style chicken and it turned out great. A little tweaking with the timing and I think we've got a winner. They took up a great smoke flavor from the apple and cherry pellets and they were very juicy and tender. Two more chicken cooks this week and we'll be ready to roll with it in Pleasant Hill.

I cooked a few steaks on it as well last week and they were phenomenal. Set the grill at 650 degrees and in 8 minutes I had a perfect Ribeye.

I also spent a little time updating the Website a bit, I hope to continue to do so! Speaking of websites, anyone want to trade website work for BBQ? I would love to have a professional often updated site, I just don't have the skills to do it :)!

NKC Recap

2011-03-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Our first event of 2011 is in the books! Kim and I loaded up the boys Thursday night and headed for North Kansas City. The new trailer and tow rig worked very well and we arrived with no significant issues (we did manage to lose a hub cap on the Motorhome, coincidentally the first trip with the previous rig we lost a hub cap...must be something with me and hub caps :)).

I was great to get out and cook again. The weather was perfect all weekend and we got to see some of our best bbq friends. With 104 teams competing the field was very deep. Many of bbq's biggest players were in attendance. We had a very solid and consistent cook finishing 22nd in Chicken, 20th in Ribs, 20th in Pork, and 47th in Brisket. That put us 15th overall at the end of the day, not bad for our first time out in the new digs. I was pleased with our results in a tough field.

Earlier in the week my new Memphis Pro Wood Fire Grill arrived http://www.hearthlandproducts.com/
We hauled it to NKC with us and I got to put it through its paces on Friday. What a great machine! I am so impressed with the quality of construction, temperature control, and just how well it works. We made pizzas and cookies with it Friday night and they turned out great. The temperature range and control with this thing is amazing (from 180-650 degrees). I'm looking forward to getting some meat on it this week, this will be our main chicken cooker and will likely see the ribs and big meats as well. From what I can tell so far, it's all it's advertised to be and I'm going to love it!

Our next event will be Smokin' on Big Creek in Pleasant Hill Mo April 1st & 2nd. I'm already looking forward to it :) Here are some pictures from the weekend and of the new Memphis Pro.

Trailer Update

2011-02-27T15:37:00.001-08:00

We made a little more progress on the trailer this weekend, below are some pics. We figured out the layout, installed the cabinets and started laying out the plumbing. The drop in sink went into the base cabinet pretty well and is going to look great when it's done. I also put the Backwoods Fatboy on the porch, going to get it secured down tomorrow. With any luck the plumbing work should get done next weekend, 11 days to go!

Trailer Progress

2011-02-13T08:05:00.001-08:00

Matt and I made the 1000 mile round trip to pick up the new trailer a couple of weeks ago. It looks great and I can't wait to get cooking with it! First things first though as we have lots of work to do to build out the kitchen in the enclosed area. Here is what she looked like when we got it home

I spent the last two weeks laying out the inside and ordering parts. I ended up ordering cabinets from http://www.pitproducts.com/ and I can't wait to see them. By far the most inexpensive aluminum cabinets I could find. The reviews I've read are good and I hope the quality is as good as they say. I found tanks and a three bay sink on ebay. I ordered a Bosch Ariston 4 gallon water heater, a ShurFlo 115V RV Pump, and a ShurFlo accumulator tank from amazon.com. With all that Matt's got his work cut out for him to make us a kitchen with runnning water!

Kim and I installed the vinyl flooring yesterday and I think it looks great. We also decided to add an additional outlet for the water heater, Brian got that installed yesterday as well. With any luck the cabinets should arrive this week and installation can begin. I signed us up for a contest in North Kansas City on March 11st, so that is the new deadline! I will post pictures again as we make more progress.

First Look at the New Trailer

2011-01-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

I got a couple of build pictures of our new Extreme BBQ Trailer today and thought I would share them here for those interested. It sounds like it's a few days from finished and and I can't wait to see the final product.

It's 7'x14' (7' interior height) with a 4' porch. It should be light and easy to maneuver behind the Motorhome. More pics to come as I get them!

I Am Alive!

2011-01-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

First, an apology...I didn't intentionally abandon this blog all summer, it just sort of happened. The competition BBQ season kinda took over my life in late summer and early fall. The good news is that we had a fantastic year and I will give a recap post here in a bit.

We are also starting the planning process for the 2011 contest year. We hope to cook in our first event in mid-February so it won't be long before it starts all over again. It's also award banquet season and we have a couple of those to attend over the next couple of weeks and I hope to report on those as well.

We have also made major equipment changes in this off season. I November we sold TippyQ the 5th wheel toyhauler and late last month picked up our new to us 30 foot Class C Motorhome

We are very excited to have it and took forward to the travel comfort it will add for the long miles this summer. It should make getting to and from contests much easier and it has its own generator so no more worries about lousy power at contests!

To pair with the Motorhome we ordered a 2011 Extreme BBQ Trailer. Extreme BBQ trailers are custom build BBQ Porch trailers. We ordered a 7'x14' trailer with a 4' porch for the smokers. It should pull nicely behind the Motorhome. We should be able to pick up the trailer sometime in January and will have a lot of work to do to finish the kitchen on the inside. I will post pictures as soon as I have them.

I am also working with a national company on a sponsorship deal for 2011. I am very excited about this opportunity and I hope to have more news to share soon :)

2011 looks like its shaping up to be one heck of a year in competition BBQ, There's talk of a $200,000 payout contest, a new TV show is allegedly in the works again, and Kingsford is rumored to have big plans for bbq cooks in 2011. We are very excited about the year and hope to keep our lucky streak going. We will be picking our events carefully in 2011 and although we will likely cook fewer contests, we will very likely travel more miles in pursuit of the best contests against the best competition.

So that is where we are heading into the 2011 season. I am working on a recap post for 2010 and will get you caught up on that this weekend!

TippyQ For Sale

2010-05-28T13:23:00.001-07:00

We have decided to sell our 5th Wheel ToyHauler that we have converted for BBQ competitions.
Up for sale is my 5th wheel camper toyhauler that has been setup for BBQ competitions. I am only selling due to a change in plans, I will consider trades or partial trades for a Class C Motorhome or a vending/competition trailer. Here are the details:

2007 BayHauler BH 3360. 37' long, 10' seperate garage in rear with ramp door. Garage converted to a kitchen with 3 bay sink, stainless steel work table, small refridgerator, cabinets, and countertop. The garage also has room and tie downs for smokers in the middle. We haul a couple of Backwoods around, but it could accomodate a wide variety of smokers (FEC-100's, superiors, stumps, BGE's, JAMBO enclosed model, etc). The front of the camper is equiped like a standard 5th wheel, with a Queen bed, sofa sleeper, dinettte, kitchen, shower, and toilet. See the link below for floorplan. As you can see in the attachment the trailer is light for its size and pulls well. I pull it with a 2006 Chevy 2500 Duramax Diesel (that is also for sale, I will make you a heck of a deal on the package )

ttp://www.trail-lite.com/PDFs/Bay_Hauler.pdf

This is the perfect trailer for competitions. Compete in style with all the comforts of home!

$25,500 and I will help deliver almost anywhere(I said almost ) Email or Facebook message for more details. beland@omnitelcom.com

More pictures here http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1295700#post1295700

Capital City Cookoff Recap

2010-04-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Contest number two of 2010 is in the books! Brian, Matt, and I made the seven hour trip to Jefferson City Missouri last weekend. We cooked very well, had a great time, and managed to return home unharmed.

This contest is well known for having a big purse ($26,000 total), for attracting some of the best teams in the country, and for being very cook friendly. Bruce Ring and his group of volunteers came through on all counts.

Unlike our cook in Little Rock, everything seemed to click in Jefferson City. The Backwoods Smoker's performed flawlessly and we hit our marks consistently. We aren't in mid season form by any means, and it still seems like we are working too hard at this, however, we are getting closer :). After turn in's we began the clean up and I think we all felt pretty good about what we had turned out. We made an adjustment to a couple of flavor items on chicken and the chicken was much improved over Little Rock. We were also trying out a new rib supplier and switched up the rub used on them. Like the chicken the ribs were far improved over the last couple of attempts.

As we headed into awards I think we all had high hopes for the day. As it turned out we were not to be disappointed:

Chicken 3rd
Ribs 5th
Pork 6th
Brisket 35th
Overall 3rd

We finished just over a point out of 2nd - Iowa's Smokey D's, and over 12 points out of first - Great Grills O' Fire. As it turned out we could have finished 4th in Brisket and still not finished better than 2nd. Needless to say, Becky and Mark with Great Grills O' Fire cooked their butts off and earned that victory! Our Friends Ryan and Sonya of Big T'z Q Cru finished in a strong 5th position to make it three Iowa teams in the top five!

All in all, we had a great time, filled the BBQ account for the next several contests, and really feel good about how we are cooking heading into the meat of our schedule. The long drives are over for a while and we are looking forward to contests a little closer to home. Next up is the Minnesota in May event held at the Mower County Fairgrounds in Austin on May 14th and 15th.

USA Barbecue Championship Recap

2010-03-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

The first one is in the books. It appears as though North Little Rock and the team survived the event. Although we didn't finish as well as we had hoped, we had a great time and enjoyed cooking against the best of the best.

I left Wednesday morning for the trek down the the trailer and made it all the way to Joplin Missouri before calling it a night. I found a lovely Super 8 that was a bit dirty and a little scary looking, however, for $39.99 I couldn't complain. I killed a little time Thursday morning in Joplin, bought some ribs, had some breakfast and was on to the final leg to North Little Rock. The rest of the ride was uneventful and I arrived unscathed at about 2:30.

Matt and Brian were driving separate and wouldn't be arriving until Friday afternoon, so I was on my own for setup. Check in at the event went fairly smoothly, especially considering the number of teams they were trying to direct. I found my spot and spent the afternoon setting up. A group of us from the BBQ-Brethren went to supper at The Flying Fish, I ate way too much and was fast asleep by 11pm.

Friday morning it was finally time to go into official contest mode and the day went fast trimming and prepping. It was at the cooks meeting that it really set in that this event really was the who's-who of BBQ. 226 teams and a large percentage of them could win this event.

The big meats went on as usual Friday night and we stayed up way too late drinking and carrying-on. As a result of that Saturday morning came very early, but like usual everything went on in time and before we knew it it was time to turn in chicken. We were a little out of sync (I'm sure Friday night had nothing to do with that) but we figured it out and all in all the turnins went smoothly. As usual we placed our guesses as to where each category would finish. Also, as usual we were all over the board. Here are a couple of pictures of our chicken and brisket boxes, very good looking boxes in my opinion.

The weather had been really nice the entire event but after turnin's it began to cloud up and it began to rain and got very windy about the time the awards ceremony started. Due to the size of the event and the large purse the organizers decided to payout the Top 40 in each category. We were disappointed as the chicken category passed without our name being called. I really thought we had earned a call in chicken, as they started ribs I knew better than to have hope for a top 40 and I was correct. On to pork, again I thought we had earned a Top 40 with some of the best pork we have turned out. This time the judges agreed and TippyCanoe BBQ Crew got a call for 9th place Pork. Generally 9th place pork wouldn't be all that impressive, but in this event I was thrilled. Brisket also passed without a call. At this point I was very interested in seeing our overall scores. In the end I would be very happy with Brisket, satisfied with the ribs, and scratching my head over the chicken,

Chicken 215th place (ouch)
Ribs 137th place
Pork 9th place
Brisket 57th place
Overall 99th place

They hated the chicken and it really hurt our overall score. All in all, it was a great time and that one good call always makes it worth it and has us coming back for more. I think I have diagnosed the chicken problem and I'm looking forward to giving it another go in a couple of weeks at the Capital City Cookoff in Jefferson City Missouri.

Thanks for reading!

Hang on to your hat...

2010-03-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here goes...the 2010 season it FINALLY here! It has been the longest winter of my life and I am ready to get the smoke rollin' for 2010. I am headed out sometime Wednesday and Brian and Matt will be joining me sometime on Friday.

We will be competing in the USA Barbecue Championship, considered the worlds richest BBQ competition with $100,000 in prize money. http://www.smokeonthewaterbbq.com/2010-events/nlr-home.html

I got the camper out of storage last weekend and have spent this weekend cleaning, shopping, and loading. Should be all set to go for the year.

Looking forward to getting back out there and seeing a bunch of the best teams in the country (and one coming all the way from Japan to compete). I wouldn't mind bringing home a little cash as well!

2010 Schedule Update

2010-02-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

www.tippycanoebbq.com has been updated with the first half of our schedule for 2010. Please go on over and check it out!

With everything else going on in life outside of BBQ we decided to try to limit contests to two weekends per month. As a result we are going to miss several events I had really hoped to hit in 2010. As a side note, I really wish the Iowa events were a bit more spread out. Its seems as though they are all in June and July and the months really get crowded.

We will start the year with a long haul to North Little Rock Arkansas. The event should have 200+ of the best teams in the nation competing for a piece of $100,000 in prize money. It is said to be the richest KCBS contest ever had I hope we can get our hands on some! They are doing a good job of spreading the 100k around by paying the top 40 spots in each category. Really looking forward to getting back into competition mode!

I promise many more blog posts, videos, and pictures to come as we get into the competition season. It's just to hard to think about this blog and the website about BBQ with 3 feet of snow on the ground!

New Website

2009-11-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

I appologize for not keeping this up for the past couple of months. We had so much going on with our trip to the Royal, a trip to Libertyville, and our crazy life in general. Overall we had a great fall getting 13th in the Royal Invitational, a 9th place Brisket call in the Royal Open, and 3rd overall in Libertyville. I really hated to see the season end, however, it was nice to finish on a high note getting top ten calls in all four categories in our last run. It could be a long winter with over five months without a BBQ competition. Already looking forward to our trip to Little Rock for the "richest" BBQ contest ever ($100,000 prize fund) in March.

One of my projects for the winter was to create a real Website for our team. You can now find this blog and other things at www.tippycanoebbq.com. Other than the blog the main focus of the Website will be my BBQ Video Journey project in 2010. I purchased a new camcomder and I plan to chronical our BBQ adeventures in 2010 via video on the Website. I figured if Pitmasters on TLC wouldn't have me, I would make my own show :)

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

It's a long drive to Tennesse anyway right?

2009-09-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn't get drawn to go to the Jack Daniel's World Championship. A lot of very deserving teams did get selected and we will have more chances at it in the future. I think I will just try to get one of those automatics next year...this draw crap is hard on a guys heart :-) It was fun just to be involved in the process and to have a shot. Now, back to work to try to get in for 2010!
You can find the results of the draw here : http://kcbs.us/news.php?id=172

Big Island BBQ, Albert Lea Mn Recap

2009-09-04T06:44:00.001-07:00

We had a great time in Albert Lea with some good weather, a good party, and good food. This contest is held at the Freeborn County fairgrounds. This was our fourth or fifth event held at a fairgrounds and I'm really starting to appreciate these venues. They almost all have excellent power, are on grass, and have water available...three things that make the events much more enjoyable for us.

Matt and I make the forty five minute trek Friday morning and got everything setup and the meats prepped. This contest had a peoples choice chicken wings contest that we participated in. It was important to get everything else done Friday afternoon as we knew we would be messing with the wings most of the evening. Brian, Jeff, and their families along with several of Kim's co-workers joined us Friday night for supper and a drink or two. Everyone had a great time Friday night and we even managed to kill most of a $50 bottle of Jack that belonged to our neighbor Tony. He was a good sport about it and probably had a shot or ten out of it as well.

The meats cooked without incident overnight and the ribs and chicken went on as scheduled Saturday morining. The turnins went very well, we really have this process down at this point in the year. The chicken was some of the best I had made in a while as far as tenderness went but we were a little concerned we had overdone the pepper a bit. We scrambled to attempt to sweeten them up. As you will see below it either worked or the judges like pepper :-). The ribs looked great with about an hour to go but by the time we got them off the smoker and into the turn in box the had overcooked considerably. This is something like the third time I have done that this year, and I am changing our timing up a bit for the rest of the year. The pork was pork like usual. When we sliced the brisket I knew it was money. I got to the "sweet spot" for slices and they were some of the prettiest and moistest slices I have ever seen. The flavor was spot on and the burnt ends melted like butter...it was going to be a good brisket day!

At the start of the awards ceremony they announced that there had been two perfect scores that day. A perfect score is all 9's in all three judged categories from all five counted judges resulting in a 180 point score. This is a somewhat rare feat (I have heard about twenty are given out a year with many coming from categories other than the main four meats). There were several "other" categories at the event and I assumed the 180's we in those events as that is the only place I had ever seen the perfect score. Sure enough they get to dessert and 1st place had a 180 perfect score. I was a bit suprised when they got to brisket without the other 180 (I think everyone was). They go throught spots 10-2 and no TippyCanoe BBQ Crew...I will be honest, I was starting to get upset, how could that not have been a top 10 entry? They really built up the 1st places and when they finally got to brisket they again mentioned that 1st place brisket had received a perfect score...I nearly fell over when we heard our name for that 180 point first place brisket! It will be one of the highlights of our rookie year and something I will never forget. After the awards I was told that this win will get us an invite into the Chest to Chest Invitational Brisket only contest to be held in Great Bend Kansas in July of 2010. Kansas in July may be a bit tough but I think we can handle it! After the event a representative from KCBS told me that this was only the second 180 given for Brisket in 2009 in the entire Country!

Big Island Barbeque - Aug 29, 2009
Albert Lea, MN

Out of 49 Teams

4th Place - OVERALL
3rd Place - CHICKEN
35th Place - RIBS
16th Place - PORK
1st Place - BRISKET

Our overcooked ribs really killed us but that is that way it goes and why it is so hard to win in this game. I guess it gives me something to work on in September! The guys and I are headed to Vermillion South Dakota next weekend and I can't wait to get back in and try again.
Joe

Schedule Update

2009-08-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

We have changed our schedule a bit to end our first full season so I thought I would post an update. We have 6 competitions remaining:

August 28-29 Big Island BBQ Albert Lea, MN
Sept 11-12 South Dakota State BBQ Championship Vermillion, SD
Sept 18-19 SMSU SmokeFest Marshall, MN
Oct 2-3 American Royal Invitational Kansas City, MO
Oct 3-4 American Royal Open Kansas City, MO
Oct 16-17 Barn Burner Bar-B-Q Libertyville, IL (unless we get into the Jack Daniels Invitational, in that case we will go to Lynchburg TN later in October and skip this one).

As you can see from the Power Rankings to the right of this post, we have slipped a bit in the rankings due to sitting out the last several weeks. The next month will move us back up that list with a little luck! My goal is to finish the year in the top 75 teams and to finish in the top 25 in Brisket. We will have to cook our butts off to get there, but you gotta have goals, right?

Back on the trail

2009-08-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

After four weeks off TippyCanoe BBQ Crew will be back on the KCBS trail this weekend. We will be competing in the Big Island Barbeque contest held in Albert Lea Minnesota.

This is our last contest prior to the Jack Daniel's World Invitational Draw which will be held next Thursday September 3rd. We have our name in the hat in Minnesota from our win in Owatonna In May and would love to get a second bung in the draw. You can read more about the teams in the draw here http://pelletenvy.blogspot.com/2009/08/are-you-in-draw-do-you-want-to-be.html
Rod did a great job of putting a list together. The condensed story on the draw is that they will take all the winners from each state and draw out a representative for that state (they also draw for a winner "from" each state if not all are represented after the draw).

Up in Smoke BBQ Bash, Mason City Recap

2009-08-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

We cooked the event in Mason City last week and had a great time. The Bash is held in East Park and it is a great setting for a BBQ contest. We had some issues with power early on Friday but we got those resolved and all went well from there. Being so close to home and work we had many visitors and it all went by very quickly. Our turn-ins were very consistent; nothing great in my mind, but nothing terrible either. The judges agreed and we were very happy to finish 7th overall and 3rd in Brisket in this extermely tough field. In fact, our total score in Mason City was only 1 point shy of our Grand Championship score in Owatonna in May.

Up in Smoke BBQ - Mason City, IA
Out of 65 Teams
7th Place - OVERALL
29th Place - CHICKEN
20th Place - RIBS
21th Place - PORK
3rd Place - BRISKET

On a side note, I keep bragging about the competition we've faced this year so I thought I better put some facts behind it. KCBS just released the updated Team of the Year standings for 2009. We have competed against 13 of the top 25 teams in the country to this point (and most of them several times).

Waterloo and Laporte City Recap

2009-08-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well we surived the double contest weekend. We had a good experience at both competitions and it was good to get our feet wet with two in one weekend prior to the Royal in October. I will say I would not want to do two contests in one weekend on a regular basis. We were totally shot by the time it was all over Sunday afternoon. It probably didn't help matters that we didn't have a strong showing in either event. Below are the gory details, all in all two of our poorest performances of the year.

BBQ'Loo & Blues Too - Waterloo, IA
Out of 35 Teams
12th Place - OVERALL
7th Place - CHICKEN
21th Place - RIBS
9th Place - PORK
20th Place - BRISKET

BBQ in the Park - La Porte City, IA
Out of 25 Teams
14th Place - OVERALL
11th Place - CHICKEN
8th Place - RIBS
20th Place - PORK
14th Place - BRISKET

Doing the Double

2009-07-14T19:05:00.001-07:00

This weekend we will compete in two KCBS competitions. It is our first attempt at the two in one weekend and I am really looking forward to it. I have two chances to screw the ribs up :)

We will be cooking in the BBQ'loo and Blues Too competition in Waterloo on Friday/Saturday...and as soon as we are done in Waterloo we will be headed to the BBQ in the Park in Laporte City (about 15 min down the road) for Saturday/Sunday. Matt, Brian, and Jeff will be along for the ride and it should be a great weekend!

We WILL put all four together once this weekend :)

Marshalltown Recap

2009-07-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

This post is really really late so I will just post a quick recap of the weekend.

The weather was perfect and with the exception of 2 minutes of drizzle it was dry (first time ever). I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but again there were some of the best teams in the country in attendance.

We were happy with everything except for the ribs (again, it seems like I say that after every competition...I'm starting to really hate ribs). After tasting the ribs I thought about not turning them in at all. From the looks of the results I should have thrown them away.

Chicken 24th
Ribs 60th
Pork 12th
Brisket 9th
Overall 24th (out of 65)

The terrible ribs hurt badly, cost us a top ten for sure and a possible top five. Oh well, perhaps we can put all four together again this weekend. It was great to see Ryan and Terry with Big T'z Q Cru take their second Grand Championship in as many contests. They are a new team just like us, and obviously they have it rolling. It's fun to see team win that actually seems to enjoy it!

O'Town BBQ Showdown Recap

2009-06-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Sommer and I had a great time in Ottumwa last weekend. The weather was great on Friday and we managed to navigate into our spot around noon. It was another tough crowd with lots of great teams.

We had a couple challenges on the weekend....I woke up about 3:30 am to a hard rain, no big deal as the cookers were under the awning. I decided to get up to check on them to be sure, I took the first step out of the trailer and knew something was wrong as I felt my shoe fill with water. I quickly realized that we had 6+ inches of water running through our site. It was a mess with cooler, garbage, logs, you name it floating by. The water was about 2 inches from coming into the firebox on the smoker. After about ten minutes it stopped raining and the water started to go down...that could have been really bad, but in the end it was no big deal.

Challenge number two proved to be a bigger issue. Brisket has been, by far, our best category...I knew that would not be the case this weekend when I took our brisket out of the package. It had a huge fat cap and after I got it trimmed it was really skinny. In my experience a skinny brisket is a dry brisket. This one was no exception. I probably should have made a couple off adjustments to cooking or trimming, lesson learned I guess. Everything else went off as planned and we were really happy with the other three categories. The judges did not agree :) Our scores were actually pretty good with everything except the ribs in the 160's but it wasn't good enough for a top ten call.

Out of 30 Teams
12th Place - OVERALL
12th Place - CHICKEN
15th Place - RIBS
12th Place - PORK
14th Place - BRISKET

A very consistent outing just not consistently good! Overall, I was happy with everything except the Brisket and we will give it another go June 26th in Marshalltown.
Joe

O'Town BBQ Showdown Ottumwa, IA

2009-06-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

We will be competing in the first ever O'Town BBQ Showdown this weekend. This contest was a late add to the schedule. Sommer (my oldest) and I are cooking together this weekend. It will be nice (for dad anyway) to get a little father/daughter time in! I am really looking forward to getting back to the normal categories and we're hoping to followup on our good showing in Owatonna. I told Sommer I would split any winnings with her as she is trying to raise money for a couple of trips in the coming year. As a result the pressure is on, with me luck hopefully Sommer can earn a few bucks :)

BarbeQlossal Recap

2009-06-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Des Moines at the Qlossal. The event is very well organized and well run. I field was amazingly tough this week and it was fun to cook in the same event as several folks I've seen on the Food Network :)

As I mentioned the categories were different this week....lets just say I like the regular categories better. I will never complain about prepping chicken ever again!

Or turn ins were just sort of OK and the judges agreed (out of 59 teams):

Ribs 39th 158.86
Pork 12th 168.57
Loin 35th 153.14
Overall 31st

This was our first Iowa competition of the year, so it was also our first crack at Iowa Barbecue Society team of the year points in Ribs and Pork. One good and one bad. Actually, that is our best pork score ever...a good way to start. The IBS takes a teams top 4 scores and averages them together to determine the TOY. We are doing 5 contests in Iowa so it will be fun to see how we stack up against some of the big boys in Iowa at the end of the year.

Overall, it was a good weekend and I think we found a pork recipe to replicate the rest of the year.

The Great Pork BarbeQlossal Des Moines, IA

2009-06-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

TippyCanoe BBQ Crew will be competing in the Great Pork BarbeQlossal at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. It will be just my family this weekend and we are really looking forward to it. We have heard nothing but good things about this event!

The Qlossal is different than all of the other competitions we will compete in this year. The event is sponsored by the National Pork Board and is a pork only contest that follows the same KCBS rules. The biggest change is the categories themselves. They are pork, pork ribs, pork loin, and whole hog (the whole hog category does not count towards to overall results). We don't have the capacity to cook a whole hog so we will only be doing the first three. With our results in chicken and brisket the past couple of weeks I'm a little sad to see them left out, but it will be fun to try something different.

With 59 of the best teams in the country coming to town it will be challenge to place in this one!

SMOKIN' IN STEELE Recap

2009-06-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

Now that was fun :)

The weather was great (with the exception of a few light showers overnight), the smokers worked great, and our timing was nearly perfect. I hauled the trailer up and started prepping during the day Friday. Kim and the kids as well as Brian and Matt and their families came up Friday evening. It was another well attended event with 43 teams competing. The meat went on and we were off to bed around 1am. The morning went as planned and before we knew it turn ins were done once again.

After turn ins I felt really good about what we had turned out. We nailed the chicken and brisket and the ribs were better than our previous attempts. The pork is always a question mark for us and this time was no different. I was hoping for a couple of calls.

The awards ceremony went better than I could have imagined. We first heard our name in the Chicken category with a 5th place finish. Ribs were next and we were pleasantly suprised to get a 3rd place call. The pork category passed by with no call. As they called the names for brisket I thought to myself, if we could get a top 5 in brisket we might have a chance at this thing...just then i heard our team name for 3rd place in Brisket. The top awards had been pretty spread out and I had a feeling it was down to us and Iowa's Smokey D's for the Grand Championship. My thoughts were accurate and they called Darren for Reserve Champion and TippyCanoe BBQ Crew as Grand Champion. Needless to say we were thrilled. I don't think my feet hit the ground all the way to the stage. I still can't believe we won :)

The Grand Championship in this "state championship" event gets us an invite to the American Royal BBQ in Kansas City in October (http://www.arbbq.com/) and in the "draw" for the Jack Daniels World Championship in Lynchburg, Tn (we have a 1 in 4 chance of getting drawn as far as I can tell).

Its a weekend I won't soon forget!!

Here are the scores:

Chicken 5th 170.28

Ribs 3rd 168

Pork 15th 158.85

Brisket 3rd 169.14

Overall 1st 666.28

Smokin in Steele, Owatonna Mn

2009-05-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

TippyCanoe BBQ Crew will be competing in the 2nd annual Smokin in Steele BBQ competition in Owatonna Minnesota this weekend. I'm taking Friday off and hope to be on the road by 9-9:30am. Its another short drive at around an hour travel time.

The weather forecast looks fantastic with no rain and temps around 80. I hope that comes through, mother nature owes me one after Austin a couple of weeks ago.

It sounds like it will be another well attended event with 40 plus teams. I'm hoping we can put all four categories together for the first time this year and come out with a decent showing!!

Minnesota in May Recap

2009-05-20T10:34:00.001-07:00

Well that was fun...sort of :) The weather was just wicked with 35 degree temps and 35 mph winds. To add to the fun I pinched a nerve in my back early in the morning on Friday. I couldn't even stand up straight until Friday afternoon, but I survived. I was very nice being close to home, Austin is only about 20 miles from home for us. We had several visitors and cooked a couple of pork loins for supper Friday night.

Despite the wind and cold weather the Backwoods Smokers held temps great and didn't miss a beat. Like usual morning snuck up on us and it wasn't long and turn-in's were done. We must be getting a little better at it with practice as all went very smoothly. With 71 teams completing and some very stiff competition I knew it would take our best to get any calls. Overall, I was happy with our turn-ins. The chicken was amazing and looked great, the ribs were OK, the pork was just pork like usual (we are going to change this up in Owatonna in 2 weeks), and the brisket was some of the best we have turned out. The judges agreed with us for a change and the results looked like this:

Chicken 7th with a 170.28
Ribs 44th with a 152.57
Pork 47th with a 151.43
Brisket 9th with a 165.14
Overall 17th with a 639.43

I will take two calls with that crowd any day! Ribs still seem to be my nemesis, I'm going to cook some for the family this weekend to try something different. We had good time despite the weather and a few hiccups with the organization of the contest. Looking forward to taking another stab at it in Owatonna the last weekend in May.
Joe

Capital City Cookoff Recap

2009-04-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Jefferson City, Mo last weekend. Brian, Matt, and I got on the road with the new trailer about 5:30pm on Thursday night. The trip was pretty uneventful (thank god) and we managed to find a Wal-Mart parking lot around midnight in Mexico, Mo and caught a few hours of sleep. We got back on the road Friday morning and arrived in Jefferson City by 10:00am. We got everything setup and to my surprise I actually remembered to pack everything :). We kind of ended up in the middle of nowhere with the trailer and we felt a little out there...another lesson learned, don't setup in the middle away from turn in, you may end up by yourself!

The big meats went on around midnight Friday night and the big cooker and Guru did not want to cooperate. The temps were all over the board and it took almost three hours for it to settle in around 230 degrees. I have never seen the Fatboy act that way and I'm still not sure what was happening there...the air just seemed a little funny(wet and heavy), maybe that had something to do with it. As usual, morning came way too fast and before we knew it it was 11:00am Saturday. The good news is once the Fatboy settled down everything went very smoothly.

Turn in time: The chicken came off the Party and looked great, it was pretty easy to pick out the six best/most uniform pieces. We all had a piece of chicken and agreed it was some of our best to date with one exception...it had a little too much kick to it. I must have gotten a little heavy handed with the rub. It was juicy, tender, and tasted great but I was worried about the heat. Here is a picture of the box

Ribs- The ribs came off and again we thought they were very good, they had good flavor and were tender but still left a very distinct "bite" mark when eaten. We were pleased and off they went. We somehow forgot the picture of the ribs, so you will have to trust me they looked good:)

Pork- The pork came out of the warmed cooler and we were happy with it as well. We only cooked two butts this time and one was much more tender than the other so we only ended up turning in out of that piece. Again, it came together nicely and off it went with the delivery bitch(Matt).

Brisket- I got the brisket out of the cooler and knew we were in trouble...it was a bit undercooked, tough, and dry. We sliced it up and doctored up the best six slices we could find with sauce and more rub. The flavor ended up OK, but I was afraid to see the tenderness scores already...I had made up some burnt ends, but even they were just kind of OK, I figured they couldn't hurt the score of the slices any and in the box they went.

Well, three out of four isn't bad right? We were satisfied for the most part and starting packing everything up. We had everything put away and were ready to hit the road by the time the awards started. As we walked into the building where the awards ceremony was to be held I told the guys if we were going to get a call it would be in either chicken or ribs, I really felt like they were our two best of the day. After not hearing our name for either chicken or ribs I really felt like we were not gong to get a call. But sure enough in the 9th place pork position we hear our name called. It made it all worth it! As they came to the brisket category I had no hope for a call, I told Matt that I would fall over if we had placed in the top 10 in brisket. And then right on cue, 8th place brisket goes to TippyCanoe BBQ Crew. I'm still stunned at that, but was soon to be even more stunned when I got the scores sheet and saw just how poorly we did in chicken and ribs. Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes....perhaps it shows how little I know about what good BBQ should taste like:)

Results(out of 55 teams):

Overall 19th place 633

Chicken 34th place 154.3

Ribs 42nd place 148.6

Pork 9th place 165.7

Brisket 8th place 165.1

With 55 teams and some of the best on the country in attendance I was very pleased with our finish. Gonna have to figure out what to do with the ribs as the scores keep going the wrong way, I really think the extra heat in the chicken killed us there so that is easily fixed...overall I will take it. I'm already looking forward to Mn in May in Austin on May 15th...then the real season starts!!

Ready to go...

2009-04-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well I think we are ready for the season to begin. The trailer is done! We finished installing the 3 bay sink this week and everything works great. It will be nice to have a place for everything.

I've done several chicken practice cooks over the past couple of weeks and feel really good about the new recipe. I also cooked 6 pork butts for a friends party over the weekend so that was a good way to get back in the swing for pork. It was a crazy winter and I haven't cooked a brisket or ribs since December. To add to the fun I decided to mix up the rib recipe a bit...probably a sketchy idea, but after our rib finish in Libertyville its time to change something.

Matt, Brian and I are leaving for Jefferson City Thursday evening. We hope to get most of the way there and find a parking lot park to sleep for the night. I originally started this blog to track and share our stories from competitions so I'm looking forward to posting the Jefferson City story when we get home.

Joe

2009 Competition Schedule

2009-03-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

Below is our tentative 2009 competition schedule. We may switch a couple out as we go...

April 17 & 18
Capital City Cookoff
Jefferson City, MO

May 15 & 16
Minnesota in May
Austin, MN

May 29 & 30
Smokin' in Steele
Owatonna, MN

June 5 & 6
The Great Pork BarbeQlossal
Des Moines, IA

June 26 & 27
Iowa State BBQ Championship
Marshalltown, IA

July 17 & 18
BBQloo and Blues Too
Waterloo, IA

July 24 & 25
Up in Smoke BBQ Bash
Mason City, IA

July 31/Aug 1
Lynch Livestock Pig Stampede
Waucoma, IA

August 28 & 29
Big Island BBQ
Albert Lea, MN

September 5 & 6
Throwdown on the River
Dubuque, IA

September 25 & 26
River City RoundUp
Omaha, NE

October 16 & 17
Barn Burner Bar-B-Q
Libertyville, IL

TIPPYQ

2009-02-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of TIPPYQ, our new cooking trailer. We do a lot of camping as a family and had a nice travel trailer. It took two comps of loading the smokers and gear in and out of the pickup and camper last fall to realize I didn't want to do that 10 times a year. So the search began for a toy hauler that would fit the family for camping and would accomodate my BBQ stuff...I found this a couple of hours away at a dealer in Wisconsin. Its a monster @ 37' long, but its got everything we need (I think I can get into most comps in this area with it, just gonna cost a bit more).

The garage area is a 10' long.We've got a lot of work to do to get her ready to head to Jefferson City Mo in April. I have a small Fridge and a row of cabinets ready for the right side and a stainless table for the left. I'm still looking for a 60" or smaller 3 bay sink to go in front of the stainless table. There are no outlets in the garage so I plan to run conduit for outlets and additional lights. I am also planning to convert the fuel station that is mounted in the frame under where the sink will go to a grey water tank for the sink drain.

I will post a couple more pics when we get it done!

2008 Recap

2009-02-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Following our success in Carpenter we decided to try our hand at the real deal. We began looking for a KCBS sanctioned competition in the area. After comparing schedules we decided to enter the Ben Biken BBQ Bash in Sparta Wisconsin. We had a great time in Sparta and were amazed at our finish...out of 25 teams we placed:

16th in Chicken with a 148.57
5th in Ribs with a 158.85
2nd in Pork with a 164.57
2nd in Brisket with a 163.57
2nd place overall with a 635.43

Needless to say we were very pleased(with the exception of the dried-out chicken)!

With winter fast approaching I decided to try to get one more competition in before the snow flew. This time I would take my family to the Barn Burner BBQ in Libertyville Illinios. Before heading to Libertyville I decided that I "needed" another smoker! So a couple of weeks before the trip I purchased a Backwoods Fatboy to go along with my Party. The Fatboy is very similar to the Party, its slighty bigger, better insulated, holds more coal, and more meat. The weather was a bit cold overnight and it was a long trip but we still managed to have a great time. We came back down to earth a bit results wise...out of 32 teams:

11th in Chicken with a 155.42
21st in Ribs with a 144
9th in Pork with a 153.71
3rd in Brisket with a 157.14
11th overall with a 610.28

I was happy with the results, I thought the scores were about right with the exception of the ribs. They were by far the best ribs I have ever made, but thats the way it goes I guess!

The Begining

2009-02-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

Before 2009 starts I thought I would get you up to speed on how I got to this point! In 2007 I bought a cheap offset Chargriller smoker and started experimenting. We do a lot a camping and the smoker started making trips with us to the campground. I started reading about BBQ on the Internet (my wife would say at a disturbing rate) and I was hooked.

I bought a Backwoods Party Smoker in the early spring of 2008, if I was going to compete I had to have a real smoker :). I practiced all summer in preparation for a non-sanctioned event that was to be held in Carpenter Iowa in August. I recruited my brother-in-law Brian and my Cousin Jeff as the crew (they would like to be known as the All Natural Smokin' Crew, named for their favorite cheap swill, Natural Light). The plan going into Carpenter was that if we didn't embarrass ourselves we would hit a KCBS sanctioned competition in the fall. We ended up as Grand Champions and a monster was officially born....we were hooked.

Welcome to TippyCanoe BBQ

2009-02-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

With the 2009 competition season quickly approaching I thought I would start this blog and use it as a way to track our results and share our experiences. We are planning to start the year off in Jefferson City Mo on April 17th. In the next couple of weeks I will post our 2009 schedule.