This is to provide a little
insight to the “Frostbuster BBQ Event” established by Smokehouse 72 BBQ team in
the spring of 2009. Over the last few years, we have garnered attention
nationwide for our idea and how we got it to work. With all these inquiries I
felt it was time to put something down on paper for those that may be
interested in setting up an event in their state.
First, who are we? We are Ray
Ringgenberg, Jay Ringgenberg and Rick Dodd. We all cooked together and
separately for years before forming Smokehouse 72 BBQ team (2008) and created
the Frostbuster BBQ Event in 2009. We
are all KCBS judges but do more cooking than judging so we had the question.
What are the judges really looking for? If only we could talk to the judges
directly after a contest and find out why we got the scores we were given. The
Frostbuster BBQ Event was the answer.
The Frostbuster BBQ Event. Why
“Frostbuster”? There are a couple of reasons for the name. First, we like to be
the first contest of the year so we’re chipping the frost off the
equipment. It can still be cold here in
Iowa in April. Second, we want to break
the ice between the judges and teams.
How the Frostbuster works:
We accept up to 12 teams
regardless of skill level to come cook a full KCBS style run contest. We prefer
to host new teams for the learning experience they can gain for not a lot of
money. This is a great first step for those teams to get into competition BBQ.
The entry fee of $60 is set to
pay for 1 night at the campground, pay for breakfast for all the teams and
their members and they also receive a wonderful gift bag of sauces and spices
and a Frostbuster T-shirt. We offer no
monetary pay out because we felt this would cause "competition” between teams
and we want this to be a learning experience.
So far this has worked great! Over the years we have done this
event; we have had at a number of teams get their first Grand Championship in a KCBS contest. Not saying the Frostbuster was the main
reason for their success but we like to think it helped.
We found 12 teams to be busy
but a manageable amount of teams. You
certainly could do more if you had enough help. Most KCBS rules apply of
garnish, meat inspection, scoring and we even have our own KCBS reps. Nothing really sounds out of the ordinary so
far right? We do encourage the judges to come out Friday and Saturday to hang with
the cooks and ask questions. We invite only Certified BBQ Judges to judge our
contest and we give them a special scorecard we created. They are told to
comment or make notes, good or bad, on each entry they receive. They are also
told to be honest with their scoring and comments. Another difference is
that each table will have all the same teams’ entries. We cannot switch tables
as this will prolong and confuse the team/judging review process. So 6 teams
will get the same 6 judges for all their meats. The judges don’t know whose
entry they are receiving.
Once judging is done, we invite each team (2 at a time) to come and talk to the judges about their scores.
They take approximately 10 minutes and we move
on to the next teams. This has been a
great event to help along new and seasoned bbq teams. With a donation of your product towards the
team gift bags, you could help make this
event better and better.
If you are interested in
donating rubs, sauces, or any other items we will include your company name on
our website for recognition. Since we only have 12 teams we only ask for 12
donations of product…plus maybe one for us to try..;)
Thank you for your time and we
hope to hear from you soon, please contact me at any of the following:
Smokehouse 72 BBQ
c/o Ray Ringgenberg
15641 NE 42nd St. Cambridge, Ia. 50046
515-291-1236
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