Smoke Freaks traveled to the Badger Brews & Que in Manitowoc, WI last weekend for our final double-header competition of the summer. We have just one cook left in our 2016 season, Lamb’s Farm in October, so we really, really needed to make these last two summer cooks count.
It was a glorious weekend with absolutely perfect BBQ weather. Highs in the 70s with clear skies and sunshine. And no rain!! After a long drive, we pulled up at a local campground for a quick overnight before arriving at the Manitowoc County Expo and Fairgrounds on Friday morning.
With 26 other teams competing, we got to see old friends and make new ones. We even slipped away on Friday night to catch a few races at the Speedway, which was right next to the competition area.
Saturday got off to a great start, thanks our wake up song, Werewolves of London… ... and a killer biscuits and gravy breakfast from Tim’s Full Belli Deli!
Saturday’s cook went really well and we had many laughs (and howls) throughout the day, including many at the awards ceremony. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment we got 2nd place in chicken, our best chicken score to date. I was beaming with pride over that that chicken score, which combined with 5th in ribs and 4th in brisket was good enough for 4th overall!
But no rest for the weary as we had to do it all over again on Sunday. Another beautiful day and man, Smoke Freaks were totally in synch and our cook followed our timeline almost to the minute. We scored 7th in chicken, 3rd in ribs and 5th in pork, giving us another 4th overall! (We missed 3rd overall by .6 points!)
We were thrilled with our consistency over the last few competitions, but now need to get all 4 meats scoring well within the same cook.
Smoke Freaks is taking some time off the competition circuit for the rest of the summer, but we’ll be back and ready to level up for Lamb’s Farm in October. In the meantime, we’ll be cooking for a special family celebration and will then hit the road along with our freakiness for a quick vacation.
Thanks for reading our blog for a little Taste of the Freakage!