Just Blowing Smoke Takes the Title at Brookhaven BBQ Bash

Just Blowing Smoke Takes the Title at Brookhaven BBQ Bash

The Georgia Barbecue Association (GBA) invaded the metro Atlanta area for the Brookhaven BBQ Bash as part of the Brookhaven Soccerfest on the Fourth of July weekend.  The weekend started with on again/off again showers throughout the day Friday.  By Saturday morning, it had turned into a steady rain. The weather radar did give much hope with a continuous band of rain all the way west to Mississippi.  While lightning strikes delayed the start of the Peachtree Road Race just a few miles to the south, the dedicated GBA Pitmasters continued to work their magic & turned in box after box of outstanding ‘Que.

Grand Champion – Just Blowing Smoke

Just Blowing Smoke, Robin & Amy Bowles along with Rick Goldstein, made finals in all three GBA categories, but it was their first place Pork Loin that tallied the highest score of the day from the panel of finals judges to capture the Grand Championship.  Brad Sweet of 92 BBQ/Assassin Smokers took home the Reserve Grand Championship when he made finals in Pulled Pork and Ribs but just missed a “triple final” by 0.6 of a point for a 4th place finish in Loin.

Reserve Champion – 92 BBQ/Assassin Smokers

Between Just Blowing Smoke’s winning Loin entry & 92 BBQ/Assassin Smokers 4th place box was Hard Rock Hill BBQ in 2nd place and Buckhaven BBQ, in their first competition,  in 3rd place. Fifth place went to 29 Barbecue with Hootie Q taking 6th place. Rub Shakers Que took 7th place & 8th went to Simply Q. Big Mama’s & Big Daddy’s BBQ grabbed the 9th spot and Lil Bubba’s rounded out the top 10.

Fiddlers BBQ

Harvey & Shirley Wills of Fiddler’s BBQ took top honors in Pulled Pork. 92 BBQ/Assassin Smokers was the runner-up and Just Blowing Smoke took 3rd place.  In the preliminary round, Just Blowing Smoke tallied a perfect score of 600. Simply Q finished in 4th place. Fifth place went to Lil Bubba’s by 0.1 of a point over Hard Rock Hill BBQ. Swineholio came in 7th place followed by Porch Light in 8th; Que the Musick in 9th and Rub Shakers Que in 10th place.

The third category of the day is always Ribs and 92 BBQ/Assassin Smokers topped the field. Just Blowing Smoke came in second and Swineholio finished in 3rd place. 29 Barbeque took 4th place. Simply Q edged out Fiddler’s BBQ for 5th place by 0.1 of a point.  Seveth & eighth places were also close as Rub Shakers Que edged out Hard Rock Hill BBQ by just 0.2 of a point.  Ninth & 10 places went to Que the Musick and Porch Light respectively.

Hard Rock Hill BBQ

The GBA really enjoyed the beautiful park in Brookhaven. It was a shame that the weather washed out most the Soccerfest activities.  Our hosts for the weekend did an outstanding job & the GBA is looking forward to a return visit in the near future.

With the 2014-2015 competition season officially closed, we now look ahead to our Annual Banquet.  It will be held on August 1st at Healy Point Country Club in Macon.  All GBA members – cook teams, judges, sponsors, and general members – are invited to be a part of this special event.  We will honor our Teams of the Year as well as our Judge of the Year.  There be will nice gift bags from our sponsors as well as drawings for great door prizes.   The GBA also has a Judge Training Class scheduled for  August 22 at Towns Bluff Park near Hazlehurst.  Go to the Contests & Events page at www.bbqga.com to register for these events.

We are excited to kick off our 2015-2016 competition season in Griffin on Sept 25-26. This will be one of three Team of the Year double points contests.   The GBA State Championship will be held at the Deep Roots BBQ Festival in Milledgeville on Oct 23-24.  Make you plans now to be a part of these two great events.