Bayside BBQ and Beer Festival – an Official BBQ Judge.
Intro and why I wanted to be an ABA BBQ Judge
This whole adventure started on a whim when I saw a Facebook advertisement for the Bayside BBQ & Beer festival. As BBQ grows on me as a lifestyle, to say I was super interested was more than an understatement. This was peak interest for me, a chance to see firsthand what competition BBQ is all about. This would be my first BBQ festival, but the best was yet to come. After clicking around the website for a while an looking at tickets, this is when it got REALLY interesting. You could buy a ticket to be a BBQ Judge.. WHAT!!!!!! Not only could you attend the BBQ and Beer festival, you could be an official ABA BBQ Judge and actually sit on the front line of Competition BBQ and have the privilege of providing a score for all the food tasted. Mind blown!
Within about 10 minutes I had approval from my wife and had tee’d up a mate (who is just as into BBQ) to come along – we were both going to be an accredited ABA BBQ Judge.
The Bayside BBQ and Beer festival event
As this was my first BBQ festival I was not sure what exactly to expect. I was going with a clean slate and was willing to be impressed and looking forward to being in a sensory overload from that sweet, sweet smoky Low and Slow BBQ aroma.
What other combination of activities elicits the great Australian weekend – BBQ and Beer surrounded by mates and under the most fantastic Autumn Queensland weather. There are not many things better.
For me, the ultimate initiation into Competition BBQ, other than entering your first competition event, is to be an accredited ABA BBQ judge. For $49 each, you get a BBQ and Beer shirt and the privilege of judging some of the best competition BBQ meat from some highly accredited BBQ teams, some of the best in the BBQ scene in Australia. This competition attracted a field of 37 teams fighting for a prize pool of $15,000 across 6 categories, Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Pork Ribs, Brisket and Beef Ribs
Excitement and Expectation
From buying the tickets until the actual day, I had quite a bit of time to research what it was to be an accredited ABA BBQ Judge. The more I read the more excited I became, and my expectations grew higher and higher. Rightly or wrongly I had put competition BBQ on a pretty high pedestal. However, In hindsight, this may have worked against me and probably set my expectations higher than they probably should have been.
Just like many of you, I have cooked a lot of BBQ but without anything to gauge competition BBQ against.
The Judging process
For this competition is was sanctioned by the ABA and as such, the judges all needed to be trained to become an accredited ABA BBQ Judge. This was a really easy (but thorough) process. In total there were 54 judges for this event. In the morning about an hour before the event started we all gathered in the judging chamber ready for the training session. Dean from the ABA conducted the training session and it was really well done. You can download the ABA BBQ Judge course <here> it sets the Do’s and Don’ts and has a good visual of what is good and what is bad. For a competition BBQ newbie, it was awesome. The course was all done in about 40 minutes, absolutely painless and I left without needing any additional information or unanswered questions. Bring on game time!!
Don’t let the nerves in!
I was a bit nervous in the lead up to the first hand in, I think it was just because of the unknown. There was also some internal pressure I had put on myself, I didn’t want to disrespect the process and didn’t want to let the teams down with dodgy/un-educated scores. Each and every one of the teams put in a lot of time and a lot of money into this sport and deserve the utmost respect and integrity in the process that they fight so hard for.
Game time had arrived. The first hand in box was due in at 12 pm and as instructed all the judges were required back to the Judging ¼ hr before the hand in. We were sat 6 to a table including 1 table captain, thankfully for our table, the table captain had heaps of experience and guided us through the finer details of how it works and what is expected.
The teams have a 10-minute window for each hand in (5 mins each side of the hour) and it is certainly all hands on deck.
Let the judging begin.
The boxes are handed in by each team, given a unique anonymous tracking ID number and then the ABA Head judge or an ABA team member distributes the hand in boxes to the table captains. The table captain then calls the ID number to table judges for noting on the score sheet. Then it is time for the reveal of the box to enable the scoring of appearance, scores are then noted down on the scorecard, then it is time to taste the portions of meat. The table captain allows each judge to choose a piece or pieces of the meat provided in the box for judging. Teams can choose to present the cut of meat in a number of ways, for example, it may contain sliced, pulled or chunks or wings and breast etc. As each presented meat may be different in taste and texture it is best to sample each portion and judge accordingly. Once each judge has nominated their scores for taste and texture it is pens down, this is the signal for the table captain to signal (hands up) for the next box.
After the first box was done, the nerves left and it was a really great process and something that I really enjoyed. Bring on the next 5 hand in boxes.
The food presented
Chicken
My first ever hand in box for judging. Nervous as hell.
Some very unique flavour profiles and presentation styles. The wing on the left bottom was my standout. Just the right flavour profile from the chicken + smoke + sauce.
Lamb
Lamb is my week spot. All the teams chose the cutlet and they looked pretty good in the boxes. Again some flavour profiles that I was not expecting. Far from “traditional”
Pork
Here the teams had full choice of what and how to cook and present. There was pulled, sliced and chunks. Some really great flavours in here, some missed the mark for my liking.
Pork Ribs
Was left a little wanting from the Pork Rib hand in. It is one of my go-to cooks at home and I think I like mine better 🙂 Unique flavours and some of the texture profiles missed.
Beef Brisket
Often referred to as the “crème de la crème” of BBQ. Now for my confession… I have never had let alone cooked a brisket in my life. This is one hand in I was REALLY looking forward to. I needed to see what the hype was about.
To be honest I was left wanting, I couldn’t see what all the hype was about.
The flavours were good and the texture on most offerings where “textbook” but again nothing that made me want to go out and try cooking one for myself. I would prefer to invest the time in a good pork ar lamb roast.
The bonus in this hand in was burnt ends !! WOW, I love them. Pillows of beefy marshmallowy goodness. I will definitely be giving these a try at home.
Beef Ribs
Brisket on a stick. (although most ribs were without the bone) For me, there was a stand out here, it had a really great bark, plus it was really moist and packed with flavour.
I do a mean shortie on the kamado (well at least I think so) so it was really great to compare what I had previously tasted to the competition hand-ins.
My personal preference is for traditional “simple” flavours, but competition BBQ seems to be about anything but traditional and simple. The complexity of flavours that teams are trying to impart on the protein can sometimes be a little like a chemistry experiment. Dry rubs, wet rubs, injections, wood smoke sauce etc.
I know the aim for each hand in is to stand out from the crowd to achieve maximum points.
I just wonder isn’t the traditional BBQ flavour profiles the true essence of BBQ ?
Thoughts and experience during
Overall a really great experience learnt a lot and met a bunch of really great people. The ABA guys and gals that ran the weekend event did a fantastic job, for me as a first timer the information provided and the manner in which we were treated was excellent, definitely something that I would consider doing again.
A couple of downsides…
Not able to enjoy a beer during the judging process (in this case from 11 am till after 5 pm) – a bummer given that it was a BBQ AND Beer festival.
Not able to enter the pit area until after judging is completed.
Both sensible rules when you stop and think about it, but something to be aware of if you are interested in being a judge.
The average guest for this event was not able to taste the BBQ being produced by any of the competition teams, unfortunately, I believe this is a council regulation. This, however, is a big positive for giving away some beer drinking time and becoming a judge. As a judge you get to taste around 30-40 portions of completion BBQ, you are not wanting any other food during the day.
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