Nov 05 2019
Rescue Smokers crowned GBA State Champion at Deep Roots
Thirty-six professional BBQ teams met in Milledgeville, Georgia on October 26, 2019 at the annual Deep Roots Festival to compete for over $17,000 in prize money and bragging rights as the GBA State Champion. In addition to the traditional GBS categories of Loin, Pork, and Ribs, the event also hosted ancillaries in poultry, stew, desert, bloody mary, and People’s Choice.
Rescue Smokers ended the weekend as Grand Champion and was crowned the GBA State Champion with a trophy and check for $3,500. Rescue Smokers not only had the highest single score in the finals round, but also finished first in Loin, 19th in Pork, and 14th in Ribs. Peach Coast BBQ won the Reserve Champion and $2,000 for the highest cumulative preliminary scores in all three categories by finishing 2nd in both loin and pork, and then 5th in ribs.
Rescue Smokers won the Loin category, with Peach Coast BBQ in second, and Smokin’ the Good Stuff in third.
The top teams in pulled pork were Johnson Boys BBQ in first place, followed by Peach Coast BBQ and Lang BBQ Smokers.
Pot’s BBQ claimed the top spot in Ribs. The BBQ Ninja finished in second and Fire in the Hole was third. Fire In The Hole has now reached the rib finals in all three events so far this season.
In the ancillary categories, 5 O’clock BBQ won poultry, Rotary Roasters took the stew category, Pot’s BBQ won desserts, and Sensational Pigs claimed the Bloody Mary title for the second year in row. 5 O’clock BBQ also won the People’s Choice award as the fans’ favorite.
Full results can be found by clicking the links below.
Full Loin, Pork, and Rib Results
The next GBA sanctioned event is a first time contest at Lake Blackshear on November 16. Returning contests in Moultrie on December 7, and Americus on December 14, wrap up the 2019 calendar year. The next GBA judging class will be held in Barnesville on January 25, 2020. There is still time to sign up for all these events at gbabbq.org
Oct 01 2019
Carroll Sausage BBQ Bash at the Bark in the Park
The GBA travelled for the first time to Sylvester, Georgia on September 28, 2019 for the Carrol Sausage BBQ Bash as part of their annual Bark in the Park to benefit the Best Friends Humane Society for Worth County. A full house of thirty-two professional BBQ teams competed for their share of over $6,000 in prize money and hand crafted wooden cutting boards. It was announced at the end of the event that we will be returning next year on September 26, 2020.
Budmeisters made a triumphant return to GBA competition claiming the Grand Championship and $1,500 for their winning pork entry. They finished 19th in loin, 1st in pork, and 2nd in ribs. They also earned the only 600 scores of the day in both the pork and ribs preliminary rounds. Lang BBQ Team won their second Reserve Grand in a row, winning $1,500 in Sylvester by finishing 5th in loin, 2nd in pork, and 4th in ribs.
Hold Your Horses won the Loin category, followed by We Want Que. Smoke’N Cowboys took third place Loin in only their second contest.
Budmeisters finished first in the Pork category. Lang BBQ Team came in second for the second straight contest, and Bayshore Porker’s took third place.
Fire in the Hole won ribs after finishing third last time in Griffin. Budmeisters came in second and Bayshore Porker’s was third.
Full Loin, Pork, and Rib Results
All Reserve Scores
Next up is the always exciting GBA State Championship at the Deep Roots Festival in Milledgeville, Georgia on October 26. Then we have Smokin’ on Blackshear, another first time contest at Lake Blackshear on November 16. We finish the calendar year with returning contests in Moultrie on December 7 and Americus on December 14. The spring is starting to shape up as very busy with the possibility of eight contest over eleven weeks.
Hope to see everyone at a GBA event soon!
Sep 10 2019
Doc Holliday BBQ Championship
Fifty-six professional BBQ teams and over 100 judges gathered at a great new park location in Griffin, Georgia on September 7, 2019 for the 7th annual Doc Holliday BBQ Championship. Not only was it the kick-off to the new 2019-20 GBA season, but it also jump started the Team of the Year race by awarding double points. The teams competed for their share of more than $10,000 in prize money and very unique western themed trophies valued at an additional $3,000.
After the smoke cleared, Rescue Smokers took the Grand Championship for their loin entry. In addition to being Grand Champion, they finished 1st in loin, 8th in pork, and 9th in ribs. Lang BBQ Team won the Reserve Grand for the highest combined points in the preliminary round by .3 points by finishing 3rd in loin, 2nd in pork, and 12th in ribs.
Rescue Smokers won the Loin category, followed by Off the Chain and Lang BBQ Team. Off the Chain also had the only 600 score of the entire day with their preliminary loin entry.
Pots BBQ finished first in the Pork category. Lang BBQ Team came in second, and Meat with Feet took third place in their first GBA contest.
Front Porch took the Rib category, with The Fat Guys in second and Fire in the Hole claiming third place.
Kelvin’s BBQ beat out thirty-five other teams to win the ancillary brisket category and claim the Official Georgia State Brisket Championship and a $500 check. They were followed by Meat with Feet and Smokin the Good Stuff.
Full Loin, Pork, and Rib Results
Full Brisket results
All Reserve Scores
Thank you to everyone who made this event such a big success. Plans are already underway for bigger and better next year. The next GBA sanctioned event will be the new Carroll’s Sausage BBQ Bash as part of the established Bark in the Park Festival in Sylvester, Georgia on September 28. Then it is on to the GBA State Championship at the Deep Roots Festival in Milledgeville, Georgia on October 26, before another first time contest at Lake Blackshear on November 16. Hope to see everyone at A GBA event soon.
Jun 09 2019
The GBA 2018-2019 season has come to a successful close, and we’re proud to have helped provide you the opportunity to do the thing you love – cook barbecue! The GBA has worked hard to make these contests fun and fair, and we’ll continue working hard in the off season to make things even better.
We’d like to thank all of our Teams, Judges, and Contest Organizers. It takes all 3 working together to make a successful season and the GBA is proud of our role in the process. Our teams are some of the best on the barbecue circuit, and our judges are second to none. The Contest organizers deserve a huge thank you for doing all the hard work (and putting up with all of us!).
The statistics provided here are sourced from the new BBQ Scoring system the GBA formally adopted this year. The scoring system is database-driven, which means we can quickly and easily retrieve this information. If you find any issues with this data please email webmaster@bbqga.org
The GBA sanctioned 10 Professional contests this year, and one In Association With contest. We’ve already got 7 on the books for next year, with a few more possibilities in the works, so get ready for a full year of Barbecue in the 2019-2020 season!
The GBA averaged just below 41 teams per contest. The largest contest this year was the Smokin’ Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival with a total of 59 teams. Dilly Dally in Dooly wasn’t far behind with 51 teams.
6 Teams attended all 10 GBA professional events:
3 Teams competed in 9 events (We want Que, Peach Coast BBQ, Pirates of PorkScents), 7 teams cooked 8 events, 2 teams cooked 7 events, and 6 teams cooked 5 events.
The GBA Grand Champion is the team with the highest finals score among all 9 finals entries. We had a total of 8 Grand Champions this year, with only Holy Smokes (2) and Off the Chain (3) winning more than one Grand Championship during the season.
Ribs were the judges favorite last year, winning 4 of the 10 contests. Ribs narrowly beat out both Loin and Pork, each of which won Grand in 3 contests.
| Contest | Team | Category |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff | Bite My Butt BBQ | Ribs |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival | budmeister bbq | Pork |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash | Hold Your Horses BBQ | Ribs |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival | Holy Smokes | Pork |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest | Holy Smokes | Ribs |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival | Off the Chain BBQ | Ribs |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival | Off the Chain BBQ | Loin |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly | Off the Chain BBQ | Loin |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash | Smoke “Em Low | Pork |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival | Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team | Loin |
The Reserve Champion is the team that has the highest total scores in all 3 categories at a contest where they did not win the Grand Championship. We had a total of 7 different teams win a Reserve Championship, with Rescue Smokers, We Want Que, and Off the Chain all winning 2 Reserve Championships.
| Team | Reserve Score | Contest |
| Smokin the Good Stuff | 1797.30 | Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
| Rescue Smokers | 1796.10 | Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| Rescue Smokers | 1793.70 | Dilly Dally in Dooly |
| We Want Que | 1792.30 | Doc Holliday BBQ and Music Festival |
| We Want Que | 1793.30 | South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
| The Pit Crew GA | 1791.00 | Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
| Off the Chain BBQ | 1789.70 | Brickyard BBQ Bash |
| Big Papa’s Country Kitchen | 1788.60 | Smokin’ Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival |
| Off the Chain BBQ | 1779.90 | Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff |
| budmesiter bbq | 1784.40 | Firehouse BBQ Festival |
The average overall score in all 3 categories was 1744.63. This total does include dropped or disqualified entries, although there were very few of those.
The highest reserve score of the season was 1797.30 awarded to Smokin the Good Stuff at the Deep Roots Festival with scores of 598.8 in Loin, 599.1 in Pork, and 599.4 in Rib . The top 10 Reserve scores are shown below:
| Score | Team | Event |
| 1797.30 | Smokin the Good Stuff | Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
| 1796.10 | Rescue Smokers | Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1793.70 | We Want Que | Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
| 1793.30 | We Want Que | South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
| 1793.30 | Off the chain BBQ | Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
| 1793.00 | budmeister bbq | Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1792.30 | Rescue Smokers | Dilly Dally in Dooly |
| 1791.80 | Off the chain BBQ | Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1791.00 | The Pit Crew GA | Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
| 1790.60 | Pot’s BBQ | Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
The highest average reserve scores were awarded at the Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival, where the 33 teams attending the event averaged a total score of 1759.08. Note too that Reserve scores do include dropped or disqualified entries. The average Reserve scores at each contest are shown below:
| Contest | Average Reserve Score |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival | 1759.08 |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash | 1757.30 |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival | 1750.39 |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash | 1747.57 |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival | 1746.50 |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff | 1742.82 |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival | 1742.32 |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest | 1724.62 |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival | 1695.94 |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly | 1686.49 |
We’re proud of our GBA Judges! They seem to be pretty consistent in their scoring, as evidenced by the preliminary scoring averages below. Note these scores don’t include any dropped or disqualified entries.
The table below lists all 10 contests and shows the average score for that contest in each Category. The Brickyard BBQ Bash had the highest average Loin scores, judges at the Moultrie Mood Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff enjoyed the best Ribs, and the Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival turned out the best Pork. The Totals rows shows the average score for the Category over the entire season.
| Contest | Loin | Pork | Rib |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash | 586.109677 | 585.783870 | 585.409677 |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest | 583.176744 | 584.272093 | 583.700000 |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly | 578.593750 | 581.028000 | 583.746000 |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival | 580.015000 | 582.632500 | 583.852500 |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash | 580.065853 | 580.919512 | 586.587804 |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival | 580.107142 | 578.358620 | 577.392857 |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff | 569.057894 | 586.652631 | 587.110526 |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival | 586.015151 | 587.124242 | 585.945454 |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival | 581.411864 | 581.944067 | 578.967796 |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival | 583.145454 | 583.990909 | 583.254545 |
| Totals | 580.7699 | 583.2710 | 583.5967 |
GBA Judges are asked to rate each entry for Appearance, Tenderness, Taste, and Overall Impression. The average scores for those criteria in each category are shown below, and those averages don’t include dropped or disqualified entries.
Loin
Pork
Ribs
Quite a few teams got a coveted finals box during the season, although no single team made it to the top 10 in one or more categories for every contest.
Off the Chain and Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team hit the top 10 a total of 9 times in the Loin category. Off the Chain also made the list 7 times for Pork and 4 times for ribs, for a total of 20 Top 10 finishes. Rescue Smokers made the list 7 times in Pork, 6 times in Loin, and 6 times in Ribs for a total of 19 top 10 finishes. Weekend Warriors made the Top 10 9 times in Loin, 4 times in Pork, and twice in Ribs for a total of 15 Top 10 finishes, and We Want Que made it 5 times each in Pork and Ribs and 4 times in Loin for a total of 14 Top 10 finishes. Pot’s BBQ finished in the top 10 11 times, 6 in Pork, 3 in Ribs, and 2 in Loin. Smokin the Good Stuff hit the top 10 a total of 10 times, 6 in Ribs, 3 in Loin and once in Pork.
Our finals judges did a great job of making sure the best product of the day was awarded the grand prize. Their scoring averages are shown below. Note these scores don’t include dropped or disqualified scores.
The average total finals score awarded was 581.76.
The highest finals score awarded was 596.6, awarded to the Rib entry from Bite My Butt BBQ at the Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff
Off the Chain appeared in finals 9 times, the most of any team this season. Rescue Smokers made it to finals a total of 7 times, while Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team made the grade 6 times. We Want Que and Holy Smokes went to the finals table 5 times, and both Budmesiter BBQ and Pot’s BBQ showed up 4 times.
For teams cooking at least 50% of the Professional GBA Events in the 2018-2019 season, Off the Chain BBQ had the highest average Loin score at 597.46 (10 contests), Pots BBQ had the highest average Pork score at 596.53 (7 contests) and Smokin the Good Stuff had the highest average Rib score at 596.34 (7 contests).
The same criteria are used to rate the finals products. The average scores given by finals judges in each of those criteria are shown below:
Loin
Pork
Ribs
The teams stepped up this year and made it tough for our judges! Anytime our judges are handing out 600’s we know the competition is tight. There were a total of 20 600 scores awarded this season:
And to top that off, there were 3 PERFECT scores awarded in GBA contests this year. A Perfect Score is an entry that is awarded a score of 10 in every criteria by all 6 judges at the table. The teams who hit that magical mark this season were:
If any team would like to know their personal stats from this year (averages, etc) please send your request to webmaster@bbqga.org. Please be sure to include your Team Name in your email, and please understand it may take several days for me to get to this.
Jun 02 2019
Please take a moment to vote for GBA President and Vice President. All current members can vote once for President and once for Vice President. Voting will remain open until June 15th. See the instructions below for details.
Members can only vote once per poll. If a member clicks the poll link again after already completing the poll, their vote summary will be displayed again.
Neither members nor administrators can change a vote after it is submitted.
Please don’t vote in the extended poll if you’ve already voted for President and Vice President! The GBA Election committee will review all votes, and anyone found voting more than once may be subject to permanent expulsion from the GBA.
The GBA Board will announce the results of the election shortly after polling closes on June 15th.
