That one guy
Footballguy
Just a general competition question: has the pellet smoker made its way to that level of cooking? Do you see teams competing and winning with that cooker?
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MEMPHIS BBQFest > 2023 > 1 Month Away - $100,000 budget due to inflation! (2 Viewers)
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Insoxicated
I'm sure there are a couple teams cooking with the higher end models like Rec-Tec. I'm not aware of anyone winning or finishing strong at MIM with one, but I could very well be wrong.
Pellet cookers are incredibly convenient, and offer a VERY good product. However, at this point they don't quite offer the same quality of smoke or customization (types of wood, moisture, etc) that you can achieve with other cookers. In addition I believe there's still a small stigma in the minds of judges. MIM features onsite judging that's a huge component of your score. Part of that onsite judging is showing your cooker, explaining your process.
If one team has a true smoker with logs of apple and hickory, is using apple juice and jack daniels in a water pan to add moisture, is orienting meat in a certain way to capitalize on the airflow, etc..... then the next team is like "we dump pellets in here and set this at 250".... MOSTjudges are going to subconsciously favor the labor of love product more.
Im confident they're growing in popularity in other smaller competitions, however.
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Insoxicated
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Insoxicated
BRING IT. We will be well stocked with two types of gummies. One being Marsh House Rummy Bears, and then there's another kind :BVFWIH:
spOOfy
Footballguy
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Insoxicated
Confirmed 240 cases (Equiv) with Yuengling as their largest launch/tasting event nationwide. Apparently they want to show our year end video at their national sales meeting as part of the story for their roll out for "Flight".
- 100 cases Yeungling Lager (16oz can)
- 40 cases Yeungling Golden Pilsner (16oz can)
- 100 cases equivalent Flight (10 std half barrel kegs, 10 "skinny" quarter barrel kegs)
Good times ahead...
- 100 cases Yeungling Lager (16oz can)
- 40 cases Yeungling Golden Pilsner (16oz can)
- 100 cases equivalent Flight (10 std half barrel kegs, 10 "skinny" quarter barrel kegs)
Good times ahead...
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Insoxicated
18 months later..... Weeerrrreeee BACK!
2022 World Championship of Barbecue Event is scheduled for May 11-14th.
Due to construction at Tom Lee Park along the banks of the Mississippi, this year's event will be held at the MidSouth Fairgrounds. Not ideal, but a good location in that it's a large wide open lot that is less limited on space, and less susceptible to mud/rain. Downside is.... it's not by the river.
We're already scrambling to reconnect with sponsors/vendors/partners and see what we're going do to.
CDW/Cisco/Lenovo - Primary Corporate sponsors are still on board. We had done an interactive Web-based BBQ Rib technique training event for them during the off season and they loved it.
Yeungling : Back on board for Beer. We'll be helping activate a push for their new Ultra Light beer "Flight"... and will be naming our second level the "Flight Deck".
A couple of our other sponsors have had some turnover and we're still seeing where we stand. May have another large financial firm in for $10-20K... meeting later this week.
LIQUOR:
Thanks to my large local Bourbon Group, I've been able to leverage the two big bourbon distilleries/brands in town to be our LIquor Partners for the booth. We're in talks with Blue Note Bourbon, and Old Dominick Distillery. The end goal is to have the team select a private single barrel, have it bottled with our Usual Saucepects branding associated. That will be our house pour in the booth.
Golf Hitting Bay is unlikely to work out with the new location, sadly.
More to come!
2022 World Championship of Barbecue Event is scheduled for May 11-14th.
Due to construction at Tom Lee Park along the banks of the Mississippi, this year's event will be held at the MidSouth Fairgrounds. Not ideal, but a good location in that it's a large wide open lot that is less limited on space, and less susceptible to mud/rain. Downside is.... it's not by the river.
We're already scrambling to reconnect with sponsors/vendors/partners and see what we're going do to.
CDW/Cisco/Lenovo - Primary Corporate sponsors are still on board. We had done an interactive Web-based BBQ Rib technique training event for them during the off season and they loved it.
Yeungling : Back on board for Beer. We'll be helping activate a push for their new Ultra Light beer "Flight"... and will be naming our second level the "Flight Deck".
A couple of our other sponsors have had some turnover and we're still seeing where we stand. May have another large financial firm in for $10-20K... meeting later this week.
LIQUOR:
Thanks to my large local Bourbon Group, I've been able to leverage the two big bourbon distilleries/brands in town to be our LIquor Partners for the booth. We're in talks with Blue Note Bourbon, and Old Dominick Distillery. The end goal is to have the team select a private single barrel, have it bottled with our Usual Saucepects branding associated. That will be our house pour in the booth.
Golf Hitting Bay is unlikely to work out with the new location, sadly.
More to come!
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Insoxicated
Two weeks to go!
So much has been done already. Loaded the PODS container up with the team yesterday. It goes to the park with the smoker next week (thursday?), then the scaffold goes up. We load into the booth and set up next Saturday.
So amped for this year's fest, but also feels weirdly like it's not just around the corner. Guessing that's from the 2 years off.
We'll have a pro videographer shooting the booth again this year. Doing a bit more with interviews from team and sponsors / guests so it may have a bit more of a mini-documentary feel on top of the usual food & party porn.
So much has been done already. Loaded the PODS container up with the team yesterday. It goes to the park with the smoker next week (thursday?), then the scaffold goes up. We load into the booth and set up next Saturday.
So amped for this year's fest, but also feels weirdly like it's not just around the corner. Guessing that's from the 2 years off.
We'll have a pro videographer shooting the booth again this year. Doing a bit more with interviews from team and sponsors / guests so it may have a bit more of a mini-documentary feel on top of the usual food & party porn.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Love to read these stories 
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
Looking forward to reading the rundown of festivities. Good Luck! Have a Blast!
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Insoxicated
Some quick notes:
Festival is at Tiger Lane near the Liberty Bowl this year. We are overlooking the main lawn with an endcap so we've got a great spot.
We will be doing a big crawfish boil on Wednesday night with @sbonomo and his brother working up their infamous tacos as well. Can't wait!
We've locked up a deal with Hormel this year as a trial. They are providing all pork meat (Ribs, shoulders, etc).
We unfortunately won't have live blues on Friday this year... Patrick Dodd is unavailable that week. We did pick up a sponsor luncheon on Friday for 50 guests, so that may be a good thing w/r/t booth crowds.
We will be flying in a bunch of Japanese Wagyu again.
Our budget has skyrocketed due to this runaway inflation we're experiencing. Our total budget has climbed about 30% to $73,000 for the festival. This is after getting beer donated, most liquor donated, ribs and shoulder donated, light & sound system donated, etc. The plywood alone for our scaffold is now over $5000 and it will likely be thrown away after the week.
Our usual security team has since moved off or changed jobs. We've picked up a new crew of three black belts in Brazillian JuJitsu. All have great demeanors and have worked security for large nightclubs before so we're in good hands.
WIth the park being so close to Orange Mound, we have hired overnight security. He's a Shelby County SWAT officer and will be armed. I don't anticipate having any theft issues this year
Festival is at Tiger Lane near the Liberty Bowl this year. We are overlooking the main lawn with an endcap so we've got a great spot.
We will be doing a big crawfish boil on Wednesday night with @sbonomo and his brother working up their infamous tacos as well. Can't wait!
We've locked up a deal with Hormel this year as a trial. They are providing all pork meat (Ribs, shoulders, etc).
We unfortunately won't have live blues on Friday this year... Patrick Dodd is unavailable that week. We did pick up a sponsor luncheon on Friday for 50 guests, so that may be a good thing w/r/t booth crowds.
We will be flying in a bunch of Japanese Wagyu again.
Our budget has skyrocketed due to this runaway inflation we're experiencing. Our total budget has climbed about 30% to $73,000 for the festival. This is after getting beer donated, most liquor donated, ribs and shoulder donated, light & sound system donated, etc. The plywood alone for our scaffold is now over $5000 and it will likely be thrown away after the week.
Our usual security team has since moved off or changed jobs. We've picked up a new crew of three black belts in Brazillian JuJitsu. All have great demeanors and have worked security for large nightclubs before so we're in good hands.
WIth the park being so close to Orange Mound, we have hired overnight security. He's a Shelby County SWAT officer and will be armed. I don't anticipate having any theft issues this year
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Insoxicated
I'd say we're looking at the following odds of the last year for our team being:
This Year: 25%
2023 / Next Year: 50%
2024: 15%
Beyond: 10%
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Insoxicated
Update!
We are officially "In the window" as we say. That means the park is now opening to various stages of logistics.
We were supposed to drop our PODS storage unit onsite this afternoon but predictably the ONE truck the company had broke down. They'll drop first thing in the morning. We'll also drop our Southern Pride SP700 smoker at the same time.
Following that, we've privately contracted our own scaffold crew due to risk of being delayed due to other crews doing multiple booths. They will start construction tomorrow morning and we're cautiously optimistic they will stay late to finish up. We've bribed them with an extra $300 to do so.
Saturday Morning we have another crew that will come in and lay carpet (3000sq ft) and then do the heavy lifting of unpacking the bar and kitchen components from the POD and putting them in place. Then, around 10am, when that's done, the team will crack a beer and get to hanging banners, hanging string lights, setting up bar and kitchen, etc. At some point sunday, the rental company will have another crew come onsite to install the 30x40 tent on our top deck and secure it to the scaffold. They'll also drop off our rental order of 120 chairs, a couple dozen tables, etc.
It's a long day but it's a LOT of fun... big cooler of beer, great group of guys and ladies, and building something we've worked to prepare for over the last half year.
We usually wrap up around dinner time, then go for Mexican. This year a few guys are coming back to my house to finalize video production components.
Sunday a bunch of us will go back down and hopefully tie up most loose ends. More beer, more work.
Tuesday we have a huge box truck with about a quarter million bucks in AV gear coming onsite to Install our Lighting, audio, and video system. Video consists of 3x 80" TVs inside, plus a 9ft video wall on the facade of the booth for showing sponsor videos, past videos of our content, and of course Live TV... namely the Grizzlies vs Warriors games that we are doing watch parties for.
Wednesday is the first day of the festival. In the morning we have one trailer coming in with 260 cases of Yeungling beer to be stocked. Another will include a thousand plus pounds of Ribs and Shoudler from Hormel, our pork sponsor. Plus 20lbs of A5 Japanese Wagyu... 150lbs of Prime Brisket... and about 50lbs each of wings and thighs. THEN around 5pm the park will open to the public and we'll have a huge crawfish boil and taco bar (as mentioned), plus have a watch party for the Grizzlies/Warriors game 5.
The video wall faces out to the main lawn, so we fully expect large crows to gather during the games. We've also made some custom rally towels (from the same vendor the grizzlies use), and have lined up rapper Al Kapone of "Whoop That Trick" fame.. as it's become the Grizzlies unofficial theme song. He will perform live in our booth at halftime of Game 6 Friday. We've also got about a quarter of the Grizzlies Cheerleaders coming down in Uniform for the festivities. It's going to be pretty insane.
#### is getting real. I can't tell if we're ready or not because we're out of practice. I feel like I'm missing so much and I'm sure I am... but overall I think we're in good shape.
I forgot how much I missed this....
Friendly reminder to follow @usualsaucepects on instagram and facebook for the most current info/pics/videos during the festival. I'll try to update here but I'm not sure how much time I'll have.
We are officially "In the window" as we say. That means the park is now opening to various stages of logistics.
We were supposed to drop our PODS storage unit onsite this afternoon but predictably the ONE truck the company had broke down. They'll drop first thing in the morning. We'll also drop our Southern Pride SP700 smoker at the same time.
Following that, we've privately contracted our own scaffold crew due to risk of being delayed due to other crews doing multiple booths. They will start construction tomorrow morning and we're cautiously optimistic they will stay late to finish up. We've bribed them with an extra $300 to do so.
Saturday Morning we have another crew that will come in and lay carpet (3000sq ft) and then do the heavy lifting of unpacking the bar and kitchen components from the POD and putting them in place. Then, around 10am, when that's done, the team will crack a beer and get to hanging banners, hanging string lights, setting up bar and kitchen, etc. At some point sunday, the rental company will have another crew come onsite to install the 30x40 tent on our top deck and secure it to the scaffold. They'll also drop off our rental order of 120 chairs, a couple dozen tables, etc.
It's a long day but it's a LOT of fun... big cooler of beer, great group of guys and ladies, and building something we've worked to prepare for over the last half year.
We usually wrap up around dinner time, then go for Mexican. This year a few guys are coming back to my house to finalize video production components.
Sunday a bunch of us will go back down and hopefully tie up most loose ends. More beer, more work.
Tuesday we have a huge box truck with about a quarter million bucks in AV gear coming onsite to Install our Lighting, audio, and video system. Video consists of 3x 80" TVs inside, plus a 9ft video wall on the facade of the booth for showing sponsor videos, past videos of our content, and of course Live TV... namely the Grizzlies vs Warriors games that we are doing watch parties for.
Wednesday is the first day of the festival. In the morning we have one trailer coming in with 260 cases of Yeungling beer to be stocked. Another will include a thousand plus pounds of Ribs and Shoudler from Hormel, our pork sponsor. Plus 20lbs of A5 Japanese Wagyu... 150lbs of Prime Brisket... and about 50lbs each of wings and thighs. THEN around 5pm the park will open to the public and we'll have a huge crawfish boil and taco bar (as mentioned), plus have a watch party for the Grizzlies/Warriors game 5.
The video wall faces out to the main lawn, so we fully expect large crows to gather during the games. We've also made some custom rally towels (from the same vendor the grizzlies use), and have lined up rapper Al Kapone of "Whoop That Trick" fame.. as it's become the Grizzlies unofficial theme song. He will perform live in our booth at halftime of Game 6 Friday. We've also got about a quarter of the Grizzlies Cheerleaders coming down in Uniform for the festivities. It's going to be pretty insane.
#### is getting real. I can't tell if we're ready or not because we're out of practice. I feel like I'm missing so much and I'm sure I am... but overall I think we're in good shape.
I forgot how much I missed this....
Friendly reminder to follow @usualsaucepects on instagram and facebook for the most current info/pics/videos during the festival. I'll try to update here but I'm not sure how much time I'll have.
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Insoxicated
For our team, not so much. Some folks do tweet but its not the main platform for this. Sorry!
psychobillies
Footballguy
Just out of curiosity, who's boiling the crawfish, and how many lbs are you doing?
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Insoxicated
Ben Serrat is one of our Kitchen Leads... NOLA native and executive chef for one of Nola's top country clubs. Good dude we got to know through Tipsy. They'll be properly seasoned
Plan is 3 sacks, nothing crazy. We'll have a ton of other food as well and Wednesday nights are generally pretty chill.
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Insoxicated
From ####show on Thursday & Friday... to beast-mode on Saturday.
Memphis in May was horribly behind schedule and only released our space for PODS and smoker load in on Thursday. Smoker got dropped but the PODS truck broke down. They promised to pick it up First thing Friday.
Friday morning we get a call, the female driver (up from Louisiana because they had no drivers) was unable to pick up the pod. Too heavy they say (bull####). We are pretty sure their busted ### truck was just not working properly.
We pivot and order another pod to be dropped, empty, on our lot because we desperately need to get scaffold rolling. ####ty driver drops the pod right in the middle of our lot. One of our guys commandeered a Lull and moved it into place. Scaffold crew busted ### and finished the pipe before nightfall.
Sat AM we rally at 7am and load all the contents of the pod at our warehouse onto 3 large trucks and trailers and caravan to the park. We offload the stuff and notice the scaff company is way behind on decking.
We send our labor crew (4 guys) up to help them finish the decking then we get to work. The team kicks ### and by the time we left at 5 we were damn near done with the booth. Most teams haven't even started and we've already got artwork and decor hung. When we left the Tent company was wrapping up our 30x40 tent on the roof of our scaffold. We gave them a few beers and took off.
Today we're rolling down after lunch and will finish up the few loose ends, then drink a few beers while whatching everyone else scramble.
Monday will be a chill day.
Tuesday Meat, Beer, and A/V will be loaded in.
Wednesday we kick things off!
Pics From Saturday
Memphis in May was horribly behind schedule and only released our space for PODS and smoker load in on Thursday. Smoker got dropped but the PODS truck broke down. They promised to pick it up First thing Friday.
Friday morning we get a call, the female driver (up from Louisiana because they had no drivers) was unable to pick up the pod. Too heavy they say (bull####). We are pretty sure their busted ### truck was just not working properly.
We pivot and order another pod to be dropped, empty, on our lot because we desperately need to get scaffold rolling. ####ty driver drops the pod right in the middle of our lot. One of our guys commandeered a Lull and moved it into place. Scaffold crew busted ### and finished the pipe before nightfall.
Sat AM we rally at 7am and load all the contents of the pod at our warehouse onto 3 large trucks and trailers and caravan to the park. We offload the stuff and notice the scaff company is way behind on decking.
We send our labor crew (4 guys) up to help them finish the decking then we get to work. The team kicks ### and by the time we left at 5 we were damn near done with the booth. Most teams haven't even started and we've already got artwork and decor hung. When we left the Tent company was wrapping up our 30x40 tent on the roof of our scaffold. We gave them a few beers and took off.
Today we're rolling down after lunch and will finish up the few loose ends, then drink a few beers while whatching everyone else scramble.
Monday will be a chill day.
Tuesday Meat, Beer, and A/V will be loaded in.
Wednesday we kick things off!
Pics From Saturday
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[icon]
Insoxicated
Festival is underway:
some pics: https://imgur.com/a/bRtu7Nw
Tons of updates on IG and FB @usualsaucepects
some pics: https://imgur.com/a/bRtu7Nw
Tons of updates on IG and FB @usualsaucepects
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
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Insoxicated
Well into the swing for 2023.. .we're about 1 month out.
Budgets have been out of control. Our Scaffold/Tent/Carpet alone is over $33,000 this year. Total budget is right at $100,000. This is with all beer donated (Yuengling), all liquor donated (Old Dominick Distillery), and all Pork donated (Hormel), plus A/V system donated (Nolan AV). It's insane.
Due to the ridiculous design "improvements" made to the park (which are still unfinished), the number of teams has been reduced by about half. In addition booth spaces were reduced significantly (our space dropped from 34x54 to 25x50). As a result we convinced the festival to provide an exemption to their longstanding "no shared space rule". We've subsidized a big chunk of the cost of the Memphis Fire Department booth (aka @Tusken Raider's team) in exchange for being able to use their 2nd deck. We've covered $2500 of their $3500 entry fee plus covering the full scaffold/tent cost (about $30k). They're good friends so we're looking forward to sharing space with them.
Budgets have been out of control. Our Scaffold/Tent/Carpet alone is over $33,000 this year. Total budget is right at $100,000. This is with all beer donated (Yuengling), all liquor donated (Old Dominick Distillery), and all Pork donated (Hormel), plus A/V system donated (Nolan AV). It's insane.
Due to the ridiculous design "improvements" made to the park (which are still unfinished), the number of teams has been reduced by about half. In addition booth spaces were reduced significantly (our space dropped from 34x54 to 25x50). As a result we convinced the festival to provide an exemption to their longstanding "no shared space rule". We've subsidized a big chunk of the cost of the Memphis Fire Department booth (aka @Tusken Raider's team) in exchange for being able to use their 2nd deck. We've covered $2500 of their $3500 entry fee plus covering the full scaffold/tent cost (about $30k). They're good friends so we're looking forward to sharing space with them.
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