Well our scores werent terrible, still a great improvement from when we started 2 years ago but not good enough to place very well in any event.  We knew the Brisket was going to be a stumbling block because the juices in the meat were massive and it was nearly a fried brisket in the pan.  The burnt ends were incredible but the flat just fell apart and began to dry out quickly once cut.  Chicken, however, was incredible for taste as always and the skin was somewhat crispier that it had been but I chose to leave it out of the box just in case.  We gave judges a multitude of offerings from thing pieces, breast pieces, and shredded mixture of white and dark with sauce.  We had a hard time not nibbling on it in our group it was THAT GOOD but our scores surely didn’t reflect our personal feelings. Continue reading →

We have our our tentative competition schedule set for this year:

4/20-21 – Overland Park, KS – VFW 846 4th Annual BBQ Challenge
5/4-5 – Grandview, MO – Truman Heritage Festival BBQ Championship
6/22-23 – Lenexa, KS -Great Lenexa BBQ Battle
8/17-18 – Excelsior Springs, MO – BBQ and Fly In on the river
10/4-7 – Kansas City, MO – 33rd Annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue

We hope to see many of our members, friends and families at these events. We are always looking for members to join the team and share in some great brotherhood. Give us a hand tending fire overnight or making sure the turn in boxes and selections are just right. If you don’t want to help come out Friday anyhow and grab a beer, burgers and brats and enjoy some brotherhood. Or come out Saturday to help break camp and get some competition quality BBQ to take home. Every competition is different so come out and have a blast and go home smelling like the best cologne in the world, WOOD SMOKE!!!!!

We’ll also be Catering the Greater KC Green Conference again  on 5/10 and while we haven’t been formally asked yet, were sure to be doing something for the Kansas City Labor Day Parade.  Plenty of opportunities to come out and taste our offerings so please take advantage.

We have our budget and we’ll be planning out our season to maximize the brotherhoods exposure, and ability for all to come out and see us and taste some damned good Que.  If anyone has any requests of contests they’d like us to look at feel free to drop a note here or at the hall and it will get to us.  Nothing is set in stone but I think the teams favorites are the VFW 846 event in April and Lenexa BBQ Battle in June .   Continue reading →

For our first attempt at this MASSIVE event, I’d say we did pretty well.  There was a pretty steep learning curve learning how things were run and I’m sure next year we’ll still be learning the tricks.  We also learned a lot more about the entry process so hopefully next year we wont be finding things out so late in the game and spend the entire week prior playing catch up.

The party Friday night was a good time and we had a decent number of brothers and sisters show up to partake of our wares and all seemed to enjoy our offerings.  Ended up in 19th place as far as the “party of the year” contest went.  Once again our efforts showed us that planning is critical as our Keg ran dry well before the night was through.   Continue reading →

It was certainly a couple of hot august days but that certainly did not stop some of the best teams of the KCBS from showing up to compete.  This was partly due to the opportunity for 10 of them to compete in front of the nation at the 1st ever Extreme Makeover: Home Edition BBQ cookoff in Ottawa.  Being so close on Thursday, it would be crazy not to get in an extra competition and get two chances to win in a week.  It also made for some stiff competition and impressive rigs to be seen for this event.

I personally was excited to compete against Slaughterhouse Five because Oklahoma Joes is my hands down favorite BBQ if I’m not in the mood to cook, and truth be told I consider their ribs better than my own.  They weren’t the only team on site that caused me to be a little star struck.   Continue reading →

We had some slip ups and one catastrophe with spoiled chicken thighs but as everyone knows we all learn from our mistakes. Then again if we learn from our mistakes I ought to be a genius. The competition at this event was pretty impressive with teams that even people who do not follow the BBQ circuit could recognize and tents everywhere with professional sponsorship and elaborate setups. But since were Union Tradesmen, intimidation doesn’t phase us, much.

We had a different plan this time around, which worked out really well. We loaded up Charlies wife’s horse trailer with our supplies and 3 barrel smokers and just parked and unloaded. Parking was a bit of a hassle since the organization of the event was a bit lacking and spaces had to be juggled and maps gave incorrect information, but we survived and would up with a pretty perfect spot. Everyone that came by and even neighboring teams were pretty impressed with the setup Continue reading →

We have decided to skip any competitions for the month of May because we were chosen to cater the “Green Energy Conference 2011 – Sustainable Integration” sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the KC Power Partners.  Unfortunately, this is not an open event so we cannot just invite you all to come and feast on our wares.  There may be left overs though so feel free to check in at the hall on Wednesday, if the agents don’t polish it all off first.  We will be smoking briskets and turkeys and a few slabs of ribs might make it on for a few lucky souls that stick around for happy hour.  This will also be good practice for our upcoming June competition at the Lenexa BBQ Battle.

If you are interested in attending the event please visit this link.  There will be lots of very good information for sustainable energy and green building techniques, valuable knowledge for everyone interested.  So sorry for the break from competing but look for us to return with a vengeance in June.

Welcome to the world of the “Smokin’ Sparky’s”. We are a competition BBQ team sponsored by the IBEW Local 124 and compete in local KCBS events as well as cater various events for the hall.  Expect many changes and much information to come as we get this informational website rolling.