Two in a row for South Dakota barbecue team

WORLAND - It was a repeat for the B-S BBQ Outlaws of Hill City, South Dakota, winning the 14th annual Pepsi Wyoming BBQ Championship in Worland during the championship and bluegrass festival Saturday at the fairgrounds.

This year 30 cooks vied for the title with Bob Stanfiel and his team taking home the grand prize, as well as earning a coveted Kansas City Barbecue Society pin for scoring over 700 event points. B-S BBQ Outlaws scored 702.2284 points overall in the four main meat categories - brisket, first, 177.7 points; pork, first, 178.85 points; chicken, fifth, 173 points; and pork ribs, eighth, 172.56 points.

Bob Stanfiel, in an interview last year, said he began dabbling in competitive barbecue competitions in 2014, starting the Hill City Wine, Brew and BBQ, but went hard core in 2016 to see what they could do.

The People's Choice award was a tie between Half Baked Hippies and Smokin' Boxers BBQ.

The Wyoming High Point Award was won for the second year in a row by Smokin' Hot Butts of Casper.

The Jim Blake Memorial Award, for the local high point winner, this year went to Sochies BBQ. Sochies was 24th overall; 16th in ribs, 27th in chicken, 27th in pork; 22nd in brisket 14th in mystery meat.

Winners in each category were: ribs, Half Baked Hippies, 178.85 points; chicken, Grillin' Beavers, 176 points; brisket and pork, B-S BBQ Outlaws; sauce, Half Baked Hippies, 177.7 points (Barr's BBQ of Worland was second with 175.4 points); and mystery meat (pig's feet), Red Arrow BBQ, 170.26 points.

Angela Wagner presented the mystery meat winner, named in memory of her husband, Dale Wagner, longtime organizer of the barbecue championship and whose idea it was to add mystery meat category to the competition.

JUDGING

Judging for the competition began at noon. Competitors have 10 minutes to bring their food to the turn-in window, starting with chicken. According to Al Bowen of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, there are 30 minutes between times when each meat is brought up for judging.

"Trying to get four types of meat ready to turn in at the exact right moment is not easy," Bowen said, regarding some of the challenges of barbecue competition.

He said for the Pepsi Wyoming BBQ Championship, cookers could use briquets, sticks or pellet cookers.

All judges for the competition must be certified KCBS judges and completed the training.

The KCBS provides the containers to each team, marked with numbers. The numbers correspond with different numbers that are used for judging purposes. When the meats are presented for judging, volunteers change the numbers for the corresponding teams and then a table judge takes the meat to the judges.

On Saturday there were five tables with six judges apiece.

Bowen said the table judge will open each box from the six teams separately. They will show each judge the meat in the box so it can be judged for appearance.

Then the judges take a sample out of the box and judge the meat on taste and tenderness, he said.

A perfect score for each meat category is 180, he said. The highest scores awarded Saturday were 178.8572, awarded to B-S BBQ Outlaws for pork and to Half Baked Hippies for pork ribs.

For KCBS competitions there are just the four meat categories. Organizers for the Pepsi Wyoming BBQ Championship added mystery meat and sauce.

He said each entry has to be judged on their own merit and not in comparison to the others.

Each table will only get to judge a team's entry once. If table A judges teams 1-6 for chicken, they will not judge teams 1-6 for ribs, pork or brisket, Bowen said.

KIDS Q

There were seven competitors in this year's Kids Q with Charlie Turner taking first. He was assisted by his friend Braylon Kidgell. Second place went to Julie Rezac and third went to Rosslyn Rutledge.

The youth competitors were provided hamburgers and buns and then brought their own toppings, which this year included everything from different cheeses, bacon, lettuce, tomato, different sauces, chips, pickles and ketchup and mustard.