BBQ Smoker Team Spotlight

The BBQ Smoker site is all about spreading the good word of great BBQ, and one of the ways I do that is to spotlight teams I come across.  It’s especially nice when I get to meet and showcase a newer team, one who has been taking the Central Florida BBQ and Florida Bar-B-Que Association circuit by storm of late.  Of course, I’m speaking of none other than Blitzkrieg BBQ consisting of Tommy Harden, his wife Jennifer, and their awesome kids Gavin, Devin, and Treyvin.

 

NEWS FLASH!  Blitzkrieg BBQ will be at the 2012 Winter Have Smoke on the Water BBQ Competition! 

I sent over a few questions for Tommy to answer so that we can all get to know him and his team a bit better.  If you find them relaxing next to their Stumps BBQ Smoker at a competition post turn-in time, definitely stop in and introduce yourself.  Let them know you saw this post, and don’t be shy about sitting down and talking to him for a while.  If Gavin’s there, you better get comfortable. That boy knows more about BBQ at his age than I do after spending several years following the likes of Team Unknown around. But well.. one could argue he might be able to help Dorsey get his Brisket score back to the money!

Getting to Know Blitzkrieg BBQ

How long has Blitzkrieg BBQ been active as a competitive BBQ team?

A buddy and me started in Jan. of 2010, and my wife and I went on our own in Oct of that same year. We cooked 6 contests in 2010, 11 in 2011 and 3 so far this year.

Can you give us a brief rundown of your team members and history?

I am the pit master, and my wife Jennifer helps with prep and does 99% of the clean up.  My 12 year old Gavin helps with everything and has won the Haines City “Kids Q” contest for the past 2 years (he was of age to enter the younger kids division but elected to cook against older kids).

Devin is my 11 year old.  He entered this past year’s “Kids Q” contest, but decided not to cook against his older brother. Instead, he cooked in the younger kids’ class and won it!  Then we have Treyvin, my 6 year old who acts as a distraction to everyone!

What kind of BBQ rig did you start cooking on and how has your BBQ smoker setup changed from then until now?

I started with a small 36 in off set and a double barrel I think it was a 60 in offset.  In Venice of 2010, we received and cooked on 2 Baby Stump’s BBQ Smokers.    Now that we’re on our own, we just cook on the one Baby Stump’s.  My buddy came to a competition once and brought his “Stretch.”  Man, that was sweet!

Have you developed your style of competition BBQ – your flavor profiles, etc on your own? Or, did you learn from anyone in particular? If so, who do you count among your key influences?

Well im my second competition in Haines City back in 2010 Terry McKay of Git-R-Smoked introduced us to Bubba Latimer of Bub-Ba-Q and Walter Stump Mcdowell of Stump’s Smokers – who we have made life long friends with.

Bubba gave us samples of his ribs, pork and brisket. Later after turn in I asked him if he meant for the kids to bring us those samples.  He said “yes, did you learn anything?”  I said “yeah, a great flavor profile!,” and he just smiled and said there you go!

Now as Terry hasn’t ever let me taste anything at a contest he cooks at, he did come to my wife asking if she would run Stump’s boxes for him that weekend. I thought it was for Stump’s benefit, but I learned real quick that it was for us to get an idea of how to build a competition box.  We learned so much that weekend.

Later, I met Myron Mixon of Jack’s Old South who again we made friends for life with. I was talking with Myron in Okeechobee and told him that I was really struggling with a particular meat. Of course Myron asked me if I was “F-ing Stupid!”  Then he let me in on a secret, which I will take to my grave with me.

Lastly, probably one of the most helpful people I’ve met is Kenny Nadeau of Uncle Kenny’s BBQ.  He’s been taking me under his wing and has given me pointer after pointer.

On my own, I’ve made some changes as well.  I make my own rub, which I have always used on chicken, ribs and pork. I have been using another beef rub up until I ran out of it while cooking a competition down in Naples. Now, I use my rub on that too.

I do make my own sauces for everything. I will say I am very proud of my chicken, which is made with my own rub and a sauce I make from scratch as well.  I have never waivered from that recipe, and it keeps doing very well.  I’d also like to say that I have NEVER been to a cooking school, but I  do keep getting tips and pointers from the best in the business.

WOW! That’s some good BBQ insight there, Tommy! 

Folks, there it is.  I’m proud to be able to share some information about Tommy, his family, and the Blitzkrieg BBQ competition team.

If any companies out there are looking for some great advertising placement with this up and coming team, please contact Tommy via the Blitzkrieg BBQ Facebook profile.

If you enjoyed this interview, be sure to check out my other BBQ Smoker Interviews!  You’re sure to find some great reading there.

A few  years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Chad Ward and the rest of the Whiskey Bent BBQ team at the Bartow BBQ and Bluegrass Festival.  At the time, they were competing in the backyard division, but opted to move up to the Pro ranks to fill the last remaining spot require for that event to be a Jack Daniels Qualifier.

Since that time, Whiskey Bent has been a force to be reckoned with on the Florida Bar-B-Que Association (FBA) circuit, and they’ve recently started to take their award winning BBQ talents outside the state to places like Las Vegas and Maryland.

Green Mountain Grills with Chad Ward of Whiskey Bent BBQ

During Whiskey Bent’s BBQ competition history, they’ve cooked on various smokers.  At present, Chad and the Whiskey Bent BBQ crew cook using Green Mountain Grills, which Chad reps for as well.  The following is a transcript of a discussion I had with Chad about his team, their history of cooking on various BBQ Smoker set ups.

Hey Chad, thanks for talking with me, man. Can you give us a brief history of the Whiskey Bent BBQ team?

Whiskey Bent BBQ was formed by myself and Jared Hatcher in 2007. Both of us were traveling extensively for work and wanted something to make sure we still made time to get together with our friends. The intent was to cook a couple of backyard contests a year and to focus more on the good times and partying than the quality of our turn in boxes. That all changed after the first few contests when the competition juices kicked in. In November of 2009, we cooked our first professional contest and haven’t looked back since then. In less than 2 short years we have been fortunate enough to cook over 40 contests in 9 states.

What types of BBQ Smokers have you guys used in the past?

We started with a large offset rotisserie cooker that Jared inherited from his grandfather. This is definitely a well built cooker and can provide food for the masses but we quickly learned that it was not the best for cooking one bite BBQ for the judges. We still have it in the arsenal and use it for vending at BBQ competitions and catering. Our second cooker was a used Stump’s Smoker that we bought from Rub Bagby of Swamp Boys BBQ. This is also a well built cooker and turns out some great product. We cooked competition BBQ on it up until April 2010. We still have this cooker and also use it for vending and catering.

I know you’ve recently become a dealer representative for Green Mountain Grills, so you obviously believe in their quality and performance. Given that Whiskey Bent BBQ has had success as a BBQ competition team with your previous smokers, what promoted you to move to the Green Mountain Grill (GMG) smokers?

We were hesitant at first because we had always talked a little trash about pellet cookers and teams that used them. We felt like you couldn’t get the same quality product from a cooking fuel that looked like rabbit droppings…..boy were we wrong.

We were given the opportunity to pick up an used GMG unit on the cheap and figured we couldn’t go wrong. After cooking on that unit for a month and having success, we decided to buy two new units. We were the only BBQ team in the country at that time that was cooking exclusively on Green Mountain Grills and were given the opportunity to become a dealer representative. We gladly accepted and it has been a great relationship.

We feel that representing GMG gives us an opportunity to provide the every day BBQ cook with a quality cooker that has not only done well on the competition circuilt but is easy enough to be cooked on daily in the backyard. It is also at a price point that is very attainable for the backyard cook and doesn’t require an investment of thousands of dollars. That original used cooker that got all of this started can still be found out on the FBA circuit being cooked on by our good friend Doug Francis with Hogs Gone Wild (you can also find them on Facebook)!

The GMG smokers come in three sizes: the Daniel Boone, the Jim Bowie, and the Big Pig Trailer Rig. Which of these models do you guys use?

We have cooked on all 3 units and the team currently owns 3 Jim Bowie units. We have cooked many competitions on only 2 Jim Bowie units but we have the 3rd already so we bring it along for the ride so it doesn’t feel left out. We did have a Daniel Boone in that past but that has now moved on to our buddy David Kimbrough with All Racked Up BBQ along with two of our former Jim Bowie’s.

In regards to the Big Pig Trailer, we don’t own one of those but we are very fortunate that our long time friend Ron with Grills Plus More in Lakeland, FL has one and let’s us use it when we need it. Let me tell you something, that is one cooking machine! There are numerous times where we have had over 50 pork butts on that cooker and it does a fine job handling that type of load. We appreciate Ron for not only letting us use the Big Pig but also for introducing us to the GMG cookers. Ron and his wife Nancy have a great BBQ shop and anyone in the area should definitely stop by.

How would you break down the various GMG models in terms of the “fit” they provide for various types of users? What situations prompt the use of each model?

The Daniel Boone is a great cooker for the backyard BBQ cook that has a family of 3-4 and wants to cook on it to feed the family. It is very efficient on pellet consumption and has 400 square inches of cooking space. This will allow you to cook one pork butt and one brisket comfortably. We have sold a few of these units to backyard BBQ cooks and they couldn’t be happier.

The Jim Bowie model is a little bit bigger than the Daniel Boone model with 600 square inches of cooking space. This provides enough space for 6 pork butts, 3 briskets, 7 slabs of ribs or a whole mess of chicken. We find that most of our customers that buy this model are either competition teams or people that like to entertain at their home and like the extra cooking space to make sure that everyone gets their fair share of stellar BBQ.

The Big Pig Trailer Rig is built for one reason and that is high volume vending and catering. It is a healthy investment but when you look at other cookers that can handle that type of volume and the high level of fuel efficiency that the Big Pig has it is the best investment out there for the person that is consistently cooking for hundreds of people.

I know that GMG also produces pellets for use in their smokers. Can you talk about the types of wood available and how the GMG pellets stack up against other brands? Could you use other brands of pellets in the GMGs?

GMG does produce their own pellet and we use it exclusively. The GMG pellet is high heat extruded so that means that there are no fillers and each pellet is 100% wood unlike some of the other pellets on the market. GMG only sells one “flavor”. There reason for that is they have already blended it for the customer. Each pellet contains 65% hardwood which is hickory and oak and 35% soft woods which are cherry, maple and apple. This combination provides the color and flavor that every cook wants on his product.

If a customer wants to use another pellet in their GMG smoker, they are more than welcome to do that. We just warn them that the other pellets contain more dust than other products so they may have to vacuum out there firepot before cooking more often then with GMG pellets. The other thing that we advise is that the value you get with the GMG pellet is second to none as you can buy a 28 lb. bag of pellets for a retail price of $19.95. There is no better price per pound for a cooking pellet on the market.

Lastly, how can folks get their hands on one of these Green Mountain Grill models, and are there any specials or discounts you can provide to folks who mention that they read this post on the BBQ Smoker Site?

If anyone is interested in a Green Mountain Grill, we would love to talk to them. If they are in our area, we can handle it for them. If not, we can get them in touch with a dealer in their area. Anyone buys a cooker from Whiskey Bent BBQ and mentions this article will receive a 15% discount off the retail price. You can reach us at Whiskey Bent BBQ on Facebook, Whiskey Bent BBQ on Twitter or on our website.