Hops & Hogs BBQ 04/25 - "The Throwdown!"

Northern Fire hosted a "People's Choice Throwdown" at their shop in Minnetonka last weekend, featuring a bunch of local/regional competition BBQ cooks! Nordo & Aaron got to sit down with Troy & Jen from Pittie Q BBQ, then Kyle from Hot Daddy's BBQ & Andy of "BBQ with Boterman!" Different stories, but the same love for BBQ.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
I'm Nordo from Kfan. Welcome tothe Hopson Hoggs Barbecue Podcast. This last
weekend I hung out in Northern FireGrilling and Barbecue Supply as they hosted a
People's Choice throwdown featuring competition barbecue cooksfrom the region and the result unbelievable food
and one hell of a party inthe parking lot. I got the chance
to meet a few of the cookswho all have different stories but a similar

(00:28):
love for creating high end barbecue.Hobson Hogs Podcast live from Northern Fire Grilling
and Barbecue Supply for one hell ofan event. Here. I'm joined by
of course Aaron Bordage, regular voicehere on the podcast, erin a little
left of me. Yeah you are. You're worn down to a nub today
and I had to I had analbum. I had to fight two people

(00:50):
just to get inside the door.What do you have going on here at
Northern Fire Today? We threw ourselvesa little party we've never had, never
had a grand opening because of COVID. Yeah, we missed two anniversaries because
of COVID. We missed our fourthanniversary because we I had a wedding.
I had to attend had Yeah,so I had that. Yeah, I

(01:14):
had to go to my own wedding. Yeah, So we just decided that
it was kind of funny because Apriltwentieth was an open date on the calendar,
and then it just happens to bea national holiday for some some other
people certain times. So yeah,smoking on four twenty, So it was
it was fun. We we gota bunch of our sponsor teams, I
think pretty much everybody. I'm trying, God, who is missing? Uh

(01:38):
this is embarrassing. But hog Linewas here for a minute, as is
High Popo Pork. What you gotBrad? You know m VP Oh ye,
you need to change his team nameto m v P Barbecue. But
uh, of course Brad was outthere. Uh, Phoenix Barbecue, Kyle
Hot Daddy's which is Kyle better notbe leaving right there? Minnesota team in

(02:01):
the year. And then these guysPettyque came out and so who's PITTYQ?
Who am I? Who am I? Incredibly narrow table, but yeah,
these are a classroom tables. Souh, classroom class next week, Brisken
class with Butterman next Sunday. Thanksfor bringing that up. Northern Fire BBQ.
Yeah, I used to do somethoughts for you remember those days.

(02:24):
That was fun, good old days, salad days. They say, so,
who's pittyque. We got to knowTroy and Jen Hey. They were
a backyard team, kind of upand comers, and we recognized kind of
right away that they weren't playing gamesthey you know, not that backyard teams

(02:46):
are backyard by the way, backyardteams in Minnesota, it's super competitive,
and these guys came kind of outof that scrum with this just crazy.
I mean, we we went fromwhen mission and we're doing backyard There was
like we were two concerts. Therewas five teams, five backyard teams Minnesota
Main coming up here sold out atforty forty three something like that. So

(03:09):
these guys kind of came out ofthat craziness of just a super competitive backyard
scene. And so we were luckyenough to get to know them and brought
them on a sponsor team when theywere a backyard team, and they got
really good and then got their firstGC last year, GC Grand Championship O

(03:30):
Master Series. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean I skipped
to stuff. They went from backyard. It was funny because we brought them
on they were one of our backyardsponsor teams and then they're like we're going
pro and I'm like, okay,now we don't have a new backyard teams.
So but it was really fun.So yeah, Troy and Jen,
welcome you. Hey, thank youvery much. It's a pleasure to meet
you, first of all. AndI'm just disappointed I showed up too late.

(03:53):
All the food was gone half maddash. It was apparently very post
apocalyptic for a little bit there.There was a lot pushing and shoving and
thankfully everyone got out alive. Startwith you, Jen, and just kind
of telling the story of pitty Q. How did you guys together fall in
love with barbecue that led you downthis path? Well that's probably a better

(04:15):
story for this is more of Troystarted it and I just helped out.
But the first competition he signed upfor he was going to do with a
friend and when he drove up theregot set up everything. The friday before
the friend called and said that hecouldn't make it, so he called me
in a panic. Nice friend,right, Well, he did have obligations.

(04:40):
His wife was pregnant and sick.Oh and they had a little one
too. It hang okay. Yeah, in a world of excuses, that
does sound very legitimate. It's incrediblydalid. Yeah, you can't get mad
at that, absolutely, but youhad to step in then, right.
I drove from rose Mount where welive, up to Cambridge, okay,
at I don't know, probably sixseven in the morning on Saturday to get

(05:02):
there to be able to help them. It was me and our two daughters
that went up there and we hadfun. We got a call and chicken
that at that competition, so wedecided that we wanted to a thing.
So a call at a barbecue competition, for those that don't know's typically top

(05:25):
ten. Yeah, okay, sotypically top ten. What we call a
call is if you if you hearyou know, if there's a field of
forty teams and you hear your namecalled, that's a call. It's typically
top ten. There's some contests tocall top fifteen. But yeah, if
you go to a contest and thatwas not your first though, right,

(05:46):
that was the very first Okay,all right, the very first competition.
It's kind of a call, missyou knows for the biggest one too.
I did it on accident. I'vebeen watching barbecue pitmasters for years and been
barbecue for years instead of I wantto see what we can do, and
so I googled barbecue competition in Minnesota, found Minnesota and in May told her

(06:06):
I want to do this one,and it required to sign up for the
Minnesota Barbecue Society and all this stuff. I'm like, I don't care,
let's do it. And then whenI showed up, there's between backyard and
pro there's over one hundred teams there. And I mean we're talking rigs that
there's one team that has a semithat will Florida. It's multi it's spit
Fire out of Fargo. Yeah,that thing. It's a semi voltigh class

(06:30):
Bovo Pullar. I mean it's it'sa it's unbelievable. Yeah, it's one
of them. I got things semi. I roll up with my charcoal Weber.
It's a significant spectrum in terms ofequipment, in terms of so when
now that you've been doing it fora while, maybe you don't think about
it. It's just it's normal,see right, But at one point when
you were doing that first competition,you get the call on the chicken.
That's awesome. Was there anything that, like Maje you apprehensive about it because

(06:54):
I think about like, as Minnesotabarbecue continues to grow, not just as
as a thing that exist, butreally as a community, right, and
what we saw today with all ofthe Northern Fire teams, the relationships that
have been built. I like touse the word community because I think friendships
grow out of it. You competetogether, but in the same sense,
we're all working towards the same thing, eating delicious food. When you first

(07:15):
got into it, was there anythingYou're like, I don't know what this
is going to be, like,any part of the process that shocked you
or made you apprehensive. It's like, I've been doing barbecue for years,
I've been watching Myron mixing YouTube videosforever. But now I'm actually I think
I'm a pretty damn good cook.I'm going to put it on this platform
for other people to judge. Whatwas apprehensive about those those first maybe even

(07:36):
more than one competition where you're wondering, like, is this something I truly
want to to go head first into. Get two things on that. One
is finances. I'll ever get intocompetition barbecue thinking you're going to get ahead.
No, maybe the top team inthe world will get ahead. But
and it requires branches for that,which actually we're starting we'll get into here

(07:59):
in a pidbooks. We open arestaurant in Roseville, but it requires branches
to you know, just like AaronAmssi here they do competition barbecue. Then
they also have Northern Fire, theyhave the Lucky nineteen Sauce Company. It's
it's there's tentacle. It's a weirdpath it is, and it just it
grabs you if you if you're dedicated, it'll grab you and say, okay,
let's go and between that and thenyou really have to swallow your pride

(08:24):
and you're getting judged and you thinkit's great. And we've seen teams literally
break down in a tantrum because theydidn't get the scores they thought they should
get. And you have to learnto swallow that. Right, this is
your turning in. What you canget. Whatever you get as a score
is what you get as a score. Take that and learn from it instead

(08:45):
of hate it. If you sitthere and hate that score, you're not
going to get anywhere. If youlook at that score and learn from it
that hey, something's got to change. I think what Troy's telling you,
and I could if I can speakfor you guys a little bit. I
think one of the secrets to yoursess is that you accepted early on that
it's like, we got to dobetter. You know, what we're doing
was great. You know the wholepickle juice thing. You got a call

(09:09):
it did it did? Yeah,But you know when you when you when
you graduate from Backyard your brother,there's all kinds of things that you have
to kind of swallow your pride nineand go, you know, this is
what I like, this is whatI do, and then you read.
If you want to continue, you'vegot to kind of follow a path which
may not be your path as faras ingredients and what you do. And
that's why the Barbecue League and thingslike that exist. Class a lot of

(09:31):
similar things. But yeah, youguys did a bunch of classes. I've
done three, just did one coupleof months ago or a month ago,
whatever it was for Delicious in KansasCity. Done Travis Duffy's class twice,
Kelly Wurtz class. The one thingI'm I've learned is if you take in
the fact that you're done learning,you're doomed. Yeah, because not only

(09:52):
that, but I swear the flavorprofile changes by the year. No matter
what you think. If you're like, yep, this is it, and
you might be getting top ten callsall year long, you keep that same
profile, sometimes that stuff can kindof slip and you got to be willing
to experiment with other stuff. AndI'm so glad that you mentioned that,
because that's I've talked to Aaron Aaron'sboard with like I think about the subjectivity

(10:16):
of judging competitions and have so you'veseen those trends or those fads or those
cycles where and maybe it's from eventto event. Let's say Minnesota in May,
it's like always seeing those with alittle more heat or a certain type
of flavor, Like those guys aregetting the calls, and I'm stubborn,
I'm in my system and I'm constantlyseventeenth or twentieth, Like it can it

(10:37):
be that obvious over the course ofa season where you guys really start to
see trends or I don't know ifit's flavor of the weak flavor of a
season or what it is, butyou can notice how how those things can
last maybe a full year or it'stwo years, and then you kind of
have to pivot on the fly.To adjust and maybe get into that mix.
There's actually a seasoning that a guycame out with recently. Actually well

(11:03):
he he and a partner had thisseasoning for years at JDQ. You're seeing
this everywhere all of a sudden,it's stuff like that blues Hog original.
Almost every team uses blues Hog oG as a base for their sauce.
You add to it. But ifyou don't use Blueshig o G you almost

(11:26):
don't get a call. Yeah,so what is Darren the goat? Darren
Worth says, if you're not usingblues Hog you're either lying or losing for
real. Yeah. Wow, Youbuild to it, but that's your base,
and then you add to it towhat you want. But sure that
is the best base you can comeup with. And that as far as

(11:48):
for whatever reason, Bill Arnold,the guy who started blues Hog years ago,
that became just kind of the thatwas that was the winner, and
everybody uses it in some respect evenstill to this day. That that is
still a major player. I meanlike my kids for instance, now my
kids sadly they're using Champions Blend onchicken nuggets. Hey, that's a good

(12:09):
one. Bolderman says, that's theway to test barbecue sauce. If you
like it on your chicken nuggets,it's a good barbecue sall. Well,
my kids are obsessed with blues Hog. They think Tennessee red is is there's
too much pepper in their dad,it's it's hurting my tongue. But Champions
Blend is the absolute best, howyou know? So, speaking to adjustments

(12:30):
and growth, where do you thinkfrom that first Minnesota May and that first
chicken call? Is there is theresomething you guys cook now? For instance,
Jen, Like, is there somethingthat you guys do now that you
didn't do back then that you're like, that's that's kind of a that's a
story of our growth. Like we'reso much better at pork, We're so
much better at this. Like wheredo you think there's a way that you

(12:50):
guys have gotten better over the courseof the time doing this. We nothing
that we did at that first competitionis what we do now? Like everything
changed absolutely completely different world? Rightwow? Ye, And I mean for
the most part at this, Imean, now that we've been doing this
for so long, it's now atthat point that we just alter smaller things.
It's not redoing the whole way thatwe do it. It's just altering

(13:15):
slightly and not completely redoing it.So if you guys, if you guys
were cooking at home or maybe evencooking today, how much different are you
cooking for yourselves to feast on versuswhat you would cook in a competition?
Like how different is that? Imean, we wouldn't make it the way
that we would make it for acompetition just because we've had so much of

(13:39):
it that well, and there's alot of injections that go into that.
I don't know, it's just extstrategy for your family and home. Yeah,
to tell people you don't want todo this at home. It's too
rich for competitions. You're trying tomake everything happen in one bite. And
so if you take what we anda lot of people do, take our
left over, they love them,but I don't understand personally how you can

(14:03):
eat a bunch of it because it'srich. I mean, we're making one
right challenge, is what we're making. Brit' You're yeah, you're punching people
with flavor, and so you're gettingthat fight after bite. You're gonna You're
not gonna eat six bones of ourribs I've seen people do it though I
don't know. I don't get iteither. I mean so, and then
it's even different, like at ourrestaurant, we're not injecting. We season

(14:28):
we you know, we're also we'vegot sponsors for the years through the years,
Saints and Sinners out of Minnesota.We use his seasonings at our restaurant
and at competition. And then we'realso sponsored by Kansas City Man Meat.
So we kind of use a blendof all these seasonings for a lot of
our different well all of our differentmeats. And you don't use you don't

(14:50):
use O G as a base atyour restaurant. No, we actually have
our own sauces and they'll be comingout soon. Stay tuned, stay tuned
for that. Back to that pathwe talked about this, the winding revenue
stream here, revenue stream here,we kind of happened again by actually we
opened the restaurant and we're just goingto make in house sauce. Well now

(15:13):
I'm making three gallons of eat.We have two different sauces of barbecue sauce,
and then what we call soda linethat's a combination of we Minnesota fied
a Carolina sauce, and so we'recalling it soda Lina. I'm making about
three gallons of each per week,so we're going to be getting it bottled,
and then we're also gonna get itretail bottled as well, so bottle
for the restaurant, so I don'thave to keep making all this sauce and

(15:35):
then retail bottle too. And we'retaking it as a hint. People are
literally and this isn't a hint foranybody to do this, please, but
people are stealing it out of therestaurant right now. So I take it
as a I mean they're putting itin their pocket and taking the plastic clear
bottles. They're taking the whole bottles, and I had to buy new bottles.
I'm like, where is all thesauce bottles going? Lighting angle?

(15:58):
You need to do? You needto put it haint on it, you
know. I take it as you'rewe gonna we getta. We got to
lock it up. When you guyssay that you've been doing this for so
long, how what like, howmany years have you been in competition?
Barbecue? This will be our wellsince twenty nineteen is when we started competing,
So competing opeating kind of weird.You guys started right before the COVID

(16:19):
paper, Yeah, and then cameout of it and won their first GC.
It's like, Okay, had plentyof time start hot, plenty of
I was a GM of a ofa bowling alley. So we got shut
down and so I had nothing butme and my smokers to figure stuff out.
And uh you had to work throughthat, yep. And you had
to through that to work. Iwell, I got to learn barbecue more

(16:42):
and more, watching videos and absolutelythrowing down in the backyard. And so
tell us about the restaurant, now, you guys, So that that started
what two months ago? Three monthsactually the end of December. Yeah,
so it's called four months already.It's it's it's flying by and it's booming.

(17:02):
We The name of the restaurant's PITYQBarbecue, keeping everything the sauce pitty
Que because they have pit bulls yep. Yeah, which are They're adorable and
they're usually in the truck. Theyweren't coming today. Good call be a
little rough. Didn't mean that either, but yeah, we won't get into

(17:25):
that one. But no, it'sit's based off pit bulls. We love
pit Bull Rescues and all that,and eventually with the restaurant, once we
really get going here, we wantto put some of the proceeds towards pit
Bull Rescues in Minnesota. I lovethat we are partnered with a nonprofit amazing
husband and wife. Actually they runthe Living Festival or Living Foundation, and

(17:48):
they put on the Living Festival,which is a suicide awareness music festival and
a foundation that takes care of familiesafter the fact. He also is the
founder of the Midwest Country Music Foundation. It's pt from one or two point
nine. He's our business partner overthere, and he, I mean,
he's just been amazing. Him andhis wife have just basically said, well,

(18:11):
do you want to do this,let's partner up. And they have
been just awesome, Like there's it'sbeen running almost too smooth. That's amazing.
Yeah. When when we announced thisevent today, I'm like, you
know, well a few months agowe started talking about I'm like, well,
pittyqu'es out. They just opened arestaurant there, they got stuff to
do. Yeah. Yeah, Sowe were joking earlier. I told Troy,

(18:34):
I'm like, hey, what areyou gonna do on your day?
How fun to go cook barbecue fora bunch of knuckleheads in a parking lot.
It's like, this is what wedo with our free time. We're
lucky enough to already have seven employeesbecause business has been taken off to the
point where I can't We were goingto just do this as a family and
think we could handle it, andwe're getting steamrolled, which is a good

(18:56):
thing. Yeah, but in themeantime I had to hire some more people
and train them quick, Like,here, this is what you do.
We did that today. Yeah youheard that. I met that guy.
Heck, have you ever run inretail rate? So, what's what's the
best thing on your menu at prettyQ? I'm obviously off? What's your
face? Well, let's get backto what So today? What did you
what did you make today for ourOkay, yeah, let's go back in

(19:18):
time and then we'll go forward.Well, today is a sandwich. We
made a slider of a sandwich.We carry out the restaurant called Pig and
a Garden. One of our saucesa soda Lina we mixed with pulled pork
and then we top it with appleslow and we serve it on Texas toast.
So then on. Yeah, Igot to have one today and it's
He told me to show up attwo. He said that there would be

(19:41):
food, no lots of food.No, ridiculous, I think I think
he moved twelve thirty, I said, but and that was even putting the
twelve thirty might have been tough.It was a zoot. We did one
hundred and twenty eight sandwiches by twelvethirty, twelve thirty four. It was
crazy that that was. It wentquick. It was a very successful day
here out. Yeah, so they'rethey're they're pork sandwich with this apple slow,

(20:04):
which I'd never had before. Ispretty unique. It's wildly like the
sweet from the apple makes complete,total sense with the pork. It's genius.
There's a dressing in their vinegers andhoney and yep, yeah you got
it's a very good, good bite. So how does I mean it's it's
tough to tell now you're you're fourmonths in, but how does how does

(20:25):
the restaurant potentially impact the competing?Well, we again you mentioned you you
got seven employees, and yeah,you know, there's a part of the
way in which you can rely onthem, of course, but we when
we started the restaurant. That wasone thing the business partners and all of
us talked about was that we willnot let it affect our competing because competing
is what got us here, right, that's the that's our base. I

(20:47):
dig that, you know we would. We're not looking to get rich overnight.
We want to feed people of awesomefood and see smiles. I don't
care about the money, as badas it sounds, I don't. The
money is not what I care about. I love giving people food and them
going, holy shit, what didyou just give me? Yeah, that
is the biggest compliment of cook canever get? Sorry? What because because

(21:08):
he said, shit, yep,it's one, you'll only get three.
It's all good. I've heard thispodcast before. I at the first person,
what's the website? As we beso amazing sliders that I didn't get
to be a part of. SoI'm very selfish and sad about that.
But from competing to the restaurant,like, where is the restaurant in Roseville?

(21:32):
It's at the Bedale Club actually onoff A thirty six and Dale twenty
one Dale Street. We're we gotlucky enough to rent out the kitchen and
the Bedale Club. So it's perfectnonprofit bar. They take care of the
Roseville community in athletics and all thatkind of stuff, So it's it's a
nonprofit bar that we get to bea restaurant in. That's a super nice

(21:56):
spot. So now so now withthat said, though, restaurant doing well,
what's is there a website for theI'm writing now? We just do
our Facebook and Instagram, PDQ,BBQ, okay, perfect. Eventually we're
going to get the website. Wehave to. No, absolutely absolutely.
I was just I was just curiousabout that. But but back to the
competing end. Now, what's onthe schedule, Like, do you got

(22:17):
to you got the full schedule?You got the twenty twenty four already locked
in, locked down? Like,what's the farthest place that you guys have
gone or will go for a competition. The farthest we have gone is Kansas
City. Kansas City, Okay,this year, I guess we'll see where
how far are we go? Okay, Tennessee. I see for the worlds

(22:37):
yep, I guess. We wonthe Grand Championship last year, so we
get to be in the World InvitationalKCBS World Invitational, and that's in Lebanon,
Tennessee, and then also we'll begoing back to the American Royal and
Kansas City. That's badass, doyou guys? Is there a parade involved?
What kind of like are there benefitsto being the grand Champion? Do

(22:57):
people kiss the ring? It?Like? How does this? How does
this work? The only parade isif you actually qualify for the jack,
then you're then you're in a parade. But we we we were in the
drawing, but we didn't get ourwhat's called the bunk. We didn't get
our bung polled. I know that. So it's a real thing, and
it is. It is a realthing to get your bung pulled. And

(23:18):
then we all okay, and weall want a very few get it.
Okay, Well it's good. You'lltalk to hot Daddy's maybe lady they got
their bunk pole this year. Wellit's a good thing. I'm not with
my guy on the radio right now, so run it for about twenty minutes
on that. Wow. Yeah,thank you so much for Hank, Thank

(23:40):
you and doing this. Uh notonly I mean, you know, I
just meeting you guys and interacting withyou guys now, but you know that's
kind of A big story of NorthernFire is the relationships. You know,
you guys supporting him in this storeand this operation, and kind of as
I was talking about earlier, thecommunity and when I saw out front was
so badass. So well they muswork on your part. They helped us

(24:02):
start the first year. We comein here and ask them for or asked
Aaron for and Missy both for help, and aaron would just start laying it
out and Missy'd be like, We'rejust gonna give him the whole recipe.
That's That's one of our stories wetell a lot of people is our our
whole thing started at this store.So we're here. I love that love.

(24:22):
Happy to have you guys, Thanksfor coming out. Thank you,
Yeah, big thanks to Troy andJen PITTYQ for hanging out with us and
Aaron. Now I have I gotpeople's choice, I got people's teaching,
I got people teaching classes. AndyBoterman, Kyle Coon hanging out with us.
How were you guys part of allof these festivities today? We'll start
with you, Kyle in terms ofbeing one of the people out there cooking

(24:45):
for the people. The food's alreadygone. I missed out on all of
it. But what brought you uphere into the mix today? Well,
we're sponsored by Aaron and Missy fromNorthern Fire for a competition team Hot Daddy's
Barbecue. Hot Daddy's. Hot Daddy'sThere we go. See that did the
name down? It didn't Once yousee it. You know it's Dad Bob.

(25:07):
I mean you you know, it'sa big thing about the barbecue world.
It just oozes sexuality. That's justreally that's barbecue. The names these
two were kind of the you knowA and b You know, well,
the three of us Andy, Kyleand I sitting sitting next to each other
at any sporting event, everyone's uncomfortable. So we're not getting on elevators.

(25:30):
We're doing rock paper scissors for theaisle seat so you can throw the leg
out. Flying together is out ofthe question the question. But so,
so you're sponsored Hot Daddy's via viaNorthern Fire, which is sweet. And
you've taught some some classes here beforeas well. Is that accurate? Yeah,
we stood a four meet competition classwhat about a month ago? Not

(25:52):
even two weeks ago? So howlong have you been competing? Twenty sixteen,
twenty sixteen? Okay, So insome ways the grizzled veteran of the
group. And in terms of yeah, I think in this group, I'm
the grizzled. Well, you're grizzled. Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

(26:12):
Yeah. And and I'm a grizzlyso but he can be hot daddy,
I guess is grizzled. I guessgrizzly barbecue might be. And uh
and then of course Andy Boderman barbecuewith Boderman. How you doing, brother?
I am fantastic, what a whatan amazing day. So did you
get a trophy today? You werethe people's choice champion. I get another

(26:33):
trophy that has to sit in thestore, gets to sit in this it
gets you. I don't have anytrophy in your living room? Well I
know, but you know, it'dbe nice to have a little representation at
home at the Boter bar, youknow, you know, is it is
it a real trophy or it isa real trophy, very cool trophy.
So it's sweet and we can talkabout that if you bought it from a

(26:55):
no, actually a long story stretchroom in or who this guy that he's
a ilones Uh God, why can'tI forget? Doesn't he do a sauce
or something like that. Grinders,Yeah, Grinders down in Kansas City.
He's got a what two or threerestaurants, really cool restaurants. He's got
a really cool concert venue. Buthis hobby is building these really cool sculptures.

(27:18):
He does like you know when yougo to the city hall and they
have these, you know, thirtyfoot metal structures outside. He does that
kind of stuff, like an angelping and a foul or some sort of
thing. But Stretch made us thisuh, you know, kind of barbecue
themed trophy. It actually was justa thing he made for the store.
Yeah, and then we were tryingto figure out what to do for a
trophy that's going to stay in thestore and hopefully this will be an annual

(27:41):
event. Anyway, So we gotthis really cool trophy and we're gonna slap
Mooterman's name on it. And he'sa twenty twenty four and Wiener the inaugural
correct Wiener. Have you guys everconsidered it? So all next year and
next year? Have you have you? Uh? And I feel bad for
not knowing this, Andy, Sohave you competed? You know you haven't
done that? Kay? So tobe fair though, this contest was because

(28:04):
he's teaching classes. He's he's buildingminds and the cascading of information. But
you haven't been in a competition yet. Yeah, So there's a couple of
different things going on because what whatKyle does and what we do for competition
barbecue and the reason that bodman Andyteaches classes and and I'm not Andy's got
a different skill set. He's he'skind of a more approachable you know,

(28:29):
he can teach somebody how to doyour the most kick ass brisket you're ever
going to have in the backyard.Kyle can teach you what's gonna win in
the competition. So it match.Yeah, completely different paths, which has
been fun, which is why Andyand I kind of go back and forth
all the time. I'm like,that's stupid. It's like, no,
you're stupid. It's wonderful. Thebanter is I live for the banter.

(28:52):
Hey, Kyle, have you everyou know, speaking of grinders, grinders
does the death nectar? Right?Yes? Okay, have you ever considered
it a competition? I mean,you're not gonna win, but I mean
you guess you have. You'd haveto have severe hatred to the judge.
You couldn't guarantee. I mean,if if you could guarantee that you were
gonna go first, if they weregonna eat yours first, Just a little

(29:17):
bit of death nectar in there.Now, I don't think that judges crying
at the table and taking steel woolto their tongue. I don't think that's
a good sign for winning the competition. But is there anything that just itched
inside? Like I'd love to justf with a little bit on your way
out, well on my way out. Yeah, there there are some certain
things that I would the day,the day I quit, the day I

(29:40):
get fired. It is what I'mgonna do, and it's gonna include death
nectar. Next year, there's gonnabe I think I'm gonna do some pretty
obscure, weird things for tournaments,just to change it up a bit.
Yeah, get that. I'm gettingkind of tired of cooking the same thing
comp after camp after camp. Soand that's where Andy I'm always envy as
of Andy's Instagram. It's like he'salways just killing it. Like I think

(30:03):
that's why you're Andy size, becauseyou're gonna make some awesome food. Yeah,
And I do you know if youif you do go to my Instagram
and look at that stuff. There'sno there's no studio magic. It's not
fake stuff. Those are literally themeals that I cook and eat. Is
it BBQ with Boterman? Yep?Is that right? Going? Okay,
that's the handle? All right?Sweet? Yeah? Check it out now.

(30:23):
Well, you look like Getty Imagesout there with with some of these
photos that you're putting together. It'svery impressive. No, but the style
and the presentation, whether you guysin competitions, there's this this rigid format.
You know, do you go withKale, do you go with with
Hearts of Romaine? Underneath? Youknow, big decisions that go into these

(30:44):
competitions, But the style of thebarbecue is part of the process. So
since sixteen Kyle competing in these contests, what do you think at this stage
that you absolutely in your sleep likethat's your thing, Like you absolutely you
you murder this thing every single time, and and palettes and flavors. The

(31:06):
trends can dictate, maybe from ajudging standpoint, but it's like, in
my sleep, I absolutely kick thisass every time. Ribs, ribs every
time. That's awesome. Yep,gosh, and that suit two years ago
I would say it was brisket,but as of two years ago, it's
it's it's been ri I'm sensing jealousyhere, and obviously a podcast there might
feel a little bit. There's novisual to it. But but as as

(31:30):
Aaron is just furiously flipping you thedouble birds, there's some angst. There's
I feel jealousy in the mix toyou, Kyle, there's a little bit
of jealousy there. I'm a littlehurt because you're not a hot dad.
I don't know a lot of peoplethat would just throw out there. I'm
just saying, yeah, I'm justgonna I'm always gonna be good at ribs.
The ribs are really to me andmaybe it's me, maybe you know,

(31:52):
just probably it might be Missy's fault. But yeah, it's a boy,
oh boy, I'm gonna have togo now. Yeah did she leave
you? No, she was rightover good. No, ribs are really
nailing. Tenderness is really for medifficult. That's I think I've been all
over the map because I can't figureout what the judges want, and uh,

(32:14):
Kyle's class I'm like, that's whatI think. So I got to
try Kyle's ribs at Kyle's class becausemy store our store. But I'm like,
that's flex that's what we're trying todo. That's what we're trying to
do. So I felt like Igot back to home base a little bit,
and then we took seventieth down toKansas City, like Jesus, Yeah,

(32:35):
anyway, Kyle, he's not wrongthough he's killing it in ribs.
Let me let me ask you guysthis then, And it's good that we
have kind of this this polarized andnot polarizing, but but separate visions in
terms of so from a competition sideto home cooking side and just you know,
getting better at the craft and allof that. How vastly different is
it between I if I'm cooking ata competition and I want to, I

(32:57):
want to, I want to liftthat trophy. I want to hoist that
trophy versus I got ten people comingover to my house and I just want
to cook a great meal. Right, So I'm rolling in the northern fire.
I'm getting my sauces and my rubsand my accessories and I got this,
you know, six hundred dollars knifeset that Aaron talked me into about
six months ago I've only used ittwice. The difference is yeah, no
problem. The good margin on thatproduct, I hope, But the vast

(33:20):
differences between I just I feel likethat's a Grand Canyon esque chasm between the
two. Am I right on that? Am I overthinking it? No?
No? Yeah, how I alwaysdescribe it some people, you know,
the barbecue competition world, You arecooking something to try to hit a set

(33:40):
of like, you know, rulesthat are laid out by the judges,
right, and so create a standardthat nobody deviates from. So yeah,
yeah, I get you, Iget you. Yeah, yes, and
no, you just don't want tooverstep the balance. You don't want to
go too sweet, you don't wantto go you know what you might preferred,

(34:01):
right, no death nectar. Butyou're trying to turn You've got six
people you're worried about at the tableand that and the other thing too,
is it's it's one bite judging,right, So you need to pack as
much flavor as humanly possible into thatone bite. Now, if you go
to a restaurant and you order arack of ribs and they are a competition

(34:21):
style rib, it's going to getoverwhelming. After you know, the third
bite, it's just too much onyour palate really, So I I always
came from more the culinary side ofthings, you know, trying to balance
flavors and make things, uh,you know, just just delicious and you
just want to keep eating more.Whereas in competition you need that first impression.

(34:45):
And because also these judges are tastingdish after dish after dish after dis
Yeah, a judge at a competitionis going to try our ribs and then
five others, right, just thatone category, and there's four categories,
so you know you're not doing ajob. It's does it pay well?

(35:07):
I mean, I'm enjoying this radiothing. But but in fact, if
I could make the mortgage payment justtasting food all day, you can't,
I mean, I die young.Yeah No, it's it's certified barbecue judges.
That's a whole nother category we getinto. And I'll stick with radio
then I guess until I get fired. Well, death and neck there for

(35:29):
everybody my last day. So butbut then from a competition standpoint, and
I was talking earlier in the podcastTroy and Jen from PITYQ, you know,
clearly if again, if if you'refeasting at your own house. You're
not running through the program, soto speak, maybe of what you do
during a competition. But how muchpractice does that? You know, it's

(35:52):
like preseason football, right, LikeI got a competition seasons coming up,
Like I spend a Saturday and Ijust I get up at the time I
would out of my trailer or whateverdown in Kansas City. Uh. You
know these guys, I know they'retaking shots in the morning. Yeah,
But but do you run through theprogram? Do you do? You do

(36:12):
that kind of thing. Yes.When I'm practicing at home, I mean,
if I'm trying to cook for myselfor my family there, I will
not sit down and eat a rackof my ribs that are turned for cup.
I like a salty gristly. Justput it on the smoker, let
her fly for four hours, takeit off with a six pack of beer.
Speaking my way, yeah, that'swhat I like. Once a year,
I'll just go grab a Texas stylerub, which is just straightforward,

(36:36):
unwrapped baby back, not anything init, and I'm like, these are
great. Take a brisket, throwa brisket on, let a ride for
twelve hours on there, get anice set of bark on the outside.
What they call bark in competition isnot bark. I mean it's it's it's
not true bark. So I didOkay, No, not anywhere close.
Well, it's got to be.It's gotta be in the time constraints,

(36:58):
right, Yeah, if you turnedin something, I mean, you know,
like we cook cotton fast on drums. I mean, my brisket's done
in about four and a half hours, okay, five hours max. You
know I'm done, And you're notdoing that at the house though, Oh
no, No, that's something youput on roning. You let her ride.
I get up at three in themorning, put her on at four,
and just let her ride until thatnight at six. Sounds amazing.
So, you know, the toughestthing. I've said this before on this

(37:19):
podcast. So sometimes it's like youlike the journey, the journey for me
and cooking, and I'm super amateur, so feel free to look down.
I mean, that's okay. Butit's like when I've cooked briskets and it's
a twelve or fourteen hour cook it'salmost like I'm not hungry at that point,
like fighting the fire and no fundoing the wrap and stuff like that.
Like I have all like I'm almostlike watching other people eat it while

(37:44):
I just sit here with it's theweirdest thing, probably my tenth year,
over the course of a long day, and I just they're eating and they're
loving it. They're famished. Ittook an hour longer than I initially told
them, so half of them areannoyed. But now they're eating, so
they're okay and pacified. And I'mjust sitting there. I'm like, I
almost can't eat right now. LikeI just I just kind of want to

(38:05):
sit back, and I'm like timelike Tom Hanks and Castaway, look what
I have made, And I justkind of stand in the background, and
it's so weird. How that,how that? And that's that's me For
those longer cooks, it's so muchfun and the journey almost outweighs the flavor
at the end. Yeah, eventoday, you know, I still haven't
eaten a meal today. And Iwent out and did I don't know,

(38:28):
a hundred some burgers, did smashburgers and then did I miss a what
which? What did you do?We did bread pudding? Bread pudding.
It was It's just ridiculous. Itwas kind of I thought it was genius.
It was smart with everybody else cookingproteins, and he's just going to
roll out and give you something sweetbread pudding. I'm mad amazing how many

(38:52):
people are like, wow, Iwould have bread pudding forever. I love
bread putting, bread putting. Whydo not more restaurants serve bread pudding?
No doubt I And I'm just saying, how many people came up and said
they're there, They've been joning forit. It's like, yeah, this
super audience I want. I justwanted to show it, you know,
and none of it was done.Yeah, none of it was left for

(39:12):
me. It was gone. Itwas gone in the first good news.
I mean, we've never done thiskind of event before, but it was
really fun to I don't know,do you think you guys when you were
looking around. I think at onepoint I felt like, there's about four
hundred people here, and I'm notkidding me. Between a lot of front
it was. It was really fun, but it was you know, we

(39:32):
can only give away food for solong, and I thought we had a
pretty good mix. Yeah, wehad. We had a lot of food.
I mean we went through yeah,you know, I served several I
had over one hundred servings of breadpudding that I served in forty five minutes.
That's super cool. Yeah, andyou know the guys uh uh so
I was people's choice is always nota dog andy here, you made awesome

(39:55):
smash burger. The choice you getthe regifted uh stretch trophy that you don't
Actually, it'll stay here. Idon't even think it's gonna physically be moved.
You know your name is. It'sabsolutely not going to be etched on
it. No, I'm going tocome in three weeks from now and I'm

(40:15):
gonna talk to Aaron. I'm gonnago, hey, you know me,
what what's going on with this?With this trophy here, I've got a
call out. We're going to getyour name on it and then zero.
It'll just never happen. Absolutely,Actually before next year. I would even
go into Yeah, the name platesalready on order. We just have to
tell them whose name to put onit. I didn't I didn't know.

(40:38):
I didn't know who. So itdoesn't say Botermen yet, but it will.
Well, the cool thing is it'sgoing to be like Boterman with two
ts. Yeah, they're gonna yeahor yeah yeah or just boatman yeah yeah
screwed up boatman. And you cookburgers, you cook bread pudding. How

(41:00):
did you so? How did youguys? And and maybe you've you've had
this happened probably earlier in the seasonand later, How did you deal with
the chill and the and the windthis morning? That's same as an It
doesn't matter, right, it doesn'tmatter. That's Kyle's of Minnesota, though
easy he didn't. He barely noticetime out there shivering. I make construction.
I work outside every day of theweek, so then you actually you

(41:21):
have a real job. Yeah,it was funny though, I was saying,
this morning, we missed you.And I used to do a chili
contest of May Slax in January andit was, you know, real cold,
and you can get used to anything, but it was this morning was
crazy cold. It was spitting snow, and uh, it was it was.
I got here. I got herelike five fifteen and started putting stuff

(41:43):
out. You know, when you'rebusy, it's fine. Then you get
a bunch of pits going, andthen you get some buddies there and you
know, then there might be anine twenty two and a lucky beer at
ten and yeah, and watch itcould be things and then you're just rolling.
But then you're just fine. Itwas, but I'm sure you've gotten
this. So you know, anorthern fire you answer a ton of questions
from the most mundane or inane tothe most technical in advanced, et cetera.

(42:08):
But just from being on the fan, anytime we talk about barbecue,
I always get the like, whatdo you do when it's really cold?
And I'm just thinking, like,I just have like a Tragger eight eighty
five and then I got one ofthose anchor grill stick burners. I don't
do anything different, and so I'mkind of in the vein, like it
doesn't matter to me. My grill'son my deck in the backyard. It's

(42:30):
super windy. It's kind of likea wind tunnel. It feels like behind
our houses in Chasca. It doesn'tmatter to me. But there's all sorts
of things, you know. I'veseen these smoke tubes, you know,
heat blankets for when it's super cold. I've never done any of that.
Something like the heat blanket thing.When I had my big offset when we
first started competing, two and fiftygallon offset that I built, and I

(42:52):
built a heat blanket for it.Okay, because our first comp we ever
did was fire and ice. Markcold was that it was high of the
day was twenty degrees, So Ibuilt the blanket out of well, that
used to be a great contest.That was a lot of fun. That
was our first comp that we did. But now that we went to the

(43:12):
barrels, it actually seems like soyou're ambient temp outside the colder, it
is outside the hotter, your fireneeds to run and actually the quicker your
meat gets done right because you gotthat radiant heat coming up from the bottom
because it's firing so much faster.So the colder is it just your smoker?
I mean it holds three hundred degrees, but you got the radiant heat

(43:32):
from the barrel that's coming up offit, and things seem to finish a
lot faster. So yeah, we'vecooked some cold weather stuff up here.
What made you you mentioned it?What what made you switch to barrels for
convenience? We so three years agowe went to the pumpkin chucking contest out

(43:55):
and Racine, I think it's Racine, Wisconsin, somewhere out there are out
by Green Bay, maybe not really. Aweso Kenosha. Let's go with those.
I think all those places Wisconsin wecan agree on that. Yeah,
right by the dolls, Amory.Yeah, she's out there by Green Bay.
Anyways, that we had the oldsmoker and we decided the nearest hotel

(44:19):
was like twenty miles away, soI said, we're just going to sleep
in the tent. So we pitchedtent. It was thirty degrees that night.
Oh ten by ten or ten andten ten ten? Okay ten to
ten. The wife had every lastsleeping bag and blanket, her snowbill suit,
piled on her everything. That Wednesdayor the following Thursday, we ended

(44:42):
up leaving and driving down to Iowasomewhere and buying a trailer because she's like,
we're never doing this again. It'snever going to happen again. So
we got a toy holler and weswitched to barrels. Okay, we can
roll in and out because our othersmoker was just by far too big to
do anything like that. You guyswere similar to Missy and I back.
We had a East Texas big trailersmoker, little Toss and we loved it.

(45:04):
And it was funny because I thinkwhen Kyle, Kyle and Amy had
their trailer. I think we hadjust graduated to a toy doller from East
Texas. But Missy and I usedto sleep in ah in the back of
the Toyota Sequoia on an inflatable mattressand our end of world story it was
when the infraidiable mattress got a holein it or something. And we will
come with ad I swear to Iwoke up, like you know, smashed

(45:30):
together in this weird taco in theback of it. Guys like you and
I and we aren't built for airmattresses. Now that's where that's for.
That's for normal sized people. Yeah, so what is it? What's the
difference? I mean, I knowwhat the physical difference is, but adjusting

(45:51):
to cooking out of barrel versus anormal offset, that's kind of cool.
Like Andy's got this backyard paradise withall kinds of smokers and things like that.
I got, I got a pellet, I got a stick burner.
I mean it feels like you getinto it. You got all kinds of
toys. I do have a barrel, just absolutely ruined this Tomahawks steak on
this barrel. By the way,I'll get to that maybe a later cooker.

(46:12):
So what's the what's the adjustment?Yeah, I just freaked out over
my fire. It was like Iused the Neapolitan ice cream where it was
it was charred and awful, itwas well done, and then there was
just this little strip right right rightat the top. It just kind of
yeah, I got Yeah. Itwas a four pound steak and I think
I had six ounces of good meaton it. It was a complete disaster.

(46:32):
What was the adjustment going from froma normal offset or something like that
too, I'm barrels. I'm notgonna lie. It took us about a
year to figure it out. Itwas a huge change going from so we
used to do low and slow onthe offset, right, sure, I
mean it was spired up at midnight, put the meat on at one.
I was up all night long.The wife and the girls wuld go back
to the hotel. They'd come backin the morning, and I slept in
a reclining chair all night long.Right, switch to the hot and fast.

(46:58):
Now it's like literally it's turn andburn if you're not if you're not
watching it and keep an eye andknow what your timeline is, you let
it go ten minutes too long.And I mean your charred my ribs.
Took me forever to figure out therub had too much sugary rotating. No,
I lay on lay him on therack. Okay, four competition style

(47:19):
racks. They're about ten bones apiece and just rotate. And you got
to forget that too, you guys. You know how much meet you guys
wast talk. I mean, mygoodness, guys, I can't believe it.
I don't really waste it. I'veseen it. I hate it.
It's insane. It's insane. Igot enough kids that whatever I cut off
it, it goes like the ribends and stuff like that. I send
that off to the one daughter theother do. Yeah, it was funny

(47:43):
because wait a minute, so hedoesn't just immediately throw it in the garbage
errand mine mine gets vacuum packed andgets thrown in the freezer and the kids
come and buck it up. Soyeah, it all gets used. So
thank god for that. But learnit. But learning to cook on that
thing, like you said, ittook a year at it. It took
a year. And so I'm avery very baby stu. I mean,
as soon as I got my anchorand I was building fires on that like

(48:07):
the barrel is now collecting dust,to be honest with you, and then
frankly, I should just play aroundwith it more and learn more. But
it does like it's completely and Idon't know what it is other than the
fact that it's just it's the physicalnature. Whether you're hanging or it's on
a rack, the physical different.Like it was kind of daunting to me,
Like I felt like it was thisweird alien technology when it's just a

(48:30):
freaking barrel. But you know,get the charcoal and it's it's The complexity
comes from the simplicity of it.The beauty of it's so simple is stupid,
right. You have to you haveto not overthink everything with it.
And one of the best things aboutsmokers like that or pits like that is

(48:51):
it gets you out of thinking aboutwhat your fire is doing and just pay
attention with the meats doing exactly everycut of meat is different. Just pay
attention to what the meat is doing. You come through with your program,
figure out how everything's running so thatyou can keep everything the same. Yeah,
and once you get that down whereyou're not looking at a stupid piece
of paper all the time. Sowhat you got to do next concentrate on
when the meat's done. The dumbnessof it. I remember the first rack

(49:15):
of ribs I did on the Huntsakerwhen I when I got mine, threw
them on there, threw them onthere for the same amount of time as
I would on my offset. Icome back and I'm like, whoa who
wants to order pizza to night?Because they were black? Oh, It's
like, yeah, okay, sowe're not doing it that way. I
learned the same thing when I gotmy first I did it kind of backwards.

(49:38):
I had an offset and then gota pellet grill, and it was
back up for a second. Yeah, you're not a competition cook, but
you've got all the equipment. He'sgot everything, all this stuff, elite,
elite cook. It's amazing. Iappreciate it. It's it's been fun.
But when I first got my pelletsmoker, you know, I treated

(50:00):
it the same as I would theoffset, and I was just like,
I'm not getting enough smoke. I'mnot getting enough flavor in this. The
tenderness is off. I don't Idon't understand it. So I took beef
ribs, beef short ribs, andI ran on the pellet and on the
offset at the exact same time,at the exact same temperature, and like

(50:22):
recorded the differences and it was crazy. And the thing I learned about it
is because with pellets there's no moisturecontent in those pellets, so the chemistry
of the smoke is much different thanan offset. You have to run a
lower temperature. And okay, holdon, so calm down. It already

(50:44):
got to be a long day.And I'm like, how long do we
have to say? Okay, mymy brain's broken, No big continue.
You know, this is the beautyof any and when it makes him a
good teacher. But what I teachmy big thing is why why are we
doing these things? Soone people teachyou how to do something, but they
don't tell you why. But whenit comes to the pellet smoker, you

(51:06):
know, I figured out if I'mdoing you know, beef ribs, I
need to do them under two hundredand twenty five degrees. It's gonna take
a lot longer, but that's howyou get the flavor and tenderness out of
it. Versus on my offset.It's you know, rip it and go.
I mean you're three three fifteen Sometimesoh yeah, And I think people
take way too much. They payway too much attention to the temperature swings,

(51:30):
and then you know, working witha working with a letter ride,
Yeah, working with a barrel isthe best way to break that habit because
you're never going to control within fivedegrees on that film. Now, if
it wants to run a two seventyfive, let it run two seventy five.
That's just it. Don't fight it. Just let it run to seventy
five. Start to meet early enoughthat you can have a cushion of another

(51:51):
hour. Yeaheah, Just just letit write it. Don't fight the smoker,
just let it run it too seventyfive and just let it ride.
Yeah, that's I have found withevery different smoker that we worked on for
classes and my own personal stuff,everyone has a sweet spot that it likes
to run at the most efficient.Don't fight it. Like when we're using
the Franklin pits, they're way hotterthan what like my outlaw is, but

(52:15):
we don't fight it. You justthat's where the clean, good smoke is
coming from, is that higher temperature. So and I learned that on my
tragger as well at the house.Like working and getting to know Aaron,
you know, some of my favoriteribs and some of my favorite food that
I've made is I'm basically always cookingabout two seventy five. That's where I'm

(52:35):
sitting on the anchor. But Itried doing ribs on the tragger and frankly
were they just weren't great. Theyjust weren't good and super dry even coming
out of the raps, Like,what the hell is going on here?
And so I keep I still runribs at least when they're they're open.
I still run it at two hundred, yeah, two ten, you know,

(52:55):
and just keep it there. AndI and so maybe it's the moisture
as you're talking about. Is Ijust I apparently stepped into a chemistry class
for a little bit here, Butbut I had, I wouldn't have thought
that. Now I do understand thedifference in equipment and things like we did
a steak bit here. He wasdoing, uh do it on the yoda
cheating. I was on the trigger. Remember I won, I won the

(53:19):
contest, did matter of he won? Yeah? I won with diversity of
flavor. I won with terrific mediumrare zabatant stake. Not knowing what the
rules were get out of here.Okay, get out of here. Aaron
has this habit of turning everything intoa competition, and I've never seen him
win a single time. Thank you, that's right, I think. No,

(53:45):
it's it's awesome because you love youknow, the stupid Zabatan cook we
did, which we we ate awesomesteaks. They were all good. Everybody
won, by the way, everybodygot patient. Yeah, I got my
stupid competition head on. And I'mlike, not too salty, you know,
So I made him like I doat home. I mean, I
would make it a competition. Yeah, and then try his steak. I'm

(54:08):
like, oh Jesus, he's throwingexecutioner pork rub on steaks. And they
were good, by the way,argue they were good, underrated beef.
It sounds weird. Just try it. You'll understand what I'm saying. It's
different, but it's good. Trysome beef rubs on some pork. There
you go. I'm not gonna lie. There you go. Why do we

(54:29):
live in a world with labels thereand there's no there's no reason, you
mean, more capable loser hasn't wonanything since I met him. I'm gonna
be honest. Uh, I metyou. Yeah, now it's it's north
of four years ago. I metyou shortly after you open the store.
I haven't seen any new any newhardware. We have it. We've got

(54:51):
some new hardware in the last fouryears. Not much though not enough.
I got Kyle to compete with forgod's akes, well, and you were
to. And so you are runningthis store, which is well, okay,
but it's missus. Where's Missy becausewhy why why does missy run the
store? She's an adult? Becauseshe was picky. I was putting,

(55:15):
Oh she is picky. Okay,yeah, is she that picky? She's
with me? The uh you getMissy on here. Let's uh, let's
put a wrap on this thing.But before we go, So classes,
competition classes. I know you're you'redoing a brisket class and not competition style.
This is more Texas style restaurant.Yeah style, absolutely brisket. Yeah.

(55:36):
So just to play good eating brisket. Yeah, absolutely. So when
is that next Sunday? That isnext Sunday the twenty eighth, April twenty
eighth, Yeah, is that soldout? Spots still available? There's still
that one is not quite sold out. I think we have a couple left.
There were some people outside today thatsaid they were going to go on
and sign up on that's one.Almost kind of cells out late because it's

(55:57):
an all day class. It's allday Sunday, so yeah, it's it's
super intensive. We go, it'sat least six hours. Sometimes we run
a little bit long, but werun an offset offset, you know,
like I said, more straight Texasstyle, higher fast. We're going to
run the Franklin again. I thinkwe should. And then I also I
do a pellet version. And Ido it because if you jump on any

(56:23):
internet forum, you're gonna start seeinga fist fight between pellet guys and offset
guys. And this is better.This is better. This way you get
to actually taste the difference between thetwo. One I bet, I bet
the average person Maybe I'm wrong,the average person that signs up for one
of your classes probably has a pellicrill. Yeah, almost almost almost all.
And so we we definitely want toyou know, there's some fundamentals that

(56:45):
are the same across the two,but I definitely like to point out,
is I just before we move on. I I just really like to point
out the different techniques with Appellet girl. So that you can maximize the flavor
that you're gonna get. And that'swhat you get as part of the class,

(57:06):
right right, Okay, yeah,some of those tips and then we
also and it's trimbling up live andthen raffle it off so you can And
this is a wagu Snake River Farms. It's not a cheap it's yeah,
turned seasoned. Thearey to go.And I mean, I got kids and
stuff. Love my kids, that'sfine, you know, married whatever.
Next to that these briskets I madelast summer. Again, you feel like

(57:30):
you're the first time you do itnow, Kyle, you you know,
you're not as not as you've beendoing this since twenty sixteen. Maybe you
don't, you don't get as excitedabout it anymore, but you know exactly
what I'm talking about. When youace that thing, you know, and
maybe you get a call at acompetition, maybe you don't, whatever,
But when you ace that thing,it's I mean, is there anything better?

(57:51):
It's unbelievable. No, You're right, it's you know, it's the
last meet we turn in. Andwhen you cut into that one and you
take that first slaves out of itthing, you pull it apart. And
you take a taste of it andit's like throw it over your shoulder.
It's like money. Yeah, ohthere is money. There's no better feeling
because that by fire is probably forme, is probably the hardest one,

(58:12):
because I mean you've got very smallwindow of done and overdone, you know
well. But and you're going fasteron the barrel too, so you're even
the margins are much slimmer. Fifteenminutes makes a huge difference on a barrel
at three through twenty minutes. Sono, I was, I was making
these things and the fire went out, I'm losing my mind and it ended
up not mattering at all. I'mjust I'm just such a nube on the

(58:35):
on the offset and screwing the wholething up. But I was cooking at
a lower at tempt than you probablywere. And so the ability to like
take a deep sigh of relief,understand that you know it's the meat's gonna
be fine, you can kind ofbeat up on it a little bit,
like these wag you like, Imean, these things are absolute piece of
meat. Man, Oh it was. It can handle a lot, but
when you when you do that stuff, it's so cooked. Two of them

(58:57):
it was yes, yeah, no, it was no problem. It was
it that makes me happy. It'skind of like, you know, the
training wheels came off a little bit. It was great. Then I was
excited. It only took me sevenor eight phone calls to get the proper
reassurance to not lose my mind inmy driveway now, but it got to
go through it once. It wassuper sweet. Now, now on your
end, Kyle, so Northern firebbqdot com. Find out about you know,

(59:20):
whether it's the brisket class coming upon the weekend, or or any
of the classes coming up, uh, the competition class. So that's that's
let's say, you know me,I get a I get a uh an
idea that I want to compete.I go to this class and you're gonna
run through a program. Now areyou running through a barrel program or you're
running through I run through my barrelprogram. Okay, uh everything can be

(59:44):
adapted, all the recipes can beadapted. But sure, I mean,
it's it's gonna take work. Imean, this is my barrel program.
This is how we run it.Yeah, I told them exactly how I
start, you know, my programfrom beginning to end. This is a
guideline of timelines. You know,everything is five to minutes, give or
take sure, so on and soforth. But yeah, it's it's it's

(01:00:04):
all hot and fast. I mean, it's nice to sleep till five in
the morning, get up, lightthe grill and instead of being up at
midnight. Oh I hear that.I'm just saying. So that's hot and
fast. That's the barrel sales pitchright there. I got a good night's
sleep. There's nothing better. There'snothing better, I tell you that.
Standing up until we would I wouldstart the smoker at midnight, put the

(01:00:25):
meat on at one. I'd beup all night long, every forty five
minutes, throwing a log in.By Saturday night afterwards, i'd make it
about an hour and a half twohours home and it's like I got a
step. I can't drive anymore.I was just exhausted. And it kind
of sucks all the fun out ofit. It really does, know it
would. So it's kind of niceto be able to stay up and party

(01:00:46):
all night long and get a decentnight Watch your step. What I'm saying,
I'm just watching Kyle do his thing, and you know, watch a
little bit closer are you are.Are you intending to do more of these

(01:01:06):
classes in the future? Is thatI don't know. I guess this is
an on podcast production meeting here,But are you intending to maybe do any
of those classes future? And happy? Another one for Aaron, because that's
being happy. That's the That's thewhole thing is as an outsider looking in
and as I talk to guys likelike you and and even Andy, getting
to know more about your expertise,even if you don't don't compete. The

(01:01:30):
the daunting nature of you know,four different meats and it's all coming together
at the same time. I've cookedribs, and I've cooked ribs and chicken
and such at the same time.I'm not necessarily worried about that. But
from a competing ultimately a judging standpoint, uh, you know, nailing that
mark, nailing the tempts and andin a timely way like that's I mean,

(01:01:51):
that's stress central without without being closeto it in the past. It's
not as bad as you think itis. Once you you got to practice,
You got to know your program.You gotta be comfortable with your program,
so you know your times. Onceyou get that down, when you're
not looking at a piece of paperall the time, concentrate on done this.
You just let everything flow, okay, and it actually gets rather relaxing.

(01:02:14):
It's not bad at all. Ispent a lot of time sipping coffee,
sitting in my chair in the morning, just sitting there watching the smoke
gers, just chilling. The bigdeal. Okay, you just gotta know
your program. That's the most importantthing is he's talking about. But you
must have coffee. You got yougot slipping in your coffee. Yeah about

(01:02:35):
that. I'd never said there wasn'tbourbon in the coffee, but coffee involved.
Okay, thank you, Andy,and and Andy in the future,
I guess we can shake hands.It's weird. It's it's it happened.
So if if we were on theradio and a group conversation and I wanted
to say something like I would dolike this, hold my hand up like

(01:02:59):
this, or if we're going tobreak, I would do this radio professionals,
Yeah, so there's there's hand signals. I'd be like, what do
you want? Yeah, Like I'mthe guy on the tarmac at the airport.
Uh, you know, feels sometimeslike I get run over by the
plane. But that's fine. Uh, Thank you guys for hanging out.
Not only you Andy, congratulations onthe People's choice abstract art. Thank you.

(01:03:22):
I mean, you know, atone point in time people were I
mean just picture like the Sistine Chapel. So just picture that for a moment
and then look at this. That'sjust just think and argutiful. In a
thousand years, it's going to bethe Sistine Chapel. That's right, and
it'll say it on the bottom withtwo t Thank you, Kyle the hottest,

(01:03:46):
the hottest daddy I've seen in heretoday, Hot Daddy Barbecue. Appreciate
you guys hanging out with me anddoing this podcast. This is super sweet.
Absolutely thank you. Thanks to Troyand Janet pittyqu the Hot Daddy himself,
Kyle the Terrific teacher and cook Andy. That's Hops and Hoggs, Local
Beer, Local Barbecue one podcast.Follow us on x at Hops Hogs BBQ.

(01:04:11):
Subscribe to the podcast with the freeiHeartRadio app or wherever you get those
things, and most importantly, keepcooking