Wapatui Smokers

07/22/2024

Nice writeup in the Dowagiac paper on Saturday's event.

DOWAGIAC — 26 pitmasters from across the country descended on downtown Dowagiac Saturday to compete for top honors in its second annual Dowagiac BBQ Competition. When the charcoal settled, Brian Calhoun of Grace Lake. Ill. took home Grand Champion honors as Weez’s Groovin’ BBQ after earning fo...

07/21/2024

Big day in Dowagiac, MI. Lots of great teams there today. We finished:

2nd in Chicken. Best place and highest score for us in Chicken.
13th in Ribs. Not so great today.
6th overall. Our best overall placing.

Definitely getting better. Looking forward to Smoke on the Midway next month. Let's see if we can hit Chicken and ribs on the same day!

07/15/2024

Great day at Elkhorn Ribfest. 1st place today in ribs (no chicken at RibFest, lol). It was one year ago today; Elkhorn was our first competition, didn't go so well. A big thanks to all the teams, friends and family helping us to get where we are today. Look forward to seeing you all in the future.

07/07/2024

Had a great time at Smoke and Fire in Stanley, WI. Thanks to Dean and his team for putting on this event. 8th Place rib call, 12th chicken (ugh, new recipe didn't work out so well). Getting there a little at a time.

06/05/2024

A nice write up in the paper for Smokin and Steele. We even got our picture taken.

https://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_peoples_press/

Few things go together as naturally as barbecue and blues.

06/02/2024

Smokin in Steele today. Great job Carol taking 1st place for Wapatui Smokers in the mystery meat ancillary, sweet Chicago sausage!!!!! Phyllo filled with compound cream cheese, sausage slice topped with onion bacon jam. Ribs and chicken not so hot this time, bummer. Bringi'n Home the Bacon next weekend.

05/19/2024

First place at Smoke In The Woods BBQ!! Our first call and it was a BIG one. Thanks to Steve and his group for putting on a great event.

04/25/2024

Our remaining 2024 schedule -

May 10-11 MN in May - St Peter, MN
May 18 Smoke In The Woods BBQ - Spooner, WI
May 31-June 1 Smokin in Steele - Owatonna, MN
June 7-9 Bring'n Home the Bacon - West Salem, WI
June 28-29 Art of the Que - Spencer, IA
July 5-6 Smoke and Fire - Stanley, WI
July 14 Elkhorn Ribfest - Elkhorn, WI
July 20 Dowagiac BBQ Competition - Dowagiac, MI
Aug 17 Smoke on the Midway - Fairbury, IL
Sept 6-7 Small Town Smoke Out - Antioch, IL
Sept 14 Smoke in the Valley - Spring Green, WI

Hope to see you all there!!

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04/16/2024

If you only want to cook the One Meat Rib challenge sign up using the above link. If you are cooking Masters or Backyard you can add One Meat Ribs in those registrations.

03/31/2024

Had a great time at the Iowa St BBQ Championship. 48 awesome teams out there this weekend. Had some rib issues but did ok for our 3rd KCBS event.

22nd Chicken
26th Ribs
22nd overall

See you all in MN in May.

03/20/2024

New Gateway arrived today. just in time for our trip to the American Royal Backyard competition this weekend!

11/25/2023

New smoker today. Can't wait to get cooking on it.

10/25/2023

So, it’s been two weeks now since we participated in Bringing Home the Bacon 2 Competition in West Salem, WI. It was three days of cooking ribs and chicken, which meant we could not camp at a local hotel, we decided to try camping, for the second time in 20 years. Both times it was cold and raining, at least this time our tent didn’t flood. We managed to get the canopy and the tent set up without much of a hassle, in spite of heavy gusts of wind, the struggle was real. We might even try camping again, but not in October.
There is nothing like being in a competition with “big dogs” to make you feel small and out of place. We marched on and did, what we thought was our best. Even though we didn’t do so great with placements we did have a great time and still overwhelmed at how kind and helpful everyone was. The tips and tricks we learned are outstanding.
Thank you to Lori and Keith for a great time, we are looking forward to the next event in June.
We are off to the next competition and utilize some of the wisdom we have gained.

09/19/2023

Next competition. Oct 13-15th.

09/17/2023

Officials 7-19-23. Smaller event but did extremely well. 1st place in ribs, brisket, pulled pork and Grand Champion.

09/16/2023

Smoke in the Valley, 9-9-23. 8th overall, not bad for our 3rd competition.

09/03/2023

Tri Tip Trial for Smoke in the Vallet Saturday. Yummmm.

08/31/2023

Today's Spotlight Team is...Wapatui Smokers💨

Wapatui Smokers are bbq-ing up some tri-tip on September 9