Brews & Barbeque Contest

Last weekend my sister and her husband came into town for the annual Brews & Barbeque competition. For the past 4 years Matt and his friends have entered into this competition and have a great time. There are 75 teams in the contest and the goal for Matt's team was to place in the top 50.
Friday morning Matt and Ryan left the house around 7:30 am to start setting up their tent and smokers. Meanwhile, Lindsey and I decided to sleep in, grab breakfast and relax a little bit before meeting the boys Uptown.

The weather was so wonderful. We had so much fun walking around the festival and snacking on plates of fries and BBQ from the street vendors.

{Boston Butts & Ribs}

 Laura and her hubs also hung out with us all weekend - so much fun!

The boys had to stay up all night to man the smokers. The next morning we came back to meet the boys for the competition day!

{the official BBQ team}

 {the 3 sauces they submitted to the judges}

 {the ribs}

 {the Matt's submitting the ribs to the judges}

 These ribs were hands down the best I've ever had. One of the guys made a chipotle blueberry sauce, Matt made the rub, and they smoked the ribs for a little over 4 hours. Everyone who came by the tent and sampled the ribs agreed they were award winning...

And apparently the judges thought so too because the boys made the top 3 finalists {out of 75 teams}! Later the judges came back by the tent to hear more about the ribs and taste them once more. The only problem? The ribs were so good that they were ALL gone! The boys didn't think for a second they would ever place so all they had for the judges were a few little scraps. Oops! Now they know for next year!

 All of the guys were so nervous once the finalist judges arrived that Matt was nominated to speak on behalf of the group. He explained the whole process and gave them once last sample.

Although it wasn't their best sample they had on hand, they somehow managed to secure 3rd place at the awards ceremony that night!

There was lots of celebrating and even a few tears shed. You better believe they will be using their recipe again next year {and making sure they have enough ribs leftover for the judging}! So proud of our boys!

After several meals of BBQ in a row and 36 hours of no sleep for the boys, we decided to have a low key night with pizza, our favorite snack {cream cheese & chives with pretzels} and football. It was a successful weekend!