Ready to Give GBA a try?
- Thread starter olewarthog
- Start date
SteevieG
Knows what a fatty is.
Looks good. They've expanded quite a bit.
Lake Dogs
Quintessential Chatty Farker
We're still thinking of making the jump (back) from judge to comp cook. Probably would've last year, but more surgery for the wife threw a wrench into that. Then had planned on getting our Masters before it, but that changed when we got 8... <sigh>
Wont get that gold badge for a few years now, might was well get going.
We may do it, in Jackson... I'll have to see. Highly likely for us will be Tennille and Gordon.
With Gary and Dionne doing so well recently (no surprise for some of us), have we seen much revitalized interest in GBA?
Wont get that gold badge for a few years now, might was well get going.
We may do it, in Jackson... I'll have to see. Highly likely for us will be Tennille and Gordon.
With Gary and Dionne doing so well recently (no surprise for some of us), have we seen much revitalized interest in GBA?
Big Mike
is one Smokin' Farker
How does it work if you make finals. Do you have to have all new meat cooked or do you just try and hold some of what you already cooked. I'm assuming you just cook the extra meat to be ready at finals time.
Also, I went to the GBA website. It looks like the only thing in the box is meat; no garnish allowed. Is that right? And you actually compare each entry to each other, not on its own??
Also, I went to the GBA website. It looks like the only thing in the box is meat; no garnish allowed. Is that right? And you actually compare each entry to each other, not on its own??
olewarthog
Full Fledged Farker
Big Mike,
GBA does not allow garnish in the boxes. GBA using a comparative scoring system. Each table will have 4-6 boxes and a panel of 5 judges. Each box on a table is scored compared to the other boxes on that table between 7 & 10. Each judge scores for appearance, tenderness & taste. Each judge must award at least one 10 in each of the three criteria. Multiple 10's can be awarded in these criteria. After judging all boxes for all three criteria, the judge then scores for overall impression The judge gives a unique score to each box between 10.0 & 9.1. Each criteria has a weighted factor with taste given the highest factor. A perfect score for a GBA box is 600.
If you finish in the top 3 in any of the 3 categories, you advance to the finals. At this point you are guaranteed no worse than 3rd place in that category. Your preliminary score is dropped & you prepare a new turn in box. The 9 final entries (3 loin, 3 pork, 3 ribs) are judged by a separate panel of 5 judges. None of these 5 judged in the preliminary round. The highest scoring box among the 9 entries wins the Grand Champion. The Reserve Grand Champion is the team with the highest cumulative score of the three categories in the preliminary round. If the Grand Champion also has the highest cumulative score, the Reserve is passed down to the second highest cumulative score.
Be glad to answer any other questions you may have about GBA.
GBA does not allow garnish in the boxes. GBA using a comparative scoring system. Each table will have 4-6 boxes and a panel of 5 judges. Each box on a table is scored compared to the other boxes on that table between 7 & 10. Each judge scores for appearance, tenderness & taste. Each judge must award at least one 10 in each of the three criteria. Multiple 10's can be awarded in these criteria. After judging all boxes for all three criteria, the judge then scores for overall impression The judge gives a unique score to each box between 10.0 & 9.1. Each criteria has a weighted factor with taste given the highest factor. A perfect score for a GBA box is 600.
If you finish in the top 3 in any of the 3 categories, you advance to the finals. At this point you are guaranteed no worse than 3rd place in that category. Your preliminary score is dropped & you prepare a new turn in box. The 9 final entries (3 loin, 3 pork, 3 ribs) are judged by a separate panel of 5 judges. None of these 5 judged in the preliminary round. The highest scoring box among the 9 entries wins the Grand Champion. The Reserve Grand Champion is the team with the highest cumulative score of the three categories in the preliminary round. If the Grand Champion also has the highest cumulative score, the Reserve is passed down to the second highest cumulative score.
Be glad to answer any other questions you may have about GBA.
Big Mike
is one Smokin' Farker
Thanks for the information. I like the fact that there is no garnish. I also like the pork loin aspect. The Hog Jam looks to be about 8 hours away. It would be interesting to do something different from KCBS style competitions and to also see how much, if any, the flavor profiles vary between Georgia and Ohio.
que_dawg
Knows what a fatty is.
Superior Smokers and Right on Que will be cooking a few GBAs this year. We are looking forward to getting to know some of the GBA teams.
abangs
is one Smokin' Farker
altomari8868
Knows what a fatty is.
Our team Hoggin the sauce BBQ will be taking the Judging class being offered on January 19th. For $50 you get to take the class and it gives you a years membership in the GBA. We figured we would do this first then enter a competition and give it a try..
que_dawg
Knows what a fatty is.
We are definitely doing Brenau. I am also looking specifically at Perry, too. Hopefully a couple of more will follow.
olewarthog
Full Fledged Farker
Looking forward to meeting you guys. I be contest rep in Perry & doing the scoring in Gainesville. I also am the organizer for the Hazlehurst BBQ Fest in May. I think y'all will like the GBA. Lots of friendly folks and pretty darn good cooks as well.
DawgPhan
is Blowin Smoke!
Be prepared to cook a lot of meat and have almost all of it on at the same time at one point.
4-6 butts
3-8 racks of ribs
2 pork loins
You cook a lot of food and use a lot more of everything else to cook these contests. I also would not want to cook one solo. I do think that GBA is a good bit more work than KCBS.
They are generally very well run contests and everyone is very friendly.
4-6 butts
3-8 racks of ribs
2 pork loins
You cook a lot of food and use a lot more of everything else to cook these contests. I also would not want to cook one solo. I do think that GBA is a good bit more work than KCBS.
They are generally very well run contests and everyone is very friendly.
Lake Dogs
Quintessential Chatty Farker
^^^ Yep. Like in MBN, keep in mind that with any luck you'll make finals. It's up to you as to what you present for finals, and luckily unlike MBN finals in GBA are blind. Meaning, in MBN you'll present new/fresh racks of ribs, or whole pork shoulders, etc. Blind, if you want to "rob" your existing BBQ, that's up to you. I personally wouldn't, but that's me.
To me, that's part of the fun of it. Also it takes the tie-breaker B.S. out of the mix, for at least the top 3 teams in each category. There's more to winning than just winning your table; it's about the best BBQ out there on this day.
To me, that's part of the fun of it. Also it takes the tie-breaker B.S. out of the mix, for at least the top 3 teams in each category. There's more to winning than just winning your table; it's about the best BBQ out there on this day.
Lake Dogs
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Flavor profile? As a judge who was right at becoming a Master Judge, then they moved the mark, so I'm now at the old mark but not a MJ... there is no one "flavor profile" that wins. Certainly over the last 10 or so years BBQ in this region has gotten sweeter, but savory wins as often as sweet. I'd say ribs tend to be slightly sweeter than say pulled pork, but we've seen the sweetening of loins do ok too. More than anything, the balance seems to perform best, and those that hit the tenderness mark perfectly (can be very tough to do in loin) tend to make finals most.
cpw
Babbling Farker
So do you stagger your cook times to accommodate the 2 turn in times (hedging your bet that you'll make finals)?
DawgPhan
is Blowin Smoke!
Lake Dogs
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Yep. This is much easier to do in GBA than MBN, because in MBN you're usually using your smoker for on-site presentations... Thankfully GBA has no such animal. Pulled pork you could probably get away with keeping the whole butt/picnic/shoulder/ham wrapped and/or in a cambro, but ribs doesn't keep nearly as well nor does the tenderness on loins keep in a warmer (IMHO). If you can get this working, PLEASE tell me your secret!
olewarthog
Full Fledged Farker
One tip for y'all looking at trying GBA. Plan on filling up those boxes. GBA judges like to see a full box.
Big Mike
is one Smokin' Farker
I currently cook KCBS comps solo.
Not having done a GBA comp, is there a particular reason you wouldn't want to do one solo. It looks like you have an hour between turn-in times so I would think you would be ok.
Big Mike
is one Smokin' Farker
Thanks for the info. I am originally from Alabama and my main sauce is a tomato/vinegar sauce that has a good bite to it. However, I tried that for pork in my first couple of comps up here and it bombed miserably. When I switched to sweet, my scores immediately went up.
