What Do You Do in the Off-Season?

Im working on my new smoker which should be finished soon. Then I will do alot of cooks to dial it in to how I cook. Ill work on new sauced and rubs. I cook for Chief games, Super Bowl etc. Im thinking about a web site so I can share my 3 sentences of BBQ knowledge. My wife and I are expecting are second in the begining of April so my season may start a little late this year. I hope I wont miss Osage but we'll see.

As next year will be our inagural year for competing, Char and I are going to focus on our sauces, rubs, and techniques. On top of that we will be practicing several times throughout the winter months. We also need to go over the several helpful checklists and ensure we have everything we need.
Then we will start looking over competions to see which ones we will do and more importantly which one we cut our teeth on. We had hoped to hook up with a mentor team this year work with them, but that did not happen. If it doesn't happen early next season our first comp will be nerve racking.
So after thinking this through we are going to be fairly busy.

First, after last weekend, we'll be doing a lot of crying. Once that's done, we're going to be taking a cooking class finally somewhere, probably Dr BBQ's if he's doing any within a reasonable distance.

We'll keep trying to better what we're doing, and I think my teammate and his wife are going to get their CBJs. My wife and I have discussed finding an early season event down south to judge as an excuse for a trip.

Other than that, we're working on getting our catering area up to speed to get licensed to do more than personal chef stuff, and we'll be supplying probably 2 burger joints with pulled pork on an at least monthly basis.

Equipment-wise, we've already begun paring things down to what we really need, but we want to add some things for hot weather like powerful fans and some sort of misting device. We're also going to make up a sink with counter and steel legs to use at comps, and we want to upgrade some of our equipment. We're going to work on the smoker to further tweak it by adding oven roping around the door and potentially insulation in the walls, and a stoker unit. I have a thermo from Jay, and I will likely buy 2 more and have them mounted at different levels on the door of the smoker.

And I'm going to relax and enjoy the fact that we actually did get walkups this year, and we had a LOT of fun!

I drive to Willie B's

Off-season? I'm sorry, I don't understand. Barbecue has no season, especially in Southern California.

There may be an off season for Comps but not for eating. So for me,
I will cook whenever I can and when I can't, I reheat the stuff in the freezer.

Re-building my margarita machine - faster, stronger, better. :twisted:

Well planning for next season is in full swing... And Mista is right.... it's just comp season that is over.... not BBQ season )

I'll also try some new recipes out, update our site, set out on a sponsor quest for next year, etc....

Did I mention drink lots of toasts and enjoy some holiday cheer?

Get one of those eveloution disposal that I've seen on TV where the throw a pineapple top and rib bones in it. If you have the disposal kind of margirita machines Wayne.

We will do periodic practice runs and try to fine tune a few areas that could be better. We will review all of the comp scores from last season and decide which contests that we want to attend. We will have the cooker doors sandblasted, repainted and doors adjusted and basic tooling up for next season.

I'm thinking about selling my Backwoods and trailer and buying a Horizon pit. And then of course practicing all winter on the new pit. I need a new toy!

Well....competition season may be over for us midwesterners....but I'll still be cooking, it fact, I'm having withdrawals now, been thinking of firing up the 'dera this weekend.

Ique wrote:

I'm thinking about selling my Backwoods and trailer and buying a Horizon pit. And then of course practicing all winter on the new pit. I need a new toy!

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Just step on up to a Geer pit, buddy.......you can handle cooking on it just fine!

Solidkick said:

Just step on up to a Geer pit, buddy.......you can handle cooking on it just fine!

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You have one for sale? I read a few places he wasnt building them anymore.

I stare out the window and wait for Spring...

No offseason here.

I'll be working on my website too. I finished up the basic design a few weeks back and I'm fine-tuning and adding stuff now.

I'm debating on buying a Guru and trying to figure out how it would change my cooking practices. My Dad up in Nebraska has also been talkin himself into and out of building a newer, better cooker (same design as my current one, with just a few modifications). He doesn't have a winter project yet, so maybe this could be it. If so - I'll be trying to figure that out before the first contest here in March.

Off Season,

Why don't you guys come on down to Texas and relax with us :biggrin: this is our busy season from September through June a cook off every weekend if you wanted too :lol: July and August are killers definitely need the big fans.

Hey Curt check out northern tool & supply on the web they have some good fans?

My off season may not start untill after the weekend of Nov 10th,,,,,not sure yet,,,,,,,