Veteran's BBQ Milwaukee 2019 - Over 1200 Vets Fed!

The BBQ at the VA went extremely well, thanks in a large part to the generosity of the brethren. We were able to feed over 1200 vets and their families! After last year when we sold out in an hour and a half, we were determined to not turn anyone away this year. We came loaded with meat this year -

700 lbs chicken
400 lbs tri tip
500 lbs pork butts
310 lbs pork loins
260 lbs ribs
250 lbs burgers
650 hot dogs
180 brats

10 pans mac and cheese
10 pans beans
10 pans coleslaw
24 pans cornbread

Needless to say, we had some leftovers. We got lucky that there was a guy that worked for the VA and also worked for a nearby homeless center. We loaded him up with as much food as he could carry, and were also able to send some with nurses to some of the wards at the VA that had vets too ill to make the trip.

The cook started out with me picking up all that meat


Got setup and our wood donation arrived. Any Milwaukee Area Brethren in need of splits, check out WoodMark. Great wood, and he is a huge supporter of our cause. And a great guy. This is all cherry.


Rubbing butts - 10 pm


Thawing ribs - 11:30pm. They were rock solid. This isn't even half of them.


Butts ran all night. here they are at 6am -


ribs getting rubbed




Ribs on. Todd drove his massive 30x90 all the way from Long Island. It holds 100 racks!


Chicken on Rick's elevated 24x70


12-14 smokers came I think? mostly shirley fabs, and a beautiful cabinet from Ironside Smokers. Brethren W.I.T.W.A.G. builds them. Really nice rigs.






Todd posing


Volunteers saucing and slicing ribs -


Tri Tip prep and rub -


Bean Prep


Reverse seared loins and Tri tips




Qsalt Chicken -


We had a lot of great volunteers






Some pics of the event -














Extra special thanks to Shirley Fabrication, Oakridge (Ribs), Simply Marvelous(butts), and QSalt (chicken and loins) for their generous Rub donations. Thanks to Big Poppa Smokers and Polar Bear kitchen for the BBQ Sauces. Everyone absolutely RAVED about the food. Thanks to all the brethren that donated. This event would not have been possible otherwise.

Big George's BBQ said:

WOW That is so awesome The faces say it all That is something I would love to experience someday

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George, we would be honored to have you, but that's probably a bit of hike for you. You should connect with Ryan Hoff (smokerpa) if you're serious. He lives in Allentown area. He could help you get hooked up with poobah and the gang for their Long Island VA event in August. That is the big event, and so much fun.

If you do want to hop on a plane, we're pretty close to the Milwaukee Airport. I'll be sure to post when we've settled on next year's date.

Peteg said:

This was an awesome event from start to finish. All of the vets that I talked to truly enjoyed the experience. Thanks so much to shagdog and OIFMarine for doing all of work to raise money and make this happen. Great to meet you guys as well. Looking forward to the next one!
Pete

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You guys worked your asses off, Pete! We really appreciated having you and that kick ass smoker. Welcome to the family, see you at the next one!