By Mark Kenney, Pitmaster of Sauce This! BBQ

The 2nd Annual “The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown” kicked off the MABA contest season for 2018 on March 2nd and 3rd! A nor’easter decided to greet it on Friday to make load in a bit of a challenge from time to time. Winds gusted well above 60 mph at some points but BBQ Competitors are a hard crowd to scare off. Thankfully the winds died down good bit over Friday night and the weather remained warmer than last year.

The Steadman-KeenanAmericanLegionPost96  hosted the cooks meeting, a breakfast, some dinner activities as well as opened its doors so the judges would have a warm and comfortable place to do what they do!

The contest is located in downtown Brunswick next to the local train station. The Brunswick Heritage Museum was recently renovated and makes for an interesting side jaunt to see railway history as well as a large interactive model train layout.

The awards were hosted in one of the towns local parks and featured custom made trophies from one of the local supporters of the contest. Out of the 29 teams: Uncle Pig’s Barberque Pit scored a first place chicken, Old Virginia Smoke a 1st place Ribs, Poke N Smoke 1st place Pork and Smoke-aholics finished off the individual meats with a 1st place brisket. The final tally ended with Uncle Pig’s Barbecue Pit taking the RGC and Old Virginia Smoke taking the Grand Championship the second year in the row at this contest with a dominant score! This also earned them the first MABA region Jack draw of the year!

A special thanks to all those involved in pulling off a contest with less than perfect weather. It’s part of what the BBQ cooks expect but we appreciate the hard work and dedication of all those involved in powering through during it. All in all, it was a great kick off to the 2018 MABA season and we can’t wait for next years Brunswick Throwdown!