Barbecue Defined: A Labor of Love

It is almost impossible to put in words "Our Barbecue Story" and how we got here, but in short terms this is our story...  I came through a generation of many TV warriors watching the popular TV series BBQ Pitmasters.  BBQ Pitmasters must have triggered something and the summer of 2016, Erica & I traveled to Southern Georgia and took our first competition barbecue class from Robby Royal.  We learned the basics and thought we could just jump right into competition barbecue (KCBS) and in October 2016 we entered our first KCBS contest in Nelsonville, Ohio.  We packed our vehicles like we were feeding 500 people and made the short drive to Nelsonville.  Looking back now it is pretty funny but we showed up with two smokers that I thought I knew how to run, but I really didn't.  We froze our tails off staying up all night throwing logs and when it was all said and done we turned in some ugly barbecue that somehow placed us 31st place out of 37 teams and at that time all that mattered was we didn't finish last place.  That was our only contest in 2016 so we had all winter to practice and figure out this competition barbecue thing.  We started planning the 2017 season and Erica made it clear that if she was going to participate she wanted a small toy-hauler with amenities, and that we did (this new barbecue adventure was now getting a little expensive).  April 2017 came around and we tripped to Hagerstown, Maryland to our second ever KCBS contest and this was a big one to us (58 teams).  Once again, we had a blast and we did not finish last in any categories and even finished mid-pack in a category.  A couple months later we entered our third KCBS contest in Marietta, Ohio.  This contest was probably our turning point where at awards we got our very first "call" (top 10) which we took home a surprising 1st place Brisket!  It is hard to explain, but it is very hard to get a call at a KCBS contest (especially a new team), but to get 1st place in brisket was as about exciting accomplishment as you an get from an unexperienced team from West Virginia.  At this point, barbecue had majorly interrupted our regular lives and during this time for some reason we thought we needed a custom built 32 foot barbecue trailer and a new Ram truck to pull it.  We competed in four KCBS contests in 2017, purchased a custom trailer, brand new truck, along with a major addiction of purchasing competition barbecue sauces, seasonings, equipment, and smokers.  Realizing the hobby is now becoming very expensive we off-set some costs by selling barbecue to close family and friends and ultimately turning Convicted Pigs BBQ into Convicted Pigs BBQ LLC, a registered business in the State of West Virginia...  We continued to compete more and more at KCBS contests but we also noticed that each year more people, groups, and organizations requested our barbecue.  With more orders came larger orders; 10-20 people quickly became 40-50 people then 100, then 200, and the next thing we know 400+ people.  More orders required more equipment, larger smokers, and friends and family pitching in when needed.  All doing this while we both had demanding full-time careers and children.  The fun little hobby of barbecue now turned into a demanding part-time job out of know where.  Our family camping weekends quickly turned into barbecue and steak competitions all over the east coast and Texas and over the last few years our competition weekends have greatly reduced to catering gigs almost every weekend throughout the year.  Barbecue brings people together and looking back after we've fed well over tens of thousands of people it is hard to believe two people with no food experience has accomplished so much since 2016.  We've won awards and contests, qualified and participated in championships, but most importantly we've brought people together over our barbecue creating life long memories.  To be honest, I have not achieved what I wanted in competition barbecue.  More time was needed, but the writing was on the wall and our super talent was our craft barbecue and the request to feed the masses.