benarnot

Chad Griffin is without a doubt the quintessential Aussie. He loves his family. Loves BBQ. Loves a cold beer. And he loves helping his mates. In fact, he's got a reputation for helping out his mates in the BBQ industry, be it in BBQ catering or competition BBQ. I've personally seen this guy helping out his mates as far north as Brisbane and as far south as Melbourne. And every time I've seen him, he's happy as, with a big smile on his face and loving BBQ life. 

Now, as well as helping his friends get their BBQ businesses off the ground, Chad has also built himself a career in Content Marketing, specifically video marketing and vlogging. Formerly, he was employed in content management for a major national outdoors brand, responsible for their YouTube cooking channel and is personally responsible for introducing thousands upon thousands of people to low n slow BBQ. He's also held similar digital marketing roles in both big business and small business, but now he's striking out on his own with his newest venture 'Wingy's Wicked Q'. It's a YouTube cooking channel which will be producing cooking videos all about BBQ, teaching people how to make delicious smoked meat such as pulled pork, brisket and ribs, all done over charcoal. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Chad and I get into:

• His experiences and thoughts on pellet grills, specifically the Weber SmokeFire pellet grill (7:20)
• His most recent purchase - a PK Grills PKTX (10:06)
• How TV's 'BBQ Pitmasters' influenced him (15:20)
• His experiences working in content marketing for 4WD Supacentre (16:53)
• His newest role in managing a BBQ retail business (26:11)
• What it's like working in a Weber store (30:50)
• His new YouTube cooking channel 'Wingy's Wicked Q' (33:24)
• Tips and Hints that he learned from his time in BBQ Catering (39:14)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au   

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Send Ben an email at ben@smokinghotconfessions.com and let’s get that conversation started!

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', including some smoked meat recipes, head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com  

Check out our award winning eBooks, 'The Bacon Manifesto' and '27 Lessons Learned from Competition BBQ' on our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ebooks/

It's that time! Our BBQ Podcast, the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast has hit 150 Episodes! We've travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres, been to over 100 BBQ festivals and competitions and interviewed over 300 people in every single aspect of the barbecue industry. Oh, and we might have eaten an unknown number of kilos of smoked brisket, and pulled pork, and perhaps a beer or two along the way!

For this very special episode, we decided to do something a little different - we brought in our great friend Michael from Very Media to interview both Bree and I about what we've been up in the last 12 months since our 100th Episode Special, and what we're working on next. It's a great look behind the curtain of our barbeque business, from our podcast, to our content creation and also the work we do for event promoters around the world. 

In this Ep of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• How Ben discovered low'n'slow BBQ & how and why Smoking Hot Confessions came about (5:05)
• Bree's version of events! (7:17)
• What it was like competing at the World's Barbecue Championships in Houston, Texas (13:45)
• What happened to Smoking Hot Confessions in the events of 2020 (23:05)
• Virtual BBQ Competitions (29:24)
• Our participation and success with the National Barbecue & Grilling Association (32:13)
• How we evolve and keep things fresh (35:02)
• The role of family in the business (37:36)
• The importance of failing forward (42:29)
• What we've got lined up for the future, including Barbe Con (48:55)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au   

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Send Ben an email at ben@smokinghotconfessions.com and let’s get that conversation started!

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', including some smoked meat recipes, head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com  

Check out our award winning eBooks, 'The Bacon Manifesto' and '27 Lessons Learned from Competition BBQ' on our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ebooks/ 

#bbqpodcast #smokinghotconfessions #smallbusiness

Brendan Reisima from The Smoking Meathouse is the current #1 BBQ Pitmaster in New Zealand, having won Team of the Year in the NZ Barbecue Alliance. In quite a short amount of time he has gone from just starting out in competition BBQ to becoming one of the best BBQ Pitmasters in the country, having represented NZ in Texas and Australia. 

Whereas many pitmasters are all about low'n'slow BBQ, Brendan prefers Hot'n'Fast Smoking, and well, the results speak for themselves. In fact, his hot and fast brisket, (a wagyu brisket), is one of the best received BBQ competition hand-ins in the country. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• What's the deal with smash burgers? (5:23)
• Working with the new MultiQ from Octopit (10:26)
• His journey to the top of competition BBQ scene in New Zealand (22:25)
• How he keeps his team organised at competitions (32:06)
• Tips and Tricks for Hot'n'Fast Smoking (39:37)
• LIVE Viewer Q&A (47:31)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au   

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email at ben@smokinghotconfessions.com and let’s get that conversation started!

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', including some smoked meat recipes, head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com  

Check out our award winning eBooks, 'The Bacon Manifesto' and '27 Lessons Learned from Competition BBQ' on our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ebooks/ 

BBQ Catering is a very tempting prospect to many of us in the barbecue world. The idea of being able to leave your job and spend your time making fat stacks of brisket cash in your very own food truck is a sweet, sweet fantasy. But, is it really all it's cracked up to be? 

My guest in this Ep is Andrew Donn-Patterson (ADP to his friends) from Black Iron Smokers and BBQ, one of Australia's best BBQ Pitmasters. His smoked meat and his incredibly sexy offset BBQ trailer smoker have become a staple of the BBQ Festival scene all up and down the East Coast of the country, as far south as Tasmania and as far north as Brisbane. His brisket, short ribs, pulled pork and all the trimmings are the stuff that BBQ dreams are made of. And in our chat today he takes us into the world of BBQ vending and catering and tells the truth about how things really are on that side of the smoker. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• Why Andrew doesn't actually eat barbecue (6:12)
• Why Andrew collects Silver Creek Smokers trailers and offset smokers (13:34)
• How Black Iron Smokers and BBQ become a BBQ business (21:09)
• The TRUTH behind running a BBQ Catering and Food Business (23:08)
• Andrew's move into building offset BBQ smokers himself (35:13)
• Tips and tricks for how to smoke a brisket on on offset smoker (42:16)

Barbe Con is coming soon! The world's first virtual BBQ conference will be brought to you by Smoking Hot Confessions. Stay tuned for more details!

New to the world of BBQ? Get your free copy of our eBook, 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ' - it's everything you need to know to get you started on the right track to delicious, smoked meat. 

https://smokinghotconfessions.com

Paul Reitmier of Silver Creek Smokers is about as close to Aussie BBQ Royalty as it gets. He built his first standard flow smoker, an offset smoker of course, in 2005, almost a full decade before the Australasian Barbecue Alliance was created, and we have the scene we have today. Inspired by traditional Texas style offset smokers, his style of bbq smoker trailer is considered by many BBQ pitmasters on the competition BBQ circuit to be the best offset smoker for the money. In particular, his BBQ trailer and food trailer designs are extremely highly regarded. And the best part? They're all Australian made!

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Paul and I get into all things BBQ, including:

• Paul's first offset smoker build (8:31)
• What the Australian BBQ scene looked like before the ABA (10:10)
• The founding of Silver Creek Smokers (16:52)
• How the trends in the Australian manufacturing of smokers has changed over time (20:06)
• Some of the iconic smoker trailer and competition bbq trailers he's built (29:02)
• Tips and Hints for wanting to know how to build an offset smoker (36:27) including:
• • The Stack Effect and the importance of Draw (37:53)
  • The differences between having a pipe smoker and a rolled smoker (41:22)

Don't forget that Barbe Con is coming! June 26 & 27. Keep on the Smoking Hot Confessions socials for more details coming out soon!

New to BBQ? Make sure you head on over to our website and pick your free copy of our eBook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ'. 

https://smokinghotconfessions.com

How to Create a Low n Slow BBQ Masterclass is a common question that many BBQers are asking themselves these days. It's one of the ways that a competition BBQ team can raise funds to help them get to big events such as the Jack Daniels' World Championship and the American Royal World Series of Barbecue at the Kansas Speedway. Fortunately for us, Big Willy from Badass BBQ has pioneered the way and is sharing his experiences with us. 

Badass BBQ are a staple of the Aussie BBQ scene. Not only are they low and slow Australian BBQ Pitmasters who have conquered the competition BBQ scene, but they have also harnessed their BBQing skills to create a business that has a line up including BBQ rubs, a beef injection, a pork injection and a lamb injection. In fact, their Voodoo Beef Dry Rub is a firm favourite in our household. The lads are equally well known for their ridiculously run Low n Slow BBQ Masterclasses which they have delivered all around the country. And that's what we spend most of our time discussing here. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Big Willy and I get into:

• Making the move onto a Traeger grill and why he thinks they are the best pellet grills (5:47)
• Their first BBQ competition at Meatstock Melbourne, cooking on ProQ bullet smokers and a Silver Creek Offset Smoker (9:06)
• Opening up their spice rub and meat injection business (20:17)
• What a meat injection is and why it's important (27:30)
• How to Create a Low n Slow BBQ Masterclass (29:26)
• Tackling the Texas barbecue flavour profile while competing at the American Royal (47:53)

Keep the weekend of the 26th and 27th of June free for Barbe-Con, where you'll get more from your BBQ. It will be the world's first virtual BBQ Conference. We'll be showcasing leaders of the BBQ industry with the Saturday being dedicated to smoking BBQ food including brisket and pulled pork. Sunday will be all about BBQ businesses. More details coming soon. 

New to barbeque? Get yourself a free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' on our website:

https://www.smokinghotconfessions.com

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we're chatting with Dave Kenyon from Black Glove BBQ and Matt Redman from Primal Iron BBQ, the Reserve Grand Champion and Grand Champion winners of the Kondari BBQ Festival respectively. 

We're really lucky in this episode to have these incredible pitmasters with us. Between them, they took at prizes in smoked brisket, bbq ribs, barbeque chicken, and more. Not only do they compete in Australasian Barbecue Alliance competition, but they have also competed in more than one Steak Cookoff Association bbq competition. Together, they share enough great info in this episode to make sure you come away from it knowing how to bbq right. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• What Dave had to go through just to get to the competition (4:25)
• How Dave puts together his pork rib box (9:17)
• Some tips and tricks for smoking and presenting beef brisket (13:46)

• How Matt found operating out of a hotel room at a bbq competition (25:51)
• Primal Iron BBQ's barbecue chicken hand-in (29:08)
• Tips and tricks for ensuring consistency in their BBQ smoked meats (35:11)

Barbe-Con is coming! The world's first online BBQ conference is coming June 26th and 27th. We're bring the best pitmasters right into your living room to help you get more from your BBQ. Join us in the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Community on Facebook to stay up to date. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/smokinghotconfessionsbbqcommunity

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ 

Time, Temp & Feel are the three tenets of real low'n'slow barbecue. If you can master these three things, there's no stopping you. Booma, from Booma's BBQ has mastered these three things and his results speak for themselves. Booma has been team captain of the hugely successful Full Metal Kettle competition BBQ team. He's created a few hybrid teams for special events which have also been successful. He's created a wildly popular video series with famous BBQ filmmaker Jay Beaumont of Meatstock fame. And now he's working on a digital magazine in a partnership with Heat Beads. 

With all this experience, as you'd expect, there's nothing he can't cook. Burgers are a favourite at the moment, with beef, cheese and bacon jam. Smoked brisket is a breeze for him, as well as pork collar butts for pulled pork, pork ribs, and he also loves to do some barbeque lamb too. His videos of steaks are amazing and he's had great success in Steak Cookoff Association Competitions, cooking the perfect steak - his tomahawk steaks are just incredible. 

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• Bacon Jam Smoked Cheeseburgers (4:09)
• How his mother influenced his BBQ journey (06:36)
• The Full Metal Mettle competition BBQ team story (9:40)
• How to build the ultimate burger for Instagram (20:41)
• Making videos with Jay Beaumont from Meatstock (26:03)
• His digital magazine 'Fire It Up' with Heat Beads® (32:12)
• A run through of how he does his competition BBQ chicken thighs (36:21
• Tips & Techniques for mastering Time, Temp & Feel (38:42)

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Heat Beads®. Heat Beads® have been a part of the BBQ family in Australia for over 50 years, fuelling fires and have a wide range of BBQ charcoal, briquettes, and other products. Learn more at: 

https://heatbeads.com.au/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ 

The Steak Cookoff Association is taking the world by storm, and right at the storm front are Shane & Chloe from Forrest Lump BBQ. They have absolutely dominated the steak category, winning a Golden Ticket to compete at the SCA World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. However, their true talent clearly shows in the ancillary categories. In fact, they won the points chase for Australia for 2020 in the Ancillary category.

The Steak Cookoff Association competition is made up of two parts - the steak category, and then the ancillary categories. The ancillary categories are at the discretion of the event promoter and range from mild to wild. Such as? Well, it could be everything from Hotdogs and Bloody Mary's, or chicken wings to deep fried desserts. It's this no-holds barred barbecue arena in which Forrest Lump BBQ truly shines. I've spent a lot of time photographing SCA judge's tents, and the hand-ins from Forrest Lump BBQ are no doubt the most creative, inventive and artistic Steak Cookoff Association hand-ins I've ever seen. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• How Forrest Lump BBQ came to be
• Their experiences in Low'n'Slow BBQ competitions such as KCBS and ABA
• How they like to do their Golden Ticket winning reverse seared steaks
• The work that goes into their incredible SCA Ancillary hand-ins
• Tips and Tricks for Steak Cookoff Association beginners

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Heat Beads®. Heat Beads® have been a part of the BBQ family in Australia for over 50 years, fuelling fires and have a wide range of BBQ charcoal, briquettes, and other products. Learn more at: 

https://heatbeads.com.au/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

If you had a catastrophic, life-changing accident involving a BBQ, I'd wager that you'd never want to go near a barbecue ever again. But not Cam. 

Cam House, from Cam's Q suffered a huge accident in 2019 when a fully loaded Weber Kettle grill fell on him, resulting in 3rd degree burns to his arm and hand. The resulting surgeries, skin grafts and complications have taken their toll on his and his partner's lives and finances, but Cam is not to be deterred. 

His love of low and slow BBQ food, smoked brisket, pulled pork, BBQ chicken and BBQ ribs as well as all things wood and charcoal just couldn't be denied. Despite his horrific burns, he's now rebuilding himself a brand new BBQ life, centred around barbeque and is forging a new path, creating an industry for himself that didn't exist before. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• Live on a cattle station outside of Townsville, QLD (6:07)
• His past life as a chef (10:27)
• The Accident (12:50)
• His new business 'Cams Q' (28:33)
• What is a freelance BBQ sales rep? (32:22)
• Becoming a BBQ TV star (39:57)
• How to properly represent yourself and your brand on social media (43:58)

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Heat Beads®. Heat Beads® have been a part of the BBQ family in Australia for over 50 years, fuelling fires and have a wide range of BBQ charcoal, briquettes, and other products. Learn more at: 

https://heatbeads.com.au/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

Support the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/smokinghotconfessions 

Gus Gallagher from Perth BBQ School is a man who has discovered his true passion and is now living his dream. Imagine this. You love BBQ. You love hanging out with your mates. How good would it be if your job could be hanging out with your mates and teaching them how to cook barbecue? And what if you could actually pull it off? 

This is exactly what Gus has done with Perth BBQ School. He teaches people how to use a Weber kettle, how to smoke a brisket, how to make pulled pork and so much more. This is in addition to operating a BBQ Food Truck, and catering events. If it can be cooked with fire, Gus is all over it, and teaching his students how to do it too!

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

1. Gus' giant offset smoker trailer (6:47)
2. The challenges and victories and opening Perth BBQ School (9:12)
3. How Perth BBQ School had to adapt in the face of COVID-19 (20:35)
4. What is a 'Brisket Lab'? (29:24)
5. How to smoke and glaze a ham at home (35:53)
6. Busting Beginner BBQ Myths (40:21)

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Heat Beads®. Heat Beads® have been a part of the BBQ family in Australia for over 50 years, fuelling fires and have a wide range of BBQ charcoal, briquettes, and other products. Learn more at: 

https://heatbeads.com.au/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

Brett Connell, Bretto to his mates, is captain of one of Australia's oldest competition barbecue teams, Flamin' Mongrels BBQ. They've competed as far south as Melbourne and north as Rockhampton and have amassed a wide range of trophies for smoked brisket, beef ribs, bbq chicken, and even Brahman Hump!

But that's not all - they also have a reputation for being the most friendly, enthusiastic and welcoming guys on the circuit. Oh, and throwing some of the wildest and best parties on the circuit! 

An entrepreneur through and through, Bretto has long been a friend of the show, and is one of these people that seems to pop up with sage words of wisdom whenever we've been needing some direction. They've recently changed direction themselves too, with COVID-19 forcing Bretto to make the move into BBQ catering to help him take care of his family. His love to Texas Barbecue shines through everything he does, and his catering ventures have been very successful.

This is Bretto's second appearance on the show. You can get Bretto's BBQ back story all the way back in Episode 10. In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

1. Grilling Seafood and why salmon on the BBQ is king - 5:45 
2. The best party he's ever been too at a barbeque competition - 7:50 
3. Making to move into catering - 17:55
4. Moving from a traditional offset smoker to Gateway Drum Smoker - 29:48 
5. Possible new business directions for Flamin' Mongrels BBQ - 37:07 
6. Tips and Tricks for starting a BBQ catering business - 44:17

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Heat Beads®. Heat Beads® have been a part of the BBQ family in Australia for over 50 years, fuelling fires and have a wide range of BBQ charcoal, briquettes, and other products. Learn more at: 

https://heatbeads.com.au/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

There are many who believe that there is an overreliance on gadgets and technology in BBQ. One of the Pitmasters pushing for a return to traditional ways of preparing barbecue is David Ong, from Pitmaster University. As well known as he is for his long Facebook posts, David has been a part of the Australian Barbeque scene since Day 1, and was even awarded the first ever Australasian Barbecue Alliance Personality of the Year Award. Since then, he’s started a YouTube channel that’s garnered millions of views (if you haven't seen his Crispy Pork Belly Recipe you haven't lived), and now heads up Pitmaster University, a BBQ school based in Perth, Western Australia, teaching traditional Texas BBQ to those who want to learn how to make barbeque at home. 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we get into:

• How Ongy nearly burnt his house down using a Weber Kettle (10:50)
• The likelihood that Ongy is a serial killer (13:11)
• How he got involved with KCBS in Australia (23:55)
• When and how Pitmaster University came about (30:16)
• How you can best use your five senses when cooking barbeque in your backyard (40:22)

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Meat N Fire Media Services. To save 50% off their 'Brand Building through Strategic Social Media Marketing' course, use the codeword 'Santa' at checkout!

https://meatnfiremediaservices.com/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

It's no secret that wood is essential to barbecue. Not only can it be used as a fuel to burn, but also as smoking wood on a charcoal fire. In fact, it's the smoke from the wood that gives barbeque it's unique flavour profile. Whether you're making BBQ ribs or a smoked brisket, wood is an important ingredient. But how important is it to get the right wood? And what is that right wood exactly? What's better - logs, chunks or wood chips? Those are the questions I seek to get answered in this conversation with Russ from Natural Smoke BBQ Woods, a family owned and operated business from Adelaide, South Australia.  

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Russ and I get into: 

• Why he loves his offset smoker and his brand new ugly drum smoker (UDS) (3:48)
• How his kids influence his cooks (8:08)
• How Russ got into BBQ (9:16)
• Why Russ is so interested in wood (22:39)
• Russ' grassroots, guerilla marketing techniques (30:55)
• Tips for matching and pairing woods and meats

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Meat N Fire Media Services. To save $100 off their 'Brand Building through Strategic Social Media Marketing' course, use the codeword 'Podcast' at checkout!

https://meatnfiremediaservices.com/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/

What's the deal with the Kamado Joe? Matt Harris from Shire Smokers Barbecue leads me down the rabbit hole of ceramic obsession and does his best to induct me into the Kamado Cult. With claims of being able do a smoked brisket in 5 hours, I have to admit - he's close to getting me over the line!

Shire Smokers Barbecue is one of the oldest teams on the competition BBQ circuit in Australia and have seen the scene change a lot over time. As a result Matt is well respected on the circuit, at one stage holding the record for highest BBQ chicken score. Matt spends a lot of time giving back to the BBQ community, running classes, founding the largest Kamado group on Facebook, and running charity side-competition with... ahem... devon, raising money for local schools and other great organisations.

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Matt and I get into:

• Matt's barbeque origin story (13:58)

• How Montreal Smoked Meats changed his life (16:03)

• His competition team, Shire Smokers Barbecue (22:14)

• The for-charity Devon competition he runs every year at the Kangaroo Valley Craft Beer & BBQ Festival (34:13)

• How to BBQ Right on a Kamado Joe (42:02)

This Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, Meat N Fire Media Services. To save $100 off their 'Brand Building through Strategic Social Media Marketing' course, use the codeword 'Podcast' at checkout!

https://meatnfiremediaservices.com/

New to the world of smoked meat? Grab your free copy of our ebook 'The Beginner's Guide to Real BBQ' at our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ 

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I first heard these words when I spoke with Paul Lange for the first time at Smokin’ on the Water in Perth, Western Australia when I spoke with him about Smokey Q - his barbeque rub and bbq sauce business. I was really impressed with his attitude to planning and execution. Not just hard work, but smart hard work. So it was a great pleasure to catch up with him two years later. Not only had he done all the things he told me he was going to do, he’s exceeded them and is really blazing the path for successful BBQ businesses in Australia. In short, he’s building a BBQ rub empire. And these successes haven’t gone unnoticed with Paul having secured a spot in the second season of Dipper’s Backyard BBQ Wars on TV’s 7Mate - if you haven’t seen it yet, you need to get onto it quicksmart! 

In this Episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, Paul and I get into:

• His fascination with the Weber Kettle (6:02)
• His secret way of importing BBQ rarities into Australia (7:12)
• Life on Dipper’s Backyard BBQ Wars (14:40)
• A deep dive into Smokey Q and how he’s grown the business so successfully (24:28)
• Tips and advice to help you successfully write your own business plan (45:41)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au   

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email at ben@smokinghotconfessions.com and let’s get that conversation started!

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', including some smoked meat recipes, head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com  

Check out our award winning eBooks, 'The Bacon Manifesto' and '27 Lessons Learned from Competition BBQ' on our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ebooks/ 

James Grubbs, known simply by surname as ‘Grubbs’ is known around the world as the ‘Backwoods Grill Billy’ (his words!). You know him as one of the pitmaster contestants on Netflix’s ‘The American Barbecue Showdown’. While he didn’t win, he was definitely one of the most interesting people to watch, and one of my personal favourites. His work on the BBQ was inspiring, fun, and looked delicious! This was easily the best Netflix show I've seen this year, and would have to get my vote for best Netflix Series 2020.

Given that Thanksgiving is just around the corner in the US, we spend a lot of time talking turkey, turkey brine, and we even get into hunting and processing deer and bear. Yes, bear!

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, James and I get into:

• Grubbs' background in BBQ - 2: 55
• Georgian style BBQ - 7:10
• Game meats including bear - 16:25
• His experience on Netflix - 23:59
• Lesson on brining poultry - 50:58

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Wood Fired. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check them out at:

http://www.jagrdoutdoorovens.com/ 

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email on ben@smokinghotconfessions.com  and let’s get that conversation started!

How to cook the perfect steak is a question that has haunted one of Australia's leading BBQ Pitmasters, Dane Cowan, and has done for almost as long as he can remember. Starting out in Australasian Barbecue Alliance competition BBQ, it wasn't long before Dane discovered the Steak Cookoff Association and was hooked. He soon dedicated his life to mastering the ribeye steak and has since represented Australia twice in the Steak Cookoff Association World Championships in Texas!

If you're familiar with competition BBQ in Australia, you'll know that the Australasian Barbecue Alliance is a low'n'slow competition, using wood-fired smokers. SCA competitions however, use charcoal grills, with two of the most common being the Weber Kettle and the PK Grills. In this episode we not only talk about which Dane thinks is the best charcoal grill, we also get into:

• How Dane got into barbecue (10:26)
• His transition into competition barbeque (11:40)
• Early successes and disasters in competition BBQ (16:42)
• Representing Australia in Texas (27:20)
• Tips and Tricks for How to Cook Steak (40:22)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next Barbeque, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au  

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email at and let’s get that conversation started!

ben@smokinghotconfessions.com 

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', including some smoked meat recipes, head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com 

Check out our award winning eBooks, 'The Bacon Manifesto' and '27 Lessons Learned from Competition BBQ' on our website:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com/ebooks/ 

Shannon Walker from Butcher Wars and Black Bear BBQ is our guest on the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast this week. A man who is often behind the scenes, Shannon steps out on to the centre stage here and let's us know what really goes on at so many of the BBQ icons we know and love. 

In this Episode we get into:

• His career as a butcher (4:15)
• Working at Black Bear BBQ (11:55)
• Butcher Wars (22:14)
• 'The Butcher's Cookbook' (34:15)
• Hunting, Cleaning, and Cooking Game (40:35)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next BBQ, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. Check out:

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au 

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email at ben@smokinghotconfessions.com and let’s get that conversation started!

To get your free copy of 'The Beginners Guide to Real BBQ', head to:

https://smokinghotconfessions.com

David Linton from Lick of Smoke BBQ joins me in The Confessional this week. You’ll remember David from Episode 78, recorded LIVE at the Fat Drip BBQ Competition last year. In that episode, David and I had a brief chat about how they’d managed to rise so quickly on the national competitive BBQ ladder, getting to 8th place in under a year. And then 2020 happened!

In this Ep we get into:

• David is over brisket! (4:57)
• How 2019 finished up for him and his team (13:41)
• What the BBQ scene looks like for him in 2020 / 2021 (17:43)
• Starting a BBQ rub business in lockdown (21:14)
• Competition Chicken Tips and Tricks (38:47)

This episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast is proudly brought to you by our Podcast Partner, JAGRD Woodfired Smoker Ovens. If you’re looking for your next BBQ, smoker or grill, be sure to check them out. They have a wide range of well-performing units available, and love doing custom work and commercial kit outs as well. 

https://jagrdwoodfired.com.au 

If you would like to become a Podcast Partner we’d love to hear from you. Shoot Ben an email and let’s get that conversation started!

ben@smokinghotconfessions.com