Red Beards BBQ

09/11/2026

Meat & Tater BBQ Fest is officially over, and we are EXHAUSTED… but man, do we have some things to celebrate! 🔥🥔🏆

What an epic weekend and a MONSTER field — 53 teams, including 5 World Champions, from 21 states, plus a team from the UK! More than half the field was ranked in the top 13% of all KCBS teams NATIONWIDE, with multiple teams ranked 1st, etc. 🔥

🔥 KCBS RESULTS 🔥

🥈 2nd Ribs — pretty good redemption from Friday! Lydia was thrilled as well.

🐷 13th Pork -- Tyson did some wizardry on the cutting board to get our pieces right, and they tasted delicious! Just need to tighten up some parts of it.

🐮 15th Brisket Snake River Farms — We really liked this one. Appearance scores got us a little down, but the judges enjoyed eating it.

🐔 44th Chicken — Don’t break the hinge on your chicken smoker. 😂 We made a solid Hail Mary play, but the judges said RETURN TO SENDER.

AUXILIARIES:

🍎 8th Dessert — Huge shoutout to my mother-in-law Terri Haines for putting together a delicious Apple Pie Cheesecake!

🥈 2nd Anything Potato — MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Hopefully we made Brandon proud. We took last year’s idea, elevated it, and turned out a Double-Smoked Surf & Turf Potato. Terri and my buddy teamed up to save the day because I really couldn’t help much with this one!

A HUGE thank-you to my team and family. There’s an “S” in Red Beards for a reason. This has never been a one-man team. Competition BBQ takes a crew, and mine jumps in wherever needed — prepping, cleaning, building boxes, running turn-ins, and somehow keeping up with the chaos I create. 😂 Every call we get belongs to all of us. I couldn’t do this without them, and I wouldn’t want to. ❤️🔥

Smokin’ Iron Fabrication drums fueled by B&B Charcoal and flavored by Heath Riles BBQ in all things is that winning combo we will keep bringing. 🔥

on the GC and on the RGC! 🏆 And congrats to all the Idaho teams and friends who earned walks — including Idaho taking 1st, 2nd AND 3rd / !

Thank you to Kelso & the army of volunteers who put countless hours into making Meat & Tater happen.

09/07/2026

🏆 LYDIA BEAT RED BEARDS🏆

The results are in from the Porky Butts One Rib Challenge, and Lydia’s Ribs officially has bragging rights over her dad! 😂🔥

Lydia finished 22nd out of 35 teams, and if you know Lydia, you know that in pretty much everything she does, all she wants to do is beat Dad…and everyone else. 😂 So saying she was pretty excited about beating Dad is an understatement.

Walking our ribs to turn-in together, each carrying our own box, and seeing the bounce in her step and how proud and excited she was is a moment I’ll never forget. ❤️

Lydia was excited to compete against some of her bbq hero’s especially Janice from , who took 4th place Friday🔥🏆 Lydia was so excited just to get the chance to compete against Janice. You should have seen her when she first found out.

Friday night, Lydia wasn’t there just to watch or cheer everyone else on — she had her own ribs, her own rubs (Lydia mix of Loot N' B***y BBQ, Montana Outlaw BBQ and Heath Riles BBQ and sauce, her own turn-in box, and her own place in the competition. ❤️🔥

Bonus for Lydia: after turn-in, she got an awesome surprise when her amazing teacher .with.mrs.lau , who’s currently out on maternity leave, showed up with her new baby just to support her! That made an already special night even better.

Thank you to our BBQ family for all the kind words and encouragement to her and to everyone who happily answered one of Lydia’s favorite questions — “Is your watch dead yet?” ⌚

Lydia’s Ribs: 1
Dad: 0

Something tells me I’m going to be hearing about this one for a long time but I’ll take this L anyday. ❤️

09/04/2026

🔥 LYDIA’S RIBS IS COMING FOR DAD… AND HER BBQ FRIENDS! 🔥

Kicking off the Meat & Tater BBQ Fest tonight is the Porky Butts One Rib Challenge, and Red Beards BBQ isn’t the only team in our family competing!

Lydia has officially entered as LYDIA’S RIBS! 🐷🔥

And make no mistake — these are HER ribs. Her rubs. Her sauces. Her flavor combination. She loves her ribs so much she keeps the combo in her room. 😂🔒🔥 She’ll have assistance where needed, but the flavors and decisions are all Lydia and she’s a girl who knows what she likes.

She is SO excited to cook one of her absolute favorite foods for the judges, but I think she might be even more excited about who she gets to compete against.

She’ll be going head-to-head with Dad and Red Beards BBQ, along with a bunch of the BBQ friends she’s gotten to know and cheer for when we watch award shows. When she realized that included Janice SmellaQue, she literally started shaking and jumping up and down with excitement. 😂❤️

If you know Lydia, you know ribs and burgers are two of her favorite things. She missed out on Kids Que earlier this year, so Friday night is her night.

Now the real question is whether Dad is ready to get beat by Lydia’s Ribs. 😂🔥

LET’S GO, LYDIA! 🐷🔥🏆

Wish her — and all of our BBQ friends taking on the One Rib Challenge — good luck Friday night!

If not familiar with Lydia story go check out

B&B Charcoal Heath Riles BBQ Dillon Plumbing

TeamIdaho OneRibChallenge

09/02/2026

Of all the categories at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest, the Potato Auxiliary is one of the most special for multiple reasons, but one in particular stands out to me. 🥔🔥

The big reason goes back almost 20 years to Brandon Wright.

I was a young telecom sales rep at Qwest and attended networking events, but Brandon’s company, UltraClean, was different. Brandon would always smoke a huge pile of potatoes. I still remember how many people showed up, gathered around, ate some good food, and just enjoyed being together. This wasn’t your normal event.

I watched how Brandon interacted with people and how he treated them. How much he truly cared about others, not just customers for his business but humans. I learned so much from his actions, from conversations and from watching him from afar.

Now, years later, I’m being sponsored by his plumbing company Dillon Plumbing as I smoke potatoes for judges this weekend. But if you eat dinner at my house, smoked potatoes are probably on the menu.

BBQ has become a huge part of my life, and I understand it a lot differently now. Yes, I love the competition. I love chasing calls and trying to make the best food I possibly can. But some of the best things that happen around a smoker have absolutely nothing to do with trophies.

Thank you, Brandon, for being you and for all you have taught me.

Last year, we were fortunate enough to hear our name called 5th in this category. This year, we are fine-tuning our dish and coming back after it again. 🥔🏆🔥

— this potato is for you.

08/19/2026

🔥 RESERVE GRAND CHAMPIONS! 🔥

What a day at Uncle Butt’s Pits & Pistons in Meridian sanctioned by Idaho BBQ Association

🥩 3rd – One Bite Beef Challenge
🍗 4th – Wings
🍖 4th – Ribs + Wild Child Winner
🏆 2nd Overall – RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION!

A HUGE shoutout to my guy Shane Davis from Shane Edd's Bbq for coming out and cooking with me. We jelled as a team like peanut butter and jelly and it felt like we’d been cooking together for a long time, not the first time. Shane took the lead on the wings and absolutely crushed them with a 4th place finish, and he was saving the day left and right all morning and was incredible.

We also fired up a bunch of tri-tip for People’s Choice, thanks to our friends at .com for partnering with us on the beef. We love getting the chance to put their amazing tri-tip over the fire and serve it to everyone who came through our tent. 🥩🔥

And I have to give some love to my mom Kathy Bramhall for jumping in and helping us with vending! Competition days are already controlled chaos, and adding serving a crowd on top of it takes a team. She jumped right in passing out all the tri tip and anything needed.❤️

And then there was the clock… 😂

We were chasing it from the beginning and took FULL advantage of our short walk to turn-in…

Every. Single. Turn-in. — 45 seconds or less to spare. ⏱️🔥

We played with fire all day — literally and figuratively. Probably not the best strategy but we took the risks and it paid off.

Shane — thanks again for jumping into the fire with me, brother. I’d cook beside you anytime. 🔥🤘

Congratulations to Just Me BBQ on taking home the Grand Championship 🏆 and Brandon Timberlake on winning People’s Choice! Great cooking by both teams.

Thank you to everyone behind Pits & Pistons and everyone who came out and supported all of us!

Fueled by B&B Charcoal flavored by Heath Riles BBQ🔥

Everything smoked on Smokin’ Iron Fabrication drums and a PK Grills

More photos to come

08/14/2026

Tomorrow is the big day! Can’t wait to feed the people at Uncle Butt’s Pits & Pistons 2026!

We will have partnered with Meat and Potato Company and will be reverse searing Double R Ranch tri tip as our people choice item!!!

If you don’t know Meat and Potato Company yet you gotta check em out. Locally owned butcher offering locally raised meats and the biggest potatoes I’ve ever seen! You can buy locally at their store or have everything shipped to your door! More to come on this company!

Can’t wait to share these reverse seared tri tips with you all tomorrow and this by the way this is all FREE but with limited quantities.

We will be using Heath Riles BBQ new spg rub and fueling everything with B&B Charcoal hickory oak briquettes on the PK Grills

Location name: Centenial Park
Address
Gates open 10 AM - people choice runs from 10:30 to 1:30

08/12/2026

Few come to mind that I hope apply: Janice SmellaQue Christina Poteet Elaine Hilbert with many more I’m missing, I know.

This was cool to watch Christina Maroney Dunyon kill it last year.

08/10/2026

🔥 WE’RE COMPETING AT HOME in Meridian Idaho this Saturday! 🔥

Most competition weekends mean loading up the trailer and driving hundreds of miles or jumping in a plane, but this one is only about 10 minutes from home and you are invited!

On Saturday, August 15, Red Beards BBQ with a very special guest will be competing at Pits & Pistons at Centennial Park in Downtown Meridian! 🏁🔥

We’ll be throwing down in three categories:

🍗 Chicken Wings
🥩 Beef One Bite
🍖 Pork Ribs

But there’s one more trophy we want… PEOPLE’S CHOICE! 🏆

This is where we need YOU! Come find the Red Beards BBQ tent, check out what we’re cooking and cast your vote. People’s Choice voting runs from 10:30 AM the day and closes at 1:30 PM.

🎟️ FREE admission
🔥 Gates open at 10 AM
🚗 Meridian Chamber Classic Car Show
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family friendly
📍 Centennial Park — Downtown Meridian
📅 Saturday, August 15

Who’s the special guest you maybe wondering It’s my friend Shane Davis who’s got a fun little new instagram called that’s for all of his crazy one can bbq competition challenges. Give him a follow and root him on.

Shout out to Idaho BBQ Association and for putting this completion on. Can’t wait

Come hungry, bring the family, check out some awesome cars and BBQ, and COME VOTE for your favorite and hopefully we’ve earned that your peoplechoice vote!🔥🏆

Let’s get it!
Heath Riles BBQ
B&B Charcoal
Dillon Plumbing

08/01/2026

07/31/2026

🔥🍔 The World Food Championships adventure just got even bigger!

We’re honored to announce that Red Beards BBQ has been accepted into the People’s Choice BBQ Burger Battle on Thursday, October 15, where we’ll be serving Lydia’s Burger to everyone who stops by!

As many of you know (and some don’t) my daughter Lydia won her own Kids Q competition last year with one of her creations. We’re taking her winning idea, modify it slightly and sharing it with the world.

And if we’re fortunate enough to win the People’s Choice Burger Battle, The prize money will be donated to the White Sutton Syndrome nonprofit, which is currently raising funds to hire a dedicated researcher. To learn more check out www.whitesutton.org

I want to give a huge shoutout to my friend Andy from . Andy passed his Golden Ticket down to me from the Yakima open fire competition giving Red Beards BBQ the opportunity to compete at WFC!

give a follow and cheer Andy on at WFC as defends his Open Fire title and competes in other categories. Can’t wait to be in Indy together again!

Indianapolis… here we come! 🍔🔥🏆