A Bunch of Swines are crowned Grillstock winners

The heat is on as lovefood visited Grillstock in Bristol for some competitive BBQ cooking and eating.

Now in its third year, the BBQ and music festival is a little bit of the Deep South, transferred to the South West. “Grillstock is a food festival for people who don’t go to food festivals,” says organiser Jon Fitch. And he’s right: with the smell of wood smoke and sound of bluegrass in the air, it’s definitely not Taste of London.

Meat the meat

The judges - under the close eye of Ray Lampe aka Dr BBQ (pictured left) - evaluated 21 teams’ entries across such classes as ribs, brisket, pork and BBQ beans. Contenders came from across the UK and from as far afield as Romania to take part. Competitive BBQ is taken very seriously in the USA, and increasingly so here in Europe too.

There’s the geekery of specific cuts, rubs and marinades, or the different flavours you can get from types of wood. But more than the technique talk, or even the winning, there’s the sense of friendliness and fun at a BBQ competition. Teams hand out samples to the public, chat, drink beer and enjoy themselves. You can see the winners of all eight categories here.

And the winner is…

After nearly 24 hours of cooking (some teams grilling through the night), the out-right champion and King of the Grills was Bunch of Swines from Swindon. As well as taking home the trophy, and £1000 prize money, they also earn the right to compete in the The American Royal BBQ competition in the USA.

Hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell

One of the highlights of Grillstock is the chilli eating contest, where entrants have to eat an increasingly hotter range of chillies and fiery sauces until they either throw up or reach for the cool glass of milk in front of them. If they do that, they’re out. Eventually there is one winner (pictured left). As you can see from the video, it really does take its toll – not for the faint hearted, or those with delicate tum-tums like me. My eyes were watering and I was just stood next to the competitors!

You can see more photos of the day on our Flickr page. 

In the Big Smoke next year?

As well as Bristol Grillstock 2013, plans are afoot to bring the event to London so that even more people will be able to enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere of meat, music and mayhem.  Until then, why not enjoy some of our other BBQ content on lovefood.com.

Top 5 English chilli pepper farms

The 10 best places to BBQ in the UK

What to do when your BBQ gets rained off

Easy BBQ recipes