Judging a rib contest for Ten 10 Brewing was just as fun as it sounds

The boys at Ten 10 Brewing in Ivanhoe Village (or Mills 50, depending on who you’re talking to), host an amateur rib contest each year in their back parking lot and when they reached out to me for some promo this week, I hinted (or begged) that I would love to be a judge. So they invited me to partake and it was so much fun!

Luckily my new friend Michael Buffa, of the upcoming Forward/Slash “blending house” in Winter Park, was there so I knew a friendly face. Still, the rest of the judges were actual pros who tour the country judging professionally. They caught us up on how to be the best judges we could be and what to look for, including presentation, taste, and how to look for that perfect bite (you don’t want it to fall of the bone, apparently, you want it to resist a little).

I can’t remember how many we ate, but there were too many to count and I brought all of my bones home to make a little stock with later.