BBQ enthusiasts serve up tasty Breakup Shakeup

A Mississippi transplant with just three years experience in the growing field of competitive barbecuing added to his impressive resume over the weekend.

Palmer resident Tracey Hayes and his Smokey Haze BBQ operation took home Grand Champion honors for the second straight year at the sixth annual Breakup Shakeup competition Saturday in downtown Palmer. Hayes parlayed second-place finishes in the chicken, ribs, and people’s choice categories into the overall championship, with a narrow 5.5-point margin of victory.

“We’ve only been here a short time, but we’re pretty rooted in the community,” Hayes said. “Palmer has been good to us.”

A self-described backyard BBQ enthusiast who moved his family to Palmer in 2021, Hayes was introduced to competitive barbecuing by his neighbor, Jeremy Peal. No stranger to the grill and smoker himself, Peal is head cook of Holy Trinity BBQ, which has been a competition staple for 13 years in Alaska, including all six years of the Breakup Shakeup.

Peal’s team finished a close second in the overall competition after a first-place finish in the ribs category and a tie for second place with Smokey Haze in the people’s choice competition.

Peal said the attraction of competitive BBQ is no different from golf, classic cars, or any other hobby, except for one key difference.

“Nobody wants to watch you hit a golf ball or turn a wrench,” he said. “But as soon as you fire up a smoker, you have a lot of friends.”

The event, held on the grounds surrounding Bleeding Heart Brewery and Matanuska Brewing Company, brought 10 teams together for the competition, which is governed by “backyard rules,” a less stringent version of nationally sanctioned BBQ competitions. Erik Ross, who has helped oversee the Breakup Shakeup for the last four years, said the intention of looser rules is to bring more casual BBQ fans into the competitive fold.

“We’re looking for backyard folks,” he said. “This is just a fun competition to get people into it.”

The competition – and the finished products – did not disappoint on Saturday. The expanded competition this year added two new categories: a pork chop division for kids; and chili, which was not part of the overall scoring but attracted some impressive entries from eight of the 10 teams involved in the competition. JC Holy Smoke BBQ won the individual chili competition, which was not part of the scoring for the overall Grand Champion title. Smokey Haze BBQ finished second in the chili competition, padding its resume for the day. The kids pork chop cookoff was divided into two age groups. Nathaniel Taylor won in the 12 and older group, and Michelle Matlock placed first in the 7 to 11 group. Both are from Anchorage. The Breakup Shakeup also featured a friendly head-to-head Battle of the Breweries competition between the host teams. For the fifth year in a row, Bleeding Heart won bragging rights for another year. Under the leadership of Chef Tom Baker, the Bleeding Heart team also was the overall people’s choice category winner with its chopped cheeseburger sandwich. Bleeding Heart co-owner Zack Lanphier said the friendly rivalry that’s part of the event partnership with Matanuska Brewing makes it something that is a “marker on our calendar” each spring.

“We’re a brewery built by community,” he said. “This event fosters good relations with other businesses and the public. We always look forward to it.”

Organizer Ross called the sixth annual Breakup Shakeup “another success.”

“We saw new competitors and some of the usual suspects,” he said. “We saw an amazing kids pork chop competition and the introduction of chili for the first time. The feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive for both of these categories. They’re both definitely something that is here to stay.”