Culleen and Ken Hein stand in front of the trophy case at Thermal Chaos restaurant in Dunbar, Wis. Their team plans to compete in the American Royal World Series in Kansas City on Nov. 5-9. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

DUNBAR, Wis. — A team from Dunbar plans to take part in the largest barbecue competition in the world.

The Thermal Chaos BBQ Team, led by Ken Hein, will compete in the open class of the American Royal World Series Nov. 5-9 at the Kansas City Speedway. More than 500 teams and many famous BBQ chefs are expected to take part.

“We’re looking forward to it, to see how we stand against the world’s best. That’s what it’s all about, to see how you stand against the big guys,” Hein said.

Members of the team taking part include Hein and his wife, Culleen; fellow Dunbar residents Don and Kelly Marinoff, Mike and Julie Hoppe and Lynn and Dick Stymiest; John Schreiner of Florida; and Jose Stamos of Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Nate Keisner of Dunbar is a member of the team but will be unable to attend.

“You have to have a pretty large team because there’s so much going on,” he said.

This is his second trip to the big competition. He won a grand championship in a competition in Okauchee, Wis., in 2017, which was a qualifier for the American Royal Championship invitational.

“This is the first year going back to it,” he said.

To help offset the costs, which includes a $1,250 entry fee in addition to other expenses, the Alpha Michigan Brewing Co. is hosting a fundraiser Saturday, with all proceeds, tips and donations going directly to support the team’s journey to compete. Thermal Chaos will also have their food truck at the Alpha Brewing company from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

In addition, Thermal Chaos will host a meat raffle from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.

They also have several sponsors, including Smoky Woods, Alpha Brewing Company, Master Fleet Natural, Sertich Environmental Services, Badger Wholesale and Melotte Meats, with others in the works.

Entering a competition involves a lot of preparation. Every other weekend on Sundays, they practice cooking their ribs, chicken, briskets and pork.

“We’re looking for the right tenderness. We have the timing down. Now we’re on flavor profiles. We’re trying to get the right balance of salty and sweet and heat, because they (the judges) want a real balance of all of that. It’s different than what we do here at the restaurant. It’s just a lot more scientific,” Hein said.

“We purchase rubs from other championship barbecue teams. Once they win, they will market their own rubs, so most of those you’ll find on TheBBQSuperStore.com website. It’s owned and run by a former competition team,” he said.

They purchase the rubs, sample them and figure out what mix to put in their blend. They can take three or four different kinds of rubs, blend those together to create their own flavors.

“We use four different rubs and a lot of injections,” Hein said.

They plan to take part in the sides category on Nov. 8 with three entries including their own pork and beans, a potato entry and a vegetable entry. This is the first time they’ve taken part in a side category. The next day is the four-meat competition with chicken, ribs, pork and brisket.

On Nov. 9, each type of meat is judged every half hour: chicken at noon, 12:30 p.m. for ribs, 1 p.m. for pork and 1:30 p.m. for brisket. At 5 p.m., they announce the winners.

They’ll start the smoker at 1 a.m. and at 2:30 a.m. begin the brisket, so it makes for a long night at the wood smoker. They also use smaller pellet smokers for some of the cooking.

Since opening Thermal Chaos in Dunbar about five years ago, they have not been in many competitions. When they first began competing years ago, they went around and visited other barbecue competitions and met teams that basically just mentored them — gave them pointers.

“It’s one thing to be a great restaurant, it another thing to be good at the competition stuff. It’s so much more detailed. It’s very difficult. Fun stress, I call it,” Hein said. “This is a great way for us to get out and expose ourselves and learn new things, meet teams.”

Last year he did take part in a backyard competition in Wisconsin with Mike Hoppe. Backyard competitions involve only chicken and ribs.

“I’m glad I was able to find time last year to compete, because it was fun and we were in the mix,” said. “After five years of not doing it kind of gets the blood flowing.”

They might compete in a new competition called Rolling Smoke BBQ Bash on Sept. 27-28 in Egg Harbor, Wis., as a practice run and to see how things are being scored.

As for the big competition, Hein hopes for the best. “Every day is a different day in the barbecue world out there — just with temperature, humidity, the conditions — they all affect what’s going on,” he said. “Hopefully you can get all four of your meats to turn out perfect on one day at the same time, so you can go home a world champion or a grand champion.”

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Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.