Local insurance agent conquers Beast to win chile-eating contest

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Chris Brokopp, a State Farm agent from Eugene, proved he could offer more than insurance coverage when he outlasted 11 other brave contestants, at the Lane County Farmers Market’s Pepper Fest, held Thursday evening, Sept. 18.

The fiery competition escalated from mild jalapeños, clocking in at 5,000 Scoville units, to the Beast, which reaches 2.5 million on the Scoville scale. 

Named after American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who in 1912 invented a test for sensitivity to hot chiles, the scale measures the concentration of burn-producing capsaicinoids.

Pepper Fest, organized by pepper grower Ben Tilley of Crossroads Farm, started out easy enough, with a jalapeño followed by a Serrano (10,000 Scovilles) and a Bulgarian carrot pepper (20,000 Scovilles). Tilley’s chiles took out the wanna-be winners quickly, with the first contestant dropping out while contemplating consuming the Bulgarian carrot. 

Then the heat really ramped up, with the Bulgarian brute taking out three other contestants.

“Dropping like flies now,” Tilley said. 

The competition intensified through Thai chiles (50,000 Scovilles), a sugar rush peach (75,000 Scovilles), an orange habanero (150,000 Scovilles), a Scotch bonnet (200,000 Scovilles), a ghost chile (600,000 Scovilles) and an apocalypse scorpion (1 million Scovilles). Tilley capped Round 10 with a legendary Carolina reaper, previously known as the world’s hottest pepper at just over 2 million Scoville units. For perspective, Tilley noted that pure capsaicin maxes out at 16 million Scoville units. 

Buckets were on hand in case contestants became ill, and each contestant had a container of milk and a spoonful of honey, both substances known to soothe the capsaicin burn. The chili had to be consumed completely, seeds and all, down to the stem, within 60 seconds. 

Contestant Dylan Boleyn, who tapped out in Round 3, said the heat wasn’t necessarily unbearable. For him, the challenge was the time limit. 

“It’s hard to eat them that quickly,” Boleyn said. 

After Round 10, only two contestants remained standing, Brokopp and someone identified as Jeremiah. As both squared off in the Bonus Round to face the Beast, Jeremiah gave in, and Brokopp was declared the winner. Though he had already won, Brokopp ate the Beast in one bite to rightfully claim the trophy.

The heat clearly affected participants differently. Contestants battled watering eyes, runny noses and flushed skin, many desperately fanning themselves for relief while shielding their eyes from the strong setting sun as they sat around tables outside of the Farmers Market Pavilion.

Brokopp, though, seemed cool as a cucumber throughout the ordeal, though he later did drop a bomb about how hot the peppers really were.

“It was really f—ing hot!” Brokopp said, moments after conquering the final pepper that earned him the trophy.

Still, he said he had eaten hotter.

“I’ve been eating hot stuff since I was 17 years old,” he said. “I’m 46 now, so 30 years of eating hot, spicy foods.”

While other contestants cautiously chewed their peppers, taking small bites, Brokopp munched most of his peppers in one decisive bite right after Tilley counted down 3-2-1. In later rounds, Brokopp began to slow, waiting a few seconds before devouring the devils. That was strategic, he said, and not because he couldn’t handle it.

“I started to wait because everybody was like, ‘Oh, he’s doing one bite,’ so I wanted to give everybody else a chance to eat a little bit first,” he said. “If they saw me holding off, then they might think they had more of a chance.”

Tilley, meanwhile, plans for Pepper Fest and the chile-eating competition to become an annual occurrence.