The faces behind our top six BBQ joints, clockwise from top left: Aaron Franklin of Franklin BBQ, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge, Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow's BBQ, Roy Perez of Kreuz Market, Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue, Belender Wells & Alan Caldwell of Fargo's Pit BBQ. (Photos by Tom Fox/DMN)

The Dallas Morning News posted the results of the Posse's Best of Texas BBQ Tour today on its Web site. The results will appear on the paper's iPad's application this weekend and in the newspaper's travel section on Sunday.

It was an exceedingly close finish. With 30 being the best possible score, less than a point separated the top three joints -- Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Pecan Lodge in Dallas and Snow's BBQ in Lexington.

Over 48 hours we ate at 10 top places. Six judges from the Posse rated the brisket, pork ribs and sausage at each on a scale of 1 to 10. We averaged the scores for each meat and then added them to determine the overall winner.

When we first planned the trip, our aim was to rank only the top 5. On the tour, though, there was a natural separation -- one poorly scoring meat was all it took -- between the top six places and the bottom four.

Kreuz Market in Lockhart finished fourth overall, followed by Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor and Fargo's Pit BBQ in Bryan.

Not making the Top 6 were Stanley's Famous Pit Bar-B-Que in Tyler, Baby J's Bar-B-Que and Fish in Palestine, and Smitty's Market and Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Que in Lockhart.

Along with the story, The Morning News also has photo galleries from the top joints, videos of Posse members recounting the tour and 360-degree panoramas of the interiors of many of the joints. You don't want to miss the panoramas.

Click here to see the story & multimedia package on dallasnews.com.

The Best BBQ Joints in Texas
Franklin Barbecue in Austin had two second-place finishes in individual meat categories and a fifth-place and scored the highest overall.

Overall
1. Franklin            27.48
2. Pecan Lodge    26.83
3. Snow's             26.5
4. Kreuz                25.82
5. Louie Mueller    24.66
6. Fargo's             22.98

Brisket
1. Snow's             10
2. Franklin             9.66
3. Fargo's              8.66
Louie Mueller     8.66 tie
5. Kreuz                 8.5
Pecan Lodge     8.5 tie

Pork ribs
1. Pecan Lodge    9.83
2. Franklin            9.66
3. Fargo's             8.16
Kreuz                8.16 tie
5. Snow's             8
Baby J's           8 tie

Sausage
1. Kreuz               9.16
2. Pecan Lodge   8.5
Louie Mueller   8.5 tie
Snow's            8.5 tie
5. Franklin            8.16
6. Fargo's             6.16