After taking off a year due to the pandemic, the Winchester/Clark County Beer Cheese Festival returns on Friday, June 11 to downtown Winchester, KY – the Birthplace of Beer Cheese. The festival officially kicks off the newly expanded Clark County Beer Cheese Trail – bigger and better than ever with six new stops bringing the total of participating restaurants, pubs and markets to 14. Learn more at www.visitwinchesterky.com.
All Beer Cheese, All The Time
Although it will look a bit different this year, the 2021 Winchester/Clark County Beer Cheese Festival will feature a Beer Cheese Shop, set up from 5 to 9 p.m. and showcasing favorite local beer cheese makers. Although a smaller event than in years past and with no tastings due to COVID, there will still be plenty of family fun, arts and crafts and food vendors and the Remember When Cruiserz car show. At 7 p.m., Winchester’s Rock the Block series gets underway with country, rockabilly and western swing band, The Ranahans. What will remain the same is all that beer cheesy deliciousness.
The festival will also reintroduce the Clark County Beer Cheese Trail, with new venues including Beech Springs Farm Market, the Pilot View Mini Mart and Winchester’s first brewery, Abettor Brewing Company, joining trail favorites such as Engine House Deli, Gaunce’s Café & Deli and Woody’s Sports Bar & Grill.
Eat Beer Cheese, Earn The Shirt
Each stop puts a unique spin on this original and unique Kentucky delicacy. Beer cheese trailblazers can expect to taste breakfast, lunch, dinner – even snack – dishes: Steak and Beer Cheese Omelet; Beer Cheese Biscuits served with gourmet jellies or preserves or a slice of Kentucky Proud sausage; Kentucky Hot Ham & Beer Cheese; Beer Cheese Quesadilla; Shrimp and Beer Cheese Grits; Beer Cheese Nachos; a Beer Cheese Platter with chips, pickles and other surprises. Cheese lovers will taste former Beer Cheese Festival champs, including Beer Cheese Burgers, as well as the Winchester Hot Brown Pizza, which mashes together two Kentucky culinary powerhouses – beer cheese and the Hot Brown.
The Winchester/Clark County Beer Cheese Festival is an official stop on the Clark County Beer Cheese Trail. Visitors can track their progress with a Cheese Log (download here) or via mobile device using the free Tour Winchester app and clicking on the Beer Cheese Trail icon. A stamp is earned at each stop and once seven stamps are accumulated, trailblazers are awarded a Beer Cheese Trail T-shirt. The title of Beer Cheese Ambassador will be conferred upon those earning 13 stamps and they will be entered in a drawing to win a spot as a judge at a future Beer Cheese Festival.
Learn More
Learn more about the Winchester/Clark County Beer Cheese Festival, Clark County Beer Cheese Trail and Beer Cheese Week, as well as accommodations options, here. Find festival updates here.
For those wishing to arrive in town early, Beer Cheese Week opens on June 7 and concludes after the Winchester/Clark County Beer Cheese Festival on June 13.