Beer & Bacon Festival

The beer choices and bacon pancakes were great! We could've used more seating/cover from the sun. Beer lines do get long but overall a great way to socialize and try new beers!

This year the setup differed yet again. I applaud the promoters for being open to changing the format in search of a great event. It's good, but still needs some work. A few suggestions:1. More bacon. It's not keeping up with the beer. 2. More tables. There was a very lonely high top over by the food samples. I can't juggle, so the utensils are a challenge. 3. Can't do much about the heat, but there is a nice long fence on the west that could handle a portable mister setup.

Cool venue. Small beer festival small food festival. The lines were pretty long after the first hour of general admission.

It was a beautiful day for some beer and bacon. I mean really, does it get any better than these two things?! Lots of wonderful craft brews to be had. Many had their summer brews on hand which were a real treat in the heat. I got to try Thunderhead brewing from Kearney for the first time. Two thumbs up! They mentioned they are opening a tap room in Omaha soon. Sweet! Some of my other favorites were the Raspberry Hef and Coffee Vanilla Stout from Brickway. Another surprise for me was the pumpkin ale from Nebraska Brewing. Hello, so good! I am not usually a fan of pumpkin anything, but this has changed my mind. In my opinion though, NBC really doesn't have a bad beer. As for the food, my favorite by far was the Smoked tomato and bacon gazpacho with pork belly from Old Mattress Factory. OMG. So refreshing and flavorful! I could have eaten a whole vat of it. There were also bacon grilled cheese from Tom+Chee and pork belly tacos from Spice Your Life Rub Your Meat BBQ. Ameristar also had some yummy finger foods. There was live music from Minor Detail who did a great job entertaining the crowd even to the very end! A highlight for me was also hanging out with Don Bacon who is running for Congress and meeting Hal Daub who was/is a true visionary for Omaha. We had such a great time and were so happy to support the Omaha Jaycees and the Wounded Warrior Family Support.

I have been to the 2015 festival and the 2016 festival, so I feel I have a good idea of where this beer festival is headed. In 2016 the amount of truly unique craft vendors (not Budweiser/Miller/Coors, etc.) was down, food vendors was about the same and overall variety was down. In 2016 all vendors ran out of beer a full hour prior to the end of the festival and began to break down their tents and pack up shop. After discussing with some of the event coordinators and asking what would be done about a full hour of standing around, I was told that I could either "join the committee for next year" or "find another festival to attend". This festival was used by my father-in-law and brothers-in-law as a "get together" that we had planned to enjoy every year...not any more. We will be going to a different festival, per the suggestion of Beer & Bacon Festival committee members (thanks for the tip), that will offer more options and a better experience. I did not lower this rating to 2 stars purely based on the fact that the food vendors were pretty good...the beer options were not.

This was so fun. We had never been. But what a great venue and day of good beer and some delish food. There were a number of beers to choose from at each tent. Some did run out or at least run out of top beer but still so many to choose from. Top 2 favorites for us, cucumber beer from upstream and Dominican brown. From infusion. The best food was the gazpacho with caramelized pork belly. Great time. A must for us the next time it is in town. #infusion and #cucumberbeerupstream.