Beer cheese battle set for Saturday – Winchester Sun
Beer cheese battle set for Saturday
Published 2:00 pm Friday, June 9, 2023
Fourteen competitors will battle it out for beer cheese glory during Saturday’s festival. (Photo by Jon Paul Martin)
The main event of the 13th Annual Beer Cheese Festival this weekend in Winchester will be the professional and amateur competitions, where cheese makers will compete for prizes and bragging rights.
While the amateur competition is open to all – one can enter by going to beercheesefestival.com – only 14 will compete in the professional class:
• DJ’s Steakhouse
• Inebriated Chef
• Yeti Cheese
• Smokin’ Joe’s
• In the Curious Kitchen
• Bootlegger Beer Cheese
• 2 Rivers Beercheese
• Hopewell Bake Exchange
• Mousetrap
• Kentucky Beer Cheese
• Double D’s Beer Cheese
• Hop’s
• Big Poppie’s
• True Blue Beer Cheese
The Sun spoke with a handful of the competitors before Saturday’s showdown, and they had this to say!
Big Poppie’s
John and Rhonda, Byrd of Big Poppie’s of Lexington, got into the catering and food truck business several years ago when their homemade barbecue and beer cheese was a hit with family and friends.
They brought their beer cheese to the festival for the first time in 2018 and took third place. However, they have not returned to the winner’s table since.
“This is going to be our year, though!” Rhonda Byrd said. “We have a new flavor…All I’m going to say is that if you like BBQ Grippos potato chips, you will love this beer cheese.”
The Byrds believe that what sets their beer cheese apart is that they use block cheese instead of the usual cold-pressed and have “unique flavors.”
The flavors include original mild, original spicy, queso jalapeno,…
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