Craft beer and bacon lovers rejoice—there are entire festivals dedicated to this beloved combination. If you want nothing more than a day spent tasting local brews and stuffing your face with sizzling bacon, these events are for you.
Bacon and Beer Classic
The folks behind this multi-city festival aren’t messin’ around. The Bacon and Beer Classic includes more than fifty bacon dishes and more than 100 craft beers, as well as games and contests. This fest takes place in iconic sports stadiums in Denver, Seattle, New York City, Chicago, Santa Clara, Indianapolis, and the Twin Cities. Get the skinny at baconandbeerclassic.com.
Bacon & Beer
Almost every major city in the United States is lucky enough to get its own Bacon & Beer Festival. From Austin to Philadelphia to Oakland and San Francisco, this traveling festival is put on by Eat Boston, a group that produces creative food-sampling events around the country as non-profit fundraisers. To find the Bacon & Beer festival closest to you or to learn more about Eat Boston, visit wheretoeat.in.
Bacon & Barrels
You can’t miss a festival with the tagline “Swine and wine and bourbon and beer is mighty fine!” This festival takes place in San Diego (May 21) and San Luis Obispo (July 15-17) and features pours of local beers, wines, bourbons, and of course, more bacon than you ever thought you’d eat in one day. Details at baconandbarrels.com.
Bacon, Brew & BBQ Fest
On June 25, guests can sample craft beer, chef-created bacon dishes, and barbecue at this annual celebration of craft beer and bacon. This festival is the capstone event of Bacon Week in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, which also includes The Great Bacon 5K, a bacon and country music cruise, and specialty bacon desserts at Madison Sweets. Find the full event lineup at bbbfest.com.
Beer, Bourbon, Bacon
This New York festival serves just that—a lot of beer, whiskey, and bacon ... with live music to boot. Mark your calendar for June 18 and find more information at beeerbourbonbacon.com.
Beer, Bacon, and Coffee Festival
Denver Beer Company brings breakfast beers together with caffeine from local coffee roasters and bacon from nearby purveyors at this annual event. Visit denverbeerco.com for information about this year’s upcoming festival.
BaCon
Last November marked the second annual BaCon event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that features any and all things bacon... including bacon-based and bacon-inspired brews. BaCon is a walk-around tasting that brings the best chefs in West Michigan together to invent bacon dishes using meat from artisan bacon-makers. The 2016 dates for this event are not yet published, but can be found here.