Beer & Bacon Festival

So, I debated on giving this event 2 – 3 stars, 3 stars for the beer but 2 for the bacon products. When you hear of a beer and bacon festival you expect there to be ample amounts of bacon, not just bacon hints in various assortments of food. Who would’ve thought the best served bacon was from Miller’s Ale House! Trust me, we were just as surprised! They had three different cured bacon, our favorite was the one with blue cheese. They had food from several different places like The Meathouse in Winter Park, 4 Rivers, The Hammered Lamb, Cupcake Crazy, Omaha Steakhouse just to name a few. For those who love craft beer, the advanced online ticket purchase for the wrist band at $ 28.50 is perfect. It is free to get into the event and there are a couple cash bars inside where you can get beers and/​or certain alcoholic/​non-​alcoholic beverages. There were SO many different craft beer tents and a few beers that were not even on shelves. The wrist band allowed us to make multiple rounds so we definitely got our money’s worth. I do wish the food was more reasonably priced, 2 small basic sliders for $ 4. Most apps were $ 5 and over for tiny portions. The bacon basket from Miller Ale House had 3 pieces of bacon for $ 5. One of my favorite booths was the Bacon Boutique. They had Taylor Swift and an Adam Levine cutout with a bacon themed t-​shirt, picture/​selfie ready ;) They were selling bacon themed t-​shirts, chocolate covered bacon, bacon neck ties, bacon seasoning and rubs, etc. My husband loved the Harley booth where you could sit on a bike in a fixed contraption and still act as though you are riding, accelerating and all. So overall fun experience. Crane’s Roost is beautiful and the weather held out, slightly raining at the end. Next time maybe incorporate more bacon, certain things like the arancini triangle from Terramia Ristorante had no incorporation of bacon. My husband looks forward to trying one of the other local bacon events Orlando holds.

I was pretty disappointed with the beer and bacon. Yes there was beer, but no where near enough bacon. This is a little extreme but I wanted to actually smell some bacon as I was walking around. There were very few choices for bacon items. I did have a biscuit with half of a slice of bacon and my friend had a grilled cheese with bacon. Both were average and very small for the price. I was looking forward to some candied bacon or some strange delicious bacon dish. I was really happy to see Unilocal there and I love my bag that I won!!!

After the windfall of negative reviews following the Festival of Bacon, I was a bit hesitant to check this event out… but I’m sure glad I did.
Crane’s Roost is an ideal place to have these kinda of shin digs. Lots of room, ample seating, plenty of parking.
The whole thing officially kicked off at 4 pm, at least that’s when the beer started flowing. You could get there at 3 and start sampling the ala carte bacon inspired entrees if you preferred but we were more interested in the suds.
When you attend this kind of festival there are two major concerns:
1) The lines
2) The stock
Happy to report neither of these key issues were a problem that day.
With the exception of the lines that formed in anticipation of the 4 o clock start, all of the wait times we dealt with were relatively tame.
In fact, I’d say by 5 pm the lines for refills were pretty much nonexistent. Two or three people deep at any given booth and it’s your turn.
As for the supplies, that too wasn’t an issue for the festival goers that drizzly day. Having read where the FoB left several attendees high and dry with what they had been promised, the B&BF was ready for the masses – and it wasn’t until deep in the game that I saw people being asked to order something different due to a lack of product.
I really hope they decided to do this festival again, the crowd was great, the vendors were diverse and complimentary and the venue is top notch.

I really wished I could give a half star. I’d say 2.5 stars. (yes, i’ve sent that in as a suggestion)
The beer part of the fest was a solid 3 –3.5 star showing. I was disappointed in the lack of darker beers though. Seemed like it was mostly wheats, blondes and light lagers. I was happy to try beers I have not experienced yet. Just wished those vendors would have brought their darker stuff.
The lines for the beer tents were really long and most had a hard time setting up two lines, which is what they were suppose to do. I have been to numerous festivals like this and you would think by now someone could do some crowd control suggestions. I don’t know maybe setup the tents in a way that traffic can flow by them without the super curvy lines that no one really knows where the end is.
The food was a let down. This was a Beer and Bacon themed festival. I feel there should have been a lot more bacon than what was presented. The price at the gate was $ 35.00 and I was left wondering what did I actually get for my money. Actually, I’m still trying to figure that out. I was tasting 2 oz pours of light beer and paying for small portions of food.
I stopped at the hammered lamb for a bacon grilled cheese with a bacon jam, which I thought was rather creative. The jam was ok, needed more bacon flavor, maybe some smoke to it would’ve made it pop as well. The 3 dollar grilled cheese was slightly larger than a ¼ of an average sized grilled cheese. So, I felt it should have been at least a half for 3 bucks. Maybe I’m greedy, i don’t know.
Other vendors like ruth chris’ had other options, but I didn’t see many bacon themed menus. Which, as a bacon lover, I was saddened. :(I would love to be on the organizing committee for the next Bacon themed event. Someone should be given the task to reach out to various vendors, make requests and confirm menus. Give the people a variety of options. We have so many here in Orlando.
I did enjoy the location, it got a little crowded, but next to the water at Crane’s Roost was a perfect sunset and provided an open air feeling. The porta-​potties were in a great location, plenty of them and stayed relatively clean. They had one Budweiser truck for beer, which I think that was severely overwhelmed.
NOTE: If you’re planning on serving thousands of beers, please have people pouring that know how to pour. The beers were super foamy, lots was wasted and it was all due to inexperience. Like I said, give me a call for the next one, I definitely can help organize it! ;)
I hope they continue bacon themed festivals going, but some regrouping is needed.
Shoutout to Unilocal, for letting me stand under their tent while it rained for a few so I didn’t get wet! thanks!

Tons of beer to sample, lots of delicious food.
Come see Nhi! She is super friendly and take a spin on the wheel.

Great festival! I was super worried about the rain earlier in the day, but I’m glad the sky cleared up before the fest.
For one, their choice of venue was spot on. Crane’s Roost was MADE for having festivals like this. Not only was the layout ideal, but the pull-​up ground attachments for tent ropes and numerous outlets made this a great place to host any party. And having the lake in the background was breath-​taking — especially toward sunset.
I liked that their food vendors had to have a bacon-​inspired dish and that the prices were reasonable; it didn’t break the bank for me to get a couple drinks and try a few vendors. The bacon-​themed cupcakes from Cupcake Crazy were a HIT! I’m glad I got in line early on and got one of each ($ 3.50 a pop — not bad) because they ran out of some selections later on. The prime beef sliders at Ruth’s Chris Steak House ($ 6) were pretty good too — not too juicy, but they came with two and tasted amazing.
I didn’t buy the Sampling Ticket, but they had a cash bar ($ 5 for my beer) set up in the middle of the event. I was able to try Magic Hat and Sweetwater beers that were pretty tasty. The line for the cash bar was huge though; that may have been intentional, but maybe have two set up next time?
The fact that they also had complimentary taxi rides home was a great service too! I just wish more people knew about it. They didn’t really broadcast it, but there were signs scattered about, so I hope people utilized it.
Overall, it seemed like everyone had a great time and the event had a good turn-​out of people. I’m super happy that I was able to come out and experience this event. If it happens again next year, I’ll definitely check it out.
Fun Tip: Cleanest port-​a-​potties I’ve ever used. Seriously. Wasn’t too gross and there were plenty. Although, some people need to learn to lock the doors, I walked in on a guy. LOL. And props to them for actually having soap in their outdoor sinks.