The Beer Fest

[TheCandyManCan]

Oh absolutely haha. I won't be able to attend this time though. I've got another function to attend to this weekend for work, and potentially a date, who knows.

[Dieseltech20]

One can drink Alcohol at home as well.

 

Such Nasty stuff, this Beer that people love so much. Much like inhaling smoke from a burning stick, I just don't get the appeal.

 

That said, let me know if they ever have a Bourbon Tasting event.

[TheCandyManCan]

Some beers are just as good as Bourbon, especially if its aged in casks that one held Bourbon

[Dieseltech20]

Shenanigans.

 

Every Beer I have ever tried, tasted exactly the same, disgusting. I still remember folks in the barracks telling me to just start chugging them and I will get used to the taste.

 

No thanks.

 

You keep chugging while I take a couple shots.

 

That was my younger days. I pretty much stopped drinking (I may have a drink once or twice a year) and my life has greatly improved.

[SOBwasaSOB]

It may be disgusting to YOU, but I rather enjoy it as do millions of others. Some beer is super gross. Some is very good. Same can be said for bourbon. This all subjective though. I plan on having tons of fun at this event!

Edit: I do not plan on chugging anything, however. Sure I think drinking a beer around kids is fine but I would feel guilty being sloppy around families. People (including me) tend to lose a filter when drunk and let words slip without thinking of who all will hear it.

[XGatorHead 8904]

I don't order Coca-Cola from bars either haha

 

I do, as long as it has Jack Daniels or Captain Morgan in it too.

[The Interpreter]

I've never had a Coke in a bar.

Diet Coke....

Terp, who has never seen a bar have Pepsi as its exclusive cola provider.

[TheCandyManCan]

Coke owns the bar area for sure. I will say some of my favorite mixed drinks with soda have been with Pepsi products. Or Dr Pepper...oh so lonely over there in it's small company

[ohioparksrock]

The tent set up looks pretty impressive. There's not much room to walk around the path and it'll only get narrower with people in it but the food tents look awesome!

[MrsTheBeast]

I wish there was at least one place in the park that sold mixed drinks. Heck even Soak City does! I just don't want to walk all the way over there just for an overpriced drink.

Last season the bar on the back side of the burrito shack had mixed drinks and frozen concoctions as well (usually my go to) I have yet to go this season so I'm not 100% sure it is sti there.

[jcgoble3]

I wish there was at least one place in the park that sold mixed drinks. Heck even Soak City does! I just don't want to walk all the way over there just for an overpriced drink.

Last season the bar on the back side of the burrito shack had mixed drinks and frozen concoctions as well (usually my go to) I have yet to go this season so I'm not 100% sure it is sti there.

They still do. I ate a Hank's burrito at that bar last month so that I could watch ESPN while doing so, and I watched the bartender prepare several mixed drinks while I was eating.

[acfinn]

Thanks for the tip! I will definitely partake on my next visit.

[TheCandyManCan]

Be weary, the drink selection there is quite minimal..and..costly.

Don't expect anything except cheap bottom shelf bottles

[Dieseltech20]

It's an amusement park, of course the selections are minimal and costly.

[TheCandyManCan]

Unfortunately. Ah well.

 

By the way today is World Gin Day apparently, go enjoy yourself some!

[XGatorHead 8904]

Banshee Brew Fest was a lot of fun.  Got to try some breweries I've never had before, as well as some old favorites.  At beer fests, I normally try to avoid breweries that I really don't consider to be craft breweries, such as Blue Moon, Leinenkugel and Shock Top at this one.  The exception to this is if they have something unique, or one that I really like.  So I had to go to Leinenkugel because they had Crispin Pear (which was on the list as being at the Blue Moon booth) and Shock Top had one of my all time favorites that I've had before, their Shocklate Wheat (yes, that's chocolate beer... I went back a couple times for this one).  Thirsty Dog had a good Raspberry Ale (I was hoping they would have their chocolate one, Old Choco, but no such luck), and Jackie O's Razz Wheat was also very good. 

 

The biggest surprise though came from Kentucky Bourbon; I like their regular Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, but their Old Fashioned Barrel Ale was excellent.  I can't stand IPA's; I like wheats, hefeweisens, bocks & dunkels (which are hard to find).  One of my friends who hates everything I like and loves IPA's liked the Old Fashioned as much as I did, and commented that it was strange that two people who have opposite tastes in beer would agree that this one was now one of our favorites.

 

The food was good, but the portion sizes were not equal.  I used my first food ticket for the pierogies: I got 3 pierogies with bacon and sour cream on a small plate.  I got to our table and my friend had a large plate full of pulled pork, corn pudding and cole slaw.  The pierogies tasted very good, but it was nowhere near the serving size that my friend had.  So yeah, with my second food ticket I went to the pulled pork station!

 

As I predicted, there were no problems that I saw with the attendees.  There was enough of a security & police presence that if anything had come up it would have been taken care of quickly.

 

Last pour was at 9:00, so after that is when we used our 2nd food tickets.  I hadn't planned on riding anything that night, but once we were done we did ride one thing: Dodgems.  We may have crashed into other cars there, but we were all responsible in regards to driving away from the park: Mrs. Gator picked me up, a friend's dad took 5 others in my group home and the 7th person in our group's girlfriend had been riding rides by herself that evening so that she could take him home.

 

Hopefully they have this event again next year, because I will definitely go again if they do.  I don't get out to bars or breweries very often, so I like trying new beers from different places in a setting like this to see what new things I'll like.

[TheCandyManCan]

Thirsty Dog Old Choco is going to be available in the Fall, I agree it's very very tasty. I have yet to try the Old Fashioned Barrel Ale. My local stores don't carry it. I can usually only find their Bourbon Barrel Ale, I can't even usually get their Stout, which I enjoy more.

 

Glad to see everything went smoothly. If I could have spent the full evening in the park I would have participated, I clearly missed a fun opportunity, but again, hopefully this is an annual event, or multiple times a year like Cedar Point pulled off with the Brew & BBQ deal.

[Captain Obvious]

I must have missed this thread. I attended it and thought it was a spectacular event especially for being the first one. Always great to try some new breweries without committing to buying a 6 pack or feeling bad dumping it out. I went on the Saturday where it was extremely hot and I was almost out of the beer drinking mood.

 

The food was hit or miss. The pulled pork portions were huge, but overall just lacking. The wings were seasoned and grilled well, but served somewhat cold. The winners I thought were the side dishes, the Cole slaw, potato salad, and pasta salad were winners.

 

Ideas for next year (if there is one), more seating and more shade, the band being tucked away in the back was awkward, maybe move them behind International Showplace in that corner?

 

Overall, I'd be very happy if they brought this event back next year. Looking forward to the Food Truck rally next month.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Ressurrecting an old thread:

Man, do I wish KI would bring this event back along with the food truck festival. Maybe call it the Orion Brew Fest since they are selling Orion themed beer. Even though I'm not old enough to drink yet, the atmosphere for an event like this looks nice and would love to see something similar to it brought back! 

I found an article about the brew fest where they had the area by backlot dedicated to the event: https://www.thatchicmom.com/2016/05/Banshee-brewfest-at-kings-island-the-perfect-date/

[SOBwasaSOB]

Craft beer and food trucks?  Yea, I think I just may like that kind of event.

[IceePirate]

Oh I remember this, made the park a boatload of money if I remember right. Wonder why they didn't do it again

[Winterfestguy]

KI has tried in the past with the Banshee Brew Festival complete with food trucks in June 2015 (a year after the Banshee opened).  
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.journal-news.com/news/beer-festival-one-several-new-kings-island-features-this-year/VMjav4iWbat6spvsK8041J/%3foutputType=amp

Attendance at the brew festival was just okay, nothing spectacular, and management decided to direct their efforts to more family friendly events.

However, a similar event at CP (Frontier Festival with great craft beer, BBQ, and entertainment) is very well attended and highly anticipated by many every year.   Maybe KI could develop a similar type of BBQ/craft beer festival later in the summer and re-purpose all the huts that were used for the Grand Carnival food stations.

[IceePirate]

35 minutes ago, Winterfestguy said:

KI has tried in the past with the Banshee Brew Festival complete with food trucks in June 2015 (a year after the Banshee opened).  
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.journal-news.com/news/beer-festival-one-several-new-kings-island-features-this-year/VMjav4iWbat6spvsK8041J/%3foutputType=amp

Attendance at the brew festival was just okay, nothing spectacular, and management decided to direct their efforts to more family friendly events.

However, a similar event at CP (Frontier Festival with great craft beer, BBQ, and entertainment) is very well attended and highly anticipated by many every year.   Maybe KI could develop a similar type of BBQ/craft beer festival later in the summer and re-purpose all the huts that were used for the Grand Carnival food stations.

The food truck event did pretty well, but it had an unintended consequence of reducing spending at other food stands. The same thing likely happened with the Brewfest as I remember the days being busy attendance wise, but not so much in the food stands. The park does bring in extra trucks for beer pouring on pride night, so that's one thing that stays consistent year to year. Pride night has the most alcohol sales of any other day by quite a significant amount.

[SnakePlissken]

30 minutes ago, IceePirate said:

The food truck event did pretty well, but it had an unintended consequence of reducing spending at other food stands. The same thing likely happened with the Brewfest as I remember the days being busy attendance wise, but not so much in the food stands. The park does bring in extra trucks for beer pouring on pride night, so that's one thing that stays consistent year to year. Pride night has the most alcohol sales of any other day by quite a significant amount.

The food trucks food always put any other in park food to shame. Haunt 2018 I spent a lot of money going around trying food trucks. I really was looking forward to that last year and they only had 2 trucks. One of which was the amazing 1776 Grill.

[Who Dey]

I went to Carowinds a few years back and they had a beer/food truck event.  What I liked about it was that it was about the different regions of the Carolinas.   They had section dedicated to the different parts of the two states.  For example they had a seafood section representing the coast next to breweries from the eastern part of the state.  It had more thought than just random food trucks.   I think KI could have a southwest Ohio section, Indiana section and NKY section.   I don't know about specialty foods but the beers could be split up like that.   I would also think they could make a deal with getting a percentage of sales or a flat fee from the trucks that would make it worth while.  Craft beer is a big deal right now and I know I would enjoy an evening in the park with good variety of beer to keep me coming back to try different breweries.   

[Who Dey]

Last night I was thinking and I came up with an idea that would be a hit with beer/coaster lovers.  There are a lot of small breweries within miles of KI.   Kings Island could make an offer that each brewery can make a beer named after one of the coasters.   They can then set up a beer stand outside of that coaster offering that beer and maybe a select few others. (KI gets a cut of course)  Those breweries could offer them at their breweries also.  I do think there would have to be some approval so all the beers aren't the same style.  For example The Bat should probably have some kind of dark beer like a stout or porter.   Woodstock Express could have a non alcohol beer.  Racer could have a barrel aged beer.  Beast could be a double IPA for the 2 lift hills.  I would be all over that concept.   Now I am thirsty just thinking about this.

[teenageninja]

25 minutes ago, Who Dey said:

Last night I was thinking and I came up with an idea that would be a hit with beer/coaster lovers.  There are a lot of small breweries within miles of KI.   Kings Island could make an offer that each brewery can make a beer named after one of the coasters.   They can then set up a beer stand outside of that coaster offering that beer and maybe a select few others. (KI gets a cut of course)  Those breweries could offer them at their breweries also.  I do think there would have to be some approval so all the beers aren't the same style.  For example The Bat should probably have some kind of dark beer like a stout or porter.   Woodstock Express could have a non alcohol beer.  Racer could have a barrel aged beer.  Beast could be a double IPA for the 2 lift hills.  I would be all over that concept.   Now I am thirsty just thinking about this.

Sonder Brewing (basically across the highway) has a Giga Coaster lager on tap right now and in cans.

[dbackdreams]

Beer is gross. Natsy stuff so I don't want more beer at King's island!!!!

[Who Dey]

23 hours ago, teenageninja said:

Sonder Brewing (basically across the highway) has a Giga Coaster lager on tap right now and in cans.

That is where my idea stemmed from.   There is a brewery opening up about a mile away from KI called Cartridge Brewing.  It would be a great way to get their name out there.    Narrow Path in Loveland.  March first in Sycamore.  Fretbaord in Blue Ash. MPH Brewing in Montgomery.    All small breweries need to get some exposure.  

 

I bought the Giga Coaster lager and was going to drink it in line for Orion and was told no beer in line so I rode scrambler instead.  They let me drink in line there.   

[SnakePlissken]

9 hours ago, Who Dey said:

That is where my idea stemmed from.   There is a brewery opening up about a mile away from KI called Cartridge Brewing.  It would be a great way to get their name out there.    Narrow Path in Loveland.  March first in Sycamore.  Fretbaord in Blue Ash. MPH Brewing in Montgomery.    All small breweries need to get some exposure.  

 

I bought the Giga Coaster lager and was going to drink it in line for Orion and was told no beer in line so I rode scrambler instead.  They let me drink in line there.   

No hard drinks are allowed in any ride que but sadly some people ignore the rules.