NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Festival

If you haven’t realized, foodie and drink festivals seem to be our favorite events to attend! Just this year alone, we’ve been asked to blog for: The Craft Beverage Fest, The Spirit Tasting Spectacular, and most recently SAVOR!. You can’t go wrong with free food & drinks and we love that it’s the perfect way to network. This weekend we were able to attend the first annual NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Festival.

The morning of June 23rd, we had breakfast with my Grandparents at East Ridge Family Restaurant (a popular breakfast stop for us) and made our way home to work on our downstairs bathroom (which has been torn apart for months). All of a sudden, we received an impromptu invite to attend the NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Festival in Canandaigua, NY. We got our things in order and quick hopped in the car for the 40 minute drive to this beautiful Finger Lakes town.

Canandaigua is a town located in Ontario County featuring breathtaking scenery, a magnificent lake, and of course delicious wineries. This town has made it’s mark on the map for not only the Finger Lakes Wine Trail, but the Craft Beer Trail as well. NY state has quickly become the fourth in the nation for their craft beer and we are lucky enough to be living here, experiencing it first hand.

NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Festival

As we pulled into the parking lot of the NY Kitchen, we immediately saw their beautiful new food truck and 2 enormous white tents. The NY Kitchen used to be known as The NYS Wine & Culinary Center and recently rebranded in April 2018. This event, The NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Fest was their first annual to celebrate their rebrand. The NY Kitchen hosts events, classes, and includes a restaurant and a tasting room.

 

As we checked in, we received a tasting glass, a food ticket, and 2 voting tickets. During the event they were taking votes for which brand had “The Best Consumer Experience” and “The Best Display”.  The winning brews will not only be marked with distinction on the NY Kitchen menu, but will also have a year long residency on tap.

 

 

I’m not a big beer drinker, but Shane is. However, I did find a few beers that I actually liked. Maybe I’m finally acquiring a taste for it. I really enjoyed Ithaca Beer Company’s Apricot Wheat and a few from the LyonSmith Brewing Company. Shane liked a lot of the beers he tried, but Ithaca Beer Company’s Flower Power may have been one of his favorites. He also really liked Lake Drum Brewing’s The Juice.

As we walked around sampling the craft beers and mingling with the vendors, we hopped over to the food tent. Sadly, we were there a little late and the BBQ was already gone, but the food truck was still serving things like hot dogs and sandwiches. So, we went back into the beer tent to continue sampling. While the event was happening, a great cover band named Dos Locos was playing getting everyone fired up. Outside of the tent, people played croquet and cornhole.

 

We stayed til the very end of the event. As the vendors cleaned up, and the band ended, the winners were announced. The winner of “The Best Consumer Experience” was OSB Ciderworks. The winner of “The Best Display” was Reinvention Brewing. We didn’t make it to OSB Ciderworks to sample anything unfortunately, but I must admit Reinvention Brewing had a pretty great display.

The participating breweries that we may have not mentioned in this post include:

1. Ellicottville Brewing
2. Southern Tier Brewing
3. Three Heads
4. Lake Drum Brewing
5. OSB Ciderworks
6. Young Lion Brewing
7. Peacemaker
8. Rohrbach’s
9. Naked Dove
10. Ithaca Brewing
11. LyonSmith Brewing
12. Fleur De Lis Brew Works
13. GAEL Brewing
14. Empire Brewing
15. Big Ditch Brewing
16. Irish Mafia Brewing
17. Reinvention Brewing

Additional photos not shown above are in the gallery below.

We had a great afternoon spent at the NY Kitchen Craft Brew & BBQ Festival. We look forward to visiting this beautiful location again in the future.

Til next time 🙂