Kings Island is known for lots of things.  They are in fact a major part of what makes Cincinnati who she is, but this year they’ve taken a step to embrace another part of our cities culture that is a little closer to my heart, the beer.

It used to be that there were extremely limited options in the park for good beer, and you were limited to a tiny selection of places where you could drink that beer.  After the purchase of the park by Cedar Fair, this started to change, and with the building of the Christian Moerlein Bier Garten a few years ago it became known that Kings Island was going to embrace the craft beer culture in this city in the best ways that they are able to.

This year they have taken things a step farther… you might have read about the beer offerings in the park growing with 3 new beers, sold exclusively in the park:

  • Banshee Brew
  • Beast Bock
  • Diamondback Ale

These beers, although still unnamed as of yet, have been said to be brewed by one of our local breweries that the park “has a strong relationship with”.

Well, in addition to the new beer in the park, this is the first year that you will find Kings Island’s very own beer festival taking place.  The festival comes to us this weekend… Friday and Saturday from 4pm-10pm each day with the last pour taking place at 9pm.

The festival will be featuring over 20 breweries with more than 100 beers being offered, some of the breweries as you could have guesses will include some of our local favorites around town such as:

  • Chrisian Moerlein
  • Ei8ht Ball Brewing
  • Listermann/Triple Digit
  • MadTree
  • The Old Firehouse
  • Rivertown
  • Rhinegeist
  • Urban Artifact
  • Wiedemann’s

The tickets for the festival can be purchased at the front gate for $35 for a drinker and $20 for a non drinker (although you must also buy park admission), and in addition to your 15 taste tickets, and souvenir mug you will get 2 food tickets as well, with their food selections sounding delicious!  You’ll have a choice between:

  • Grilled Italian Sausage with roasted peppers and onions, served with a cheese tort.
  • Polish sausage served with German potato salad with crisp bacon toppings.
  • Chicago style hot dog served with a side of potato chips.
  • Beer-battered fish served with chips and traditional tarter sauce
  • Mesquite grilled jumbo chicken wings served with fresh-cut celery and carrots
  • Pierogi sautéed with bacon and onions served with chive sour cream
  • Smoked pork served over a cornbread muffin and a side of house-made coleslaw.

There will also be live musical entertainment at the festival to keep those non-drinker ticketed folks entertained as well.

You can read more about the event, and purchase your tickets on Kings Island’s website here.

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