2026 Beer Cheese Festival: Hot fun in the summertime

If the swel­ter­ing heat and humid­i­ty weren’t enough to make some­one break a sweat, some of the recipes for beer cheese would. 

Cayenne is the com­mon ingre­di­ent used to add heat to Clark County’s best-known culi­nary inven­tion. But at the 17^th annu­al Beer Cheese Festival, guests could sam­ple cheeses that were fla­vored with chipo­tle, jalapeño, ghost pep­per, and oth­er fiery flavors. 

DJ’s Steakhouse Bar & Grill, for exam­ple, had one entry called Ooh, That Stings! and anoth­er labeled Hotter Than Your Mom. 

Thousands of peo­ple strolled the streets of down­town Winchester Saturday to try the many vari­eties of beer cheese and vote on the ones they liked best. They also bought crafts and craft beer, pigged out on pulled pork and ket­tle corn, lis­tened to live rock ’n’ roll, and min­gled with the crowd. 

“We love it!” said Andrew Shahan, who was there with his wife, Lauren, and their 2‑year-old, Lockett. “We see a lot of friend­ly folks here, and we’re big fans of beer cheese.” 

The Shahans moved from Winchester, Tennessee, to Winchester, Kentucky, a cou­ple of years ago, and they like their new home­town and its one-of-a-kind festival. 

Andrew said he enjoyed the vari­ety of fla­vors and textures. 

“Some are soft, some are spicy, some are mild,” he said. “It’s a unique kind of dip.” 

Jay and Kathy Styles came from Georgetown for the fes­ti­val, which they attend­ed with her father, Barry Haney. 

“My dad grew up in Winchester, so that’s why we came,” Kathy said. 

For many for­mer res­i­dents, the fes­ti­val is some­thing of a homecoming. 

Jeremy Murrel of Clark County took shel­ter from the heat in the shade of a shop with his baby grand­son, Samuel, while the women shopped. 

“We’ve been com­ing to the Beer Cheese Festival since it start­ed,” Murrel said. “All of my fam­i­ly likes beer cheese … and I real­ly like to tote the grand­kids around. … That’s prob­a­bly the best job I have right now.” 

Because this year’s fes­ti­val was held dur­ing the mid-term elec­tions, it offered a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for can­di­dates to meet and greet constituents. 

Congressional, state leg­isla­tive, judi­cial, and local can­di­dates were all there, as was the Democrats’ U.S. Senate can­di­date, Charles Booker. 

“You make con­tact with lots of peo­ple, not only from our coun­ty, but oth­er coun­ties … and you can share our love for our com­mu­ni­ty,” said Jeannie Gwynne, the Democrats’ 1^st District mag­is­te­r­i­al candidate. 

Nearby, Scott Hisle, her Republican oppo­nent, was work­ing the oth­er side of the street. 

To take part in the beer cheese tast­ing con­tests, guests pur­chased tick­ets online by down­load­ing an app on their smart­phones and then vot­ed for the ones they liked best. 

Kitty Strode, one of the orga­niz­ers, said this was the first year peo­ple could vote online. 

For the sec­ond year in a row, the People’s Choice Award went to Wild Bill’s Beer Cheese. 

A pan­el of judges chose Smokin’ Joe’s hot beer cheese as the first-place win­ner in the pro­fes­sion­al cat­e­go­ry, Bootlegger’s taco fla­vor for sec­ond place, and 2 Rivers’ hot for third. 

In the ama­teur con­test, Tonya Willoughby’s hot cheese won first place. Ronnie Taylor came in sec­ond and Elizabeth Taylor third. 

Strode said the fes­ti­val was a huge success. 

“Everybody thinks this was our biggest crowd, and it seemed like it was to me,” she said, although there’s no way to know, she said. 

She thinks the Rock the Block par­ty down­town the night before the fes­ti­val was also the biggest ever. 

Photo gallery

All pho­tos by Randy Patrick.