This past Saturday, Nueske’s had the pleasure of attending the Isthmus Beer & Cheese Festival in Madison, Wisconsin.  Let us assure you, there was no shortage of good brews, excellent cheeses, or Applewood Smoked Meats.

For $40.00 a ticket, thirsty (and hungry) festival-goers from Madison and beyond flocked to the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall for a gathering of local brewers great and small and some of the best cheese-makers in the state.  For good measure, our friends at Isthmus threw in some well-placed fine foods that didn’t fall into the beer or cheese categories but were very much enjoyed, such as Gail Ambrosius Chocolates and Fromagination (OK, so they have cheese, but lots of other foods, too!).

Nueske’s booth started the afternoon serving up thick slices of our Applewood Smoked Pepper-Coated Bacon.  To create this extra-kicky variation on our classic Applewood Smoked Bacon, we hand-rub our pork bellies with a blend of Tellicherry peppercorns and then send them into the smokehouse for our signature smoking: a minimum of 24 hours over glowing embers of genuine Wisconsin applewood logs.   We followed the pepper bacon samples with our newest bacon, Wild Cherrywood Smoked.  The bacon has a sweet, robust smoke and, boy, did it go FAST.  We thought we might have a riot on our hands as the bacon supply began to dwindle in the final hour of the event, but we made it until almost the close of the festival… just a few minutes shy.

In addition to serving up our bacon, which we’re proud to say was VERY popular, we had heaps of several of our sausages for folks to try.  Landjaeger, Honey Ham Sticks, and several varieties of Applewood Smoked Summer Sausage were there for the tasting, as well.  It was great to be able to introduce the landjaeger to quite a few people who hadn’t tried this particular pork-and-beef “hunter’s sausage” before.

Thanks to Isthmus & the great crowd at this year’s Beer & Cheese Fest!