Oak and Smoke: BBQ Competition and Bluegrass Festival 2019

Oak City Brewing Company in Knightdale (616 N 1st Ave) is hosting an awesome event this Saturday October 12th. Jared, Sullivan, and I attended last year and it was a good time. They give out free tickets for BBQ samples and you can vote for your favorite. Find all the details here. They also have 3 Bluegrass bands playing throughout the day. This year there are 2 rounds of competition and the whole thing goes from 12p – 8p with the brewery closing at 9p. There will also be a couple of food trucks there (The Wandering Moose is really good- we tried it at Brewgaloo).

Last year we had no issues getting in line and getting our free tickets. Hopefully it’s the same this year. I fear the word has spread since last year and it may be super busy. They give out free tickets to the first 250 people in line, which sounds like a lot and wasn’t an issue for us last year, but we will have to wait and see what this year is like.

Stay tuned for my review after this weekend. It’s supposed to be nice weather, we hope to see you there!

Update:

This was a good event. The weather was nice and we had a good time. We arrived early for the first round of competition: pork loin. They must have had someone drop out because there was only one contender, which means only one 2 oz sample and they won by default. It was delicious but honestly we could have skipped it because we ended up going home for 4 hours, having lunch, and returning for the second half (luckily we live very close by).

The second half was definitely the main event. There were 13 competitors for pulled pork. We arrived right on time and waited in line for tickets. We weren’t in danger of not getting tickets, but we were towards the end of the stack. Mental note for next year to arrive a tad bit earlier just in case. We each tried 13 2 oz samples and we were stuffed! Almost to the point of sickness actually. There were several that were really good and several that I instantly didn’t care for. Vinegar based BBQ is common in this area and I prefer tomato based BBQ (personal preference). The official ranking are on the Facebook page. Wallis and Sons BBQ came in first place and T-Ray’s BBQ second (our vote). It was a little crowded but the setup was decent to avoid congestion.

Overall, I do recommend this event for the food alone. We didn’t stay for much of the music and we didn’t get any beer from the brewery. Bringing chairs or a picnic blanket may be a good plan for next year if we are going to hang out longer. Did you attend? Where did your favorite rank?