Biggs Foodventures : Beer, Bourbon & BBQ festival "THE SHRINE OF SWINE"

Location: Cary, North Carolina

Cusine: American BBQ

So this weekend I went down to Raleigh, North Carolina with my family to visit my little sister, and to attend the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival. All in all this set the table for a great weekend; friends, family,drinks and BBQ cant go wrong!
The festival is actually a tour that sets up shop in a few different cities along the East coast ranging from Florida to New York sharing great spirits and some great BBQ! The atmosphere was amazing; lots of people holding conversations and trying samples, the aroma of smoked meats floating through the air, and the occasional tipsy person dancing to the live music being played. The the southern hospitality was the icing on the cake, and made this a great environment to be in on a Saturday afternoon.
As we walked around we sampled beer and bourbons from over 50 different vendors from all over, some local based and some coming from other states. After having a few drinks I felt it was time to start trying some of this good smelling food! My first food highlight of the festival was the sample of the whole hog, which was probably the most moist, juicy, and flavorful pulled pork I've ever had and I'm not that big of a pork fan. They cart the whole hog out that they had been smoking since 12 AM the day before and pull the meat from the bones right it in front of the crowd, this was an experience in its self. The skin of the pig was this beautiful red color which comes from the hours of smoking it low and slow; once they opened the hog up and started to pull the meat from the bones you could just the juices rolling out and slowly your mouth starts to water. The chef told me and my dad all he used was salt, pepper, and good smoke to get the hog so juicy and flavorful. Let's just say we were a little skeptical because something that tasted this amazing had to of had more steps! But we took his word for it and continued to enjoy this amazing meat. The smoky flavor was just enough, not to strong but bold enough for you to taste it through out the pulled pork. The smokiness mixed with the moist,juicy lightly seasoned meat created a nuclear explosion of flavor in my mouth; this was by far the best pulled pork I've ever tasted. The next food highlight of the festival for me was this amazing brisket sandwich from Poor Piggy's BBQ. Poor Piggy's BBQ & catering is based out of Wilmington, North Carolina and is decorated with awards from lot's of competitions for their ribs and pork. This was the first time I had a pulled brisket sandwich and I enjoyed every single bite! The meat was just as moist, juicy, and flavorful as the pulled pork from earlier in the day but with me loving beef, I fell into a temporary euphoric state. There was just the right amount of smoke used and it was seasoned just right. Surprisingly, the pit master gave us a little more insight than we received from the whole hog tasting. He said that they used hickory for the first part of the smoke and then for the last hour the meat is smoked it with pecan wood, the two different smokes meshed together beautifully to bring out a nice smokey flavor in the meat that screamed "THIS IS REAL BBQ". Now, I'm not a big fan of vinegar based BBQ sauce but their sauce was very tasty and added another note of flavor to the greatness of this brisket sandwich, if you love smoked beef this sandwich would put your taste buds on cloud 9 I promise!
This event was an all around great experience, I would recommend it to anyone who loves BBQ,beer, and bourbon or anyone who just simply loves BBQ. The festival is held annually, so I recommended checking out what cities they will be stopping in and trying to catch them next year. To my followers who live in the DMV area the last stop of the Tour is in Tyson's Corner,Virginia on September 19th. If you don't have any plans that weekend and looking for a good time go check it out!