Austin hosts cheese festival

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin is the first-time host to the American Cheese Society’s Annual Cheese Competition and Conference throughout the week, closing today with a cheese sale.

Folks from all over the nation met up at the Hilton to learn more about the many aspects of cheese, including which ones tastes the best.

With more than 1,100 cheeses available for sampling, the Festival is a cheese lover's fantasy. Cow's milk Cheddars and goat's milk Bries, chèvres and triple-creams, stinky washed-rind cheeses and blue-veined cheeses--all from the nation's finest cheesemakers--who vied for attention at the Festival, and the gala culmination of the ACS annual four-day conference, on August 8th.

KXAN spoke with an award winning cheesemaker from Oregon who returns to this conference this year after winning 15 medals last year. The success last year has urged Christine Hyatt, the ‘cheese chick’, to continue to drive creative innovation in the cheese industry.

The cheese sale takes place Sunday, August 9, at the Austin Hilton on 4th St. from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or visit the <a href = "http://www.cheesesociety.org/index.cfm" >American Cheese Society's website</a> for more information.