Beer, Bourbon, and Food, OH MY!

It's time to get crafted. #DestinCrafted

Everyone loves a good beer fest. Yet more and more beer geeks are being converted into whiskey nerds. (ourselves included) Why don't whiskey enthusiasts deserve a party? And if they do, why don't they also deserve beer? 

For those of us who like it all, once again, Wine World is here to save the day.

Introducing Destin's inaugural craft beer, bourbon, and food festival for charity:

Hosted at the beautiful Henderson Beach Resort, featuring only the BEST beers and bourbons you can get your paws on (*cough* even Cantillon *cough*), and highlighting Destin's top culinary teams, this fundraising event is going to be EPIC! Join us out there on The Henderson's big, beautiful pool deck area on Saturday November 3rd from 1pm til 4pm. Tickets are $50 and support Children in Crisis, Inc.

Better yet, why not a little stay-cation action? On Friday evening, 100 VIP's will attend an exclusive cocktail party on the Sunset Terrace at The Henderson featuring Master Distiller celebrity appearances and rare one-off batches of bourbons to sample alongside delicious food catered by Primrose. The VIP Package is $100 and includes entry to both Friday & Saturday's festivities.

Proceeds will benefit Children in Crisis, a NWFL charity that is very near and dear to our hearts. For years they've been dedicated to providing homes and support for abused, neglected, or abandoned kids right here in Florida.

C'mon nerds, let's raise some money for these folks. 

Trivia pairs well with beer.

Ah, the exhilaration that once came from receiving a shiny gold star when you answered a question right in school! It's not often we get to feel those feels as adults...but then there's trivia.

Pub trivia is the adult version of all that. So kick back, have a drink, and show off that giant brain of yours to all your friends. When you win, you'll get something even better than a gold star!

hint: it's probably beer

Think you got the smarts? Like good beer? Let's play. 

Now, every week at our PCB location, you can use your noodle and drink some good brew on Trivia Tuesdays! It all starts at 7pm, and right off the bat anyone who's playing drinks Idyll Hounds drafts for just $5! 

it's your own little happy hour! A participation trophy! ...yes, everyone gets one but that doesn't mean you're not special. You're special to us.

There's no theme to the game each week, it's always a general mix so everyone has a shot! Each question has a category that you find out before each round

so you can pick ahead of time which of your teammates to blame if you get one wrong.

For prizes, we'll award bar tabs, Idyll Hounds gift certificates, and sometimes swag or growlers from the brewery too! But you gotta place in the top 3.

Let the games begin!

Nothing is more fun than a barrel of whiskey

The Craft Bar is full of 2 kinds of people: beer geeks and whiskey nerds.
Okay, you can be lots of other kinds of people and still love what we've got going on, but that's not the point. 

This one goes out to the whiskey nerds. 

Here’s the scoop: in January, Wine World received our first “Signature Barrel” of the new year: 1792 Full Proof. This month, we finally got our highly anticipated barrels of Blanton’s, Eagle Rare, and Buffalo Trace! Us whiskey nerds get excited about these drums of dram in particular because each unique batch is crafted by the same distillers that produce the iconic Pappy Van Winkle!

Since we’re over here doing a little whiskey dance (it's like a rain dance but it happens after the barrel arrives), we think this is a great time to nerd out with you and share the story behind these spirits we’ve been putting our Signature on for years.

Back in the day: Long before The Craft Bar blossomed into the spot you know and love, our parent company, Wine World, was slinging spirits left and right. Owner, Chan Cox, has always been on the lookout for new and interesting craft spirits. Although he still makes sure the shelves are stocked with the staples, it is artisan spirits that really peak his interest.

“Right on the heels of the craft beer movement came the craft spirits movement...it was my customers who led me to it! They are the ones who educate us. They tell us what they want,  and we go out in search of it.” Chan Cox said, when asked about how his whiskey nerdism began.

Fast forward a few years: The Craft Bar was on the verge of opening its doors. We had some talented mixologists on board, and the cocktail menu was in the works. We had our pick of the finest craft spirits in all the land, right at our fingertips next door in Wine World! It was obvious what to do. What better to grace Destin's most unique cocktail list than the most unique spirits of all? So we scooped up some Wine World Signature Barrel spirits (like borrowing a cup of sugar from the neighbor) and put them on the menu.
Think about it. You literally can’t get our cocktails anywhere else, because most of them contain those batches that were bottled exclusively for our company!

Here’s how it works: we get in touch with a distiller of interest, and they send us some samples of uncut batches of spirits that aren’t quite finished aging yet. We get our panel of experts (sometimes that's you! Remember Judge's Table?) to taste each one, make notes, and vote! Then we send the results back to the source, and they slap our name on the batch we chose. The master distillers finish the good work, and the barrel we've laid claim to gets bottled and sent to us--only us. 

Fast forward a few more years: The Craft Bar is now known for serving delicious cocktails with several of our very own signature barrel spirits. Since 2009, in anything from a Smoked Old Fashioned to a Gold Rush, you've imbibed these exclusive batches of the good stuff like Knob Creek, Angel's Envy, Michter's, and so many more. 

The list seriously goes on and on. We wouldn't want to bore you.

Remember that time we said this one was for the whiskey nerds? We lied a little bit.

Fun fact: We have also been known to stamp the Wine World name onto other libations like Papa’s Pilar Rum, Cruzan Rum, Hendrick's Gin, and Corazon Tequila. Soon we’ll even have our own barrel of Patron!

Usually, they’re bourbon barrel aged, so... still counts.

Do we love beer? Yep. Are we also wine-os by association? Absolutely. 

But the spirits...that's our claim to fame.