Timber Creek Distillery is the highlighted VIP sponsor at Blues, Brews & BBQ. The event happens Saturday, November 14, 2026 at HarborWalk Village in Destin. For the VIP hour, we’re pouring a bacon-fat washed maple old fashioned. It’s made with our own Florida Whiskey and Barrel-Aged Vermont Maple Syrup, and it’s exclusive to VIP ticket holders.
- Event: Blues, Brews & BBQ at HarborWalk Village
- Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026
- General Admission: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
- VIP Hour: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, On The Rocks bar, second floor, HarborWalk Village
- Featured VIP Cocktail: Bacon-Fat Washed Maple Old Fashioned, made with Florida Whiskey and Barrel-Aged Vermont Maple Syrup
- Early Bird Tickets: General Admission $44.73, VIP $88.43 (incl. fees), on sale now
- Location: HarborWalk Village, 10 Harbor Blvd, Destin, FL 32541
- Parking: Free on-site parking
What Is Blues, Brews & BBQ?
Blues, Brews & BBQ is HarborWalk Village’s annual waterfront food and drink festival. It returns to the Destin harbor on Saturday, November 14, 2026, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Local restaurants, breweries, and distilleries compete head to head for the top spots. For example, categories typically include best barbecue, best local brew, and most creative cocktail.
Every ticket holder gets a vote in the People’s Choice Awards. Each category winner earns a donation check for the local charity of their choice. So every sample poured that afternoon supports a cause on the Emerald Coast.
The festival also brings live blues music from the Main Stage and unlimited tastings from the competing vendors. The waterfront view is hard to match anywhere else in Destin, though. Parking on site is free for the day, and organizers announce the competitor lineup closer to the event date.
Live Blues Music
Blues, Brews & BBQ runs on live blues music from the Main Stage for the full festival. As of this writing, though, HarborWalk Village and Event Live haven’t published a set-by-set performer schedule for November 14.
We’ll update this post with the lineup and set times as soon as HarborWalk Village releases them. In the meantime, follow HarborWalk Village’s event page and social channels for the announcement.
About Timber Creek Distillery
Timber Creek Distillery is a grain-to-glass craft distillery on a 240-acre family farm in Crestview, Florida. That’s about 45 miles north of Destin. Master Distiller Aaron Barnes and co-founder Camden Ford started the distillery in 2014. Their idea was simple: build a whiskey from the ground up. That means real Florida grain, real fermentation, real barrel time, and no shortcuts.
Every spirit goes through our proprietary PureBlend® process. We distill and age each grain separately, then blend the components to build the finished profile. That’s different from starting with one mash bill and hoping the balance works out.
That process has earned Timber Creek more than 40 competition medals. That’s the same whiskey going into the VIP cocktail at Blues, Brews & BBQ. Sponsoring the VIP hour puts it in front of a room that hasn’t made it to the farm yet.
The VIP Experience
VIP access adds an exclusive hour before the festival opens to the public. From 12:00 to 1:00 PM, VIP ticket holders head to the On The Rocks bar on HarborWalk Village’s second floor. The cocktail hour is built around one featured drink: our bacon-fat washed maple old fashioned.
The VIP hour also includes a roughly 30-minute walkthrough of the cocktail. First, it covers how the drink is built and the fat washing process behind it. Then it covers the history of the old fashioned as a style. Timber Creek Master Distiller Aaron Barnes will be in the crowd for the VIP hour too.
Early Bird VIP tickets are priced at $88.43 including fees. Compare that to $44.73 for General Admission, $39.27 for Military General Admission, and $33.80 for guests under 21. All four tiers are on sale now through Event Live at Early Bird rates. Buying now locks in the lowest listed price.
Rather than one more sample table on the dock, the VIP hour centers on a single cocktail. Then a presenter walks guests through how it’s made. It happens at a dedicated bar on the second floor, overlooking the harbor. It wraps at 1:00 PM, right as the general festival opens. That means VIP guests can head straight to the Main Stage and the rest of the tastings.
The VIP Cocktail: Bacon-Fat Washed Maple Old Fashioned
The VIP pour swaps the standard sugar-and-bitters build for something with more weight behind it. Florida Whiskey carries the bacon fat wash, and our Barrel-Aged Vermont Maple Syrup replaces simple syrup. As a result, it leans sweet, smoky, and rounder than the classic version.
It’s a small-batch pour made specifically for this event and this crowd. Also, it’s not a drink on our regular menu at the distillery. In fact, it only exists for the one hour VIP guests spend at On The Rocks.
What Is Fat Washing?
Fat washing infuses a spirit with the flavor of a fat, without leaving the drink greasy. First, rendered bacon fat gets stirred into the whiskey and left to sit. That lets the fat-soluble flavor compounds transfer into the alcohol. Then the mixture is chilled until the fat solidifies on the surface, and it gets strained off. What’s left is a whiskey that carries the savory, smoky character of the bacon, with none of the fat itself.
In this build, the fat-washed whiskey gives the old fashioned a savory backbone. The maple syrup then balances that with sweetness. The drink reads sweet and smoky at once, rather than one flavor competing with the other. It’s a technique bartenders use across all kinds of spirits and fats, from brown-butter bourbon to olive-oil vodka. The mechanics stay the same: infuse, chill, strain.
A Brief History of the Old Fashioned
The old fashioned is one of the oldest named cocktails still in regular use. Its ancestor is the “whiskey cocktail” of the early 1800s: spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. That formula was simple enough that it barely needed a recipe.
By the late 1800s, bartenders started adding curaçao, absinthe, and other flourishes to the whiskey cocktail. So drinkers who wanted the original, unadorned version started asking for it “the old-fashioned way,” and the name stuck.
The drink has stayed close to that four-part structure ever since: spirit, sweetener, bitters, and a citrus twist. What’s changed over the past century is mostly variety in the details. Think rye versus bourbon, or a sugar cube versus syrup. A bacon-fat washed maple version follows the same four-part logic. It just swaps a neutral sweetener for a barrel-aged one. Then it infuses the base spirit before it ever reaches the glass.
Why We Built It on Florida Whiskey
Florida Whiskey is our wheated bourbon-style whiskey. We bottle it unfiltered at 93 proof, distilled grain-to-glass from Florida-grown corn, wheat, and malted barley.
Wheat as the secondary grain keeps the profile soft and round instead of spicy. That’s exactly the base an old fashioned needs to carry a bacon fat wash without a fight. The whiskey already leans toward caramel and honey on its own. So the fat wash adds savory depth instead of competing flavors.
The Maple Syrup Doing the Sweetening
The syrup in this build is our Barrel-Aged Vermont Maple Syrup. In fact, it’s pure Vermont maple syrup, aged six months in freshly emptied Florida Black Rye Whiskey barrels.
That aging pulls a subtle, spicy whiskey character into the syrup before it ever hits the glass. So the sweetener is already doing extra work in the cocktail, instead of just adding sugar. It’s the same syrup we sell in the shop for pancakes and desserts. Here, it’s repurposed as the backbone of a cocktail.
Tickets and How to Attend
Tickets for Blues, Brews & BBQ are on sale now through Event Live. There are four Early Bird tiers: $33.80 (under 21), $39.27 (military), $44.73 (general admission), and $88.43 (VIP), all incl. fees.
First, general admission covers the 1:00 to 4:00 PM festival on the harbor. Then VIP adds the 12:00 to 1:00 PM cocktail hour at On The Rocks. That includes our bacon-fat washed maple old fashioned and the presentation that goes with it.
These are listed as Early Bird prices, so they’re the current rate for all four tiers as of this writing. Per the event’s own terms, all tickets are final sale and non-refundable. So confirm the date and tier before you buy.
Tickets and How to Attend
Tickets for Blues, Brews & BBQ are on sale now through Event Live. All four tiers are listed at Early Bird pricing, incl. fees.
| Ticket Tier | Early Bird Price (incl. fees) |
|---|---|
| Under 21 | $33.80 |
| Military General Admission | $39.27 |
| General Admission | $44.73 |
| VIP | $88.43 |
First, general admission covers the 1:00 to 4:00 PM festival on the harbor. Then VIP adds the 12:00 to 1:00 PM cocktail hour at On The Rocks. That includes our bacon-fat washed maple old fashioned and the presentation that goes with it.
These are listed as Early Bird prices, so they’re the current rate for all four tiers as of this writing. Per the event’s own terms, all tickets are final sale and non-refundable. So confirm the date and tier before you buy.
Parking and Getting There
HarborWalk Village’s event listing includes free on-site parking for Blues, Brews & BBQ ticket holders. If the on-site lot and garage fill up, HarborWalk Village’s own parking guide has a backup. It points to city-owned lots across the street. Those are priced separately by the City of Destin, though, and subject to change.
Arriving early is the simplest way to avoid circling for a spot on a busy Saturday. That’s especially true if you’re heading to the 12:00 PM VIP hour.
Staying Nearby
HarborWalk Village has its own lodging on site, so it’s possible to stay within walking distance of the festival. Emerald Grande and Harbor Suites both sit at HarborWalk Village, 10 Harbor Blvd in Destin. That puts the Main Stage and the tasting stations a short walk from your room. The On The Rocks VIP bar is close by too.
Find Us at HarborWalk Village
Look for Timber Creek during the VIP hour on Saturday, November 14, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. You’ll find us at the On The Rocks bar on HarborWalk Village’s second floor. It’s part of Blues, Brews & BBQ at 10 Harbor Blvd in Destin. Also, free parking is available on site for the whole event.
Can’t make VIP, or want to taste Florida Whiskey outside the festival? You can try it, along with the rest of our lineup, any day of the week. Visit Tastings & Experiences at the distillery in Crestview, about 45 miles north of Destin. Either way, we’ll see you on the harbor.
