Pathfinder Brewery
2702 Fort Worth Hwy
Hudson Oaks, TX 76087
Phone 817 598-0607
www.pathfinderbrewery.com
Looking for something to do in Hudson Oaks, TX? Based upon a quick look at the map, it appears this brewery is in Weatherford, TX, but actually, it is in Hudson Oaks, TX. We recently visited and taste tested craft beers at one of the breweries in Hudson Oaks, TX. The brewery is named Pathfinder Brewery.
First thing to comment on is the high number of in-house brews they offer at all times. Some locations have 6-8, they had 17 active taps and a good variety of styles.
As you may know, I prefer the darker style, and my wife leans toward the hazy IPA. We arrived late-afternoon and decided to split a four-sample flight.
· Road Trip Cream Ale with Pecan Coffee and Vanilla
· Camp Juice IPA
· Schusterstick Strong Ale – American
· Texas Tea – Red Ale – American Amber / Red
Also Sampled
· The award winning 3 Dragons Belgian Strong Dark Ale
· Trail Haze IPA
· Texas Wheat Ale
Each of the samples I tried were smooth and easy to drink. My favorite ended up being the Road Trip Cream Ale, with the Texas Tea Red Ale a close second. My wife preferred the Camp Juice IPA.
Brewery Ambiance
Pathfinder Brewery is a casual space. The inside has 20 or so tables, games to play like giant four across, various board games and corn hole. They also have a large patio (dog friendly) with several picnic tables. The tables are under an awning to shelter from the hot Texas sun. It is also family friendly with plenty of grass to run around on.
It is a dog friendly location both inside and out.
Food
Pathfinder has a limited menu of bar food like pretzels and flat bread pizza. We ordered a pepperoni pizza and it was okay. We were there for the beer and food was secondary.
Merchandise
Pathfinder had t-shirts in various styles showing their one main logo.
Brewery Owner Interview
PB: Hi folks, I’m Eric Addison from Pathfinder Brewery here in Hudson Oaks, Texas just outside of Fort Worth. Cheers!
AMAH: Cheers! How long have you been in business?
PB: Next month, July, will be our second anniversary. July 23rd is our anniversary day so put that on your calendar.
AMAH: Congratulations! What made you decide to start a brewery?
PB: Wow that's a long question and a long answer so I'll try and make it short. I brewed beer before the Internet was around and it was great. I took a long hiatus and then I met my now wife and I was looking for something to do for fun on a date and I was like - oh I’ll brew some beer that will be cool. She liked that and that reignited the passion for beer and so it's just been an addiction and passion of mine for a long time. So that's what made me want to open a brewery.
AMAH: How many employees did you have when you opened the brewery?
PB: When I opened the brewery, I had one employee who is me and the brewer at the time (not the one who is here now). That was it. That was us and then we had the misfortune of opening just before Covid. We brewed our first batch of beer, then our second batch of beer when COVID was announced 2020. So yeah, and nobody knew what was going on, but we decided to brew and do what we can and we went through all the difficulties of only being able sell beer to go and then 25% capacity, then 50% capacity, and so on.
AMAH: How many employees do you have now?
PB: We still run very lean. There are four employees that work full time. I work here full time. There's Austin our brewer, Kelly the front of the house manager, and then Josh is our sales guy. That is the four of us. S0 there's four full-time staff and then we have 3 to 5 part-time bartenders. We are open Thursday thru Sunday. It is still hard finding staff to open the additional three days a week.
AMAH: What about distribution? Do you just distribute your beer?
PB: Yeah. We self distribute. I think the farthest east we are now is Euless, but we're all over Parker County and we're getting into Fort Worth. You can find us in a lot of places in Fort Worth.
AMAH: Who come up with your beer names?
PB: I came up with most of the original names for the first dozen beers that we've brewed, but now it's mostly a group effort. We come up with a new brew, I come up with a new beer style though, write the recipe and then we just saw sit around and drink beer and think about names not taken by another brewery. That’s the hard part right because we come up with a great game and then you find out another brewery already has it.
AMAH: So what's your favorite beer here?
PB: My favorite beer is whatever we just recently released to the public because I'm most excited about it. You know we brewed it, I wrote the recipe, Austin brewed it, it's ready and I'm anxious to see what the public thinks about it. Right.
So that's my favorite beer but to give even more true answer. I guess. Maybe not true answer but I’m a big fan of Belgium beers and English beers. So you always find the Belgium beer here just because, like Three Dragons or Three Giants or even F Cancer. You’ll always find it here.
AMAH: We noticed that you are involved with the ALS - Ales for ALS?
PB: Yes, that charity that we’re involved in. We actually support a couple of charities. We support ALS because Kelly our manager’s grandmother passed away from ALS. So that one is near and dear to her. So, we created a beer called Flying Flames which is a tribute to her grandmother. Her grandmother was in a trapeze group called the Flames. That was all Kelly. She named the beer; she decided the style and all of that was all based on Kelly.
We also support the American Institute for Cancer Research because my wife survived a very rare form of cancer called NKT cell lymphoma. So, F Cancer was the tribute beer for her when she went into remission. We take a portion of F Cancer and donate it to Institute for Cancer Research.
AMAH: Very nice.
PB: Anniversary party July 23rd come on out. We're gonna release several new beers. We have a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout called Barrel Aged Beer of Vile Darkness. We're bringing back our Martison and it's called Vesbeer. That will be available. We've brewed a Peach Shandy that will be available. We have a lot of things going on. We have live music and then we have several food trucks out there as well.
About the Authors
When I first started dating my wife, we enjoyed popular domestic beers. I am sure visiting a craft brewery was her idea. Our taste buds rejoiced as we sampled the various brews. It did not take long before our tastes diverted – the darker ambers, reds, porters, and stouts for me, IPA, Hazy IPA, and pilsners for her.
When we retired, we decided to visit as many of our National Parks across this country. It seemed a natural fit to visit breweries in the many cities we travel through as we drive to the parks.
We currently reside in Fort Worth, Texas. Texas has about 300 micro-breweries, and the Metroplex has over 80. Which means we have a whole lot of day trips ahead of us to visit our local breweries.
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