“In a sense, it’s beer made with purpose.”

Collin Zreet
Co-Founder and Co-Owner
Funky Picnic Brewery & Café
.…on Fort Worth’s craft beer scene, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Zreet is a man who wears two hats. One, as seen above, is for his Funky Picnic Brewery & Café. The other is for his day job as a commercial programs R&M engineer and data manager for Bell Helicopter.

But all that engineering makes a man thirsty. So let’s get back to beer. Zreet says out of nearly 100 breweries in North Texas, almost 20 are now operating in Fort Worth, including his. From brewing and canning operations to breweries with taprooms to full-blown brewpubs, a whole culture of craft beer is on tap in the Panther City.

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“We’re making beer with local ingredients and when people see that, it really resonates with them, because that keeps a lot of business and a lot of the money right here in Fort Worth,” Zreet told the Star-Telegram, adding that interactions with customers have made the culture flourish. “That’s a huge thing about craft beer, is being able to talk with your customer and see them face-to-face and be able to talk beer and just being able to interact.”

Among other Fort Worth craft beer milestones, the newspaper cites Sandra Murphy becoming the first female head brewer in DFW in 2019 (at Panther City Brewing; she’s now head brewer at Fort Brewery & Pizza); Martin House Brewing Company launching a new beer every week; Rahr & Sons Brewing Company crafting its first brews in 2004; and the Texas Legislature passing a law 10 years later allowing craft breweries to to sell beer on their own premises.

Charles Scudder, a home brewer and official beer judge, told the Star-Telegram that people can get a lot more out of their local craft brewery than a craft brew: “You’re able to support a local business, made for you by people who live in your community, sometimes with ingredients from your local community and made for the palate of this place. And that’s a really cool thing.”

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For other revealing quotes about what’s new and next in North Texas, check out Every Last Word.