Panther Island Brewing<\/a> for one last round inside the Fort Worth brewery that has served the community for more than a decade.<\/p>\nOwner Ryan McWhorter greeted customers, thanking them for coming and apologizing for the wait as supporters packed the warehouse space.<\/p>\n
For 11 years, McWhorter and his family poured more than pints.<\/p>\n
What started as a simple at-home craft beer kit \u2014 a small experiment that sparked a passion \u2014 eventually fermented into something much bigger: a brewery that became a gathering place for friends, families and strangers alike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely built that safe space for everybody here,\u201d McWhorter said.<\/p>\n
Panther Island Brewing grew into a community hub, a place where customers say connections were formed as easily as conversations over a cold glass of beer.<\/p>\n
But now, the owners have decided it\u2019s time to close the doors for good.<\/p>\n
Panther Island Brewing is among several local establishments that have recently shuttered. McWhorter said rising costs and low sales ultimately made it impossible to sustain the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimply put… it just wasn\u2019t enough. Wasn\u2019t making enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McWhorter described the decision as one reached through deep discernment and prayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is God telling us? And we had to listen,\u201d he said, becoming emotional. \u201cVery hard decision to make. Very.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday night marked the brewery\u2019s final farewell. Longtime customers lingered, savoring what they knew would be the last pour inside the space.<\/p>\n
Mark Flores, the family’s business partner that became a loyal friend stepped into the old warehouse for one last time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I remember walking in here [11 years ago], it was still an empty building,” Flores said. “I gained a second family here, it never felt like a job.”<\/p>\n
Though the doors are closing, McWhorter said he hopes the camaraderie built inside the warehouse walls will last long after the taps run dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep spreading kindness in this crazy world we live in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fort Worth brewery that began with an at-home craft beer kit became a community hub for more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-164222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}