In conversation with Nate Kraft, founder of Pathfinder Farm Distillery in Keedysville

In this episode of the UnCapped podcast, host Chris Sands talked with Nate Kraft, founder of Pathfinder Farm Distillery in Keedysville. Kraft grew up around farms, which led to his desire to own his own and open a distillery after leaving the Navy. They talk about his farm-to-flask philosophy of distilling and the products they produce, which you can find at various farmers markets throughout Maryland. Here is an excerpt of their talk.

UnCapped: Thanks for coming out to Frederick to talk about your distillery.

Nate Kraft: I always love coming to Frederick. We do farmers markets over here.

UnCapped: That’s a big thing for distilleries, isn’t it? The farmers market scene.

Kraft: Oh yeah, especially in Washington County and Frederick County.

UnCapped: Do you see most of your sales through there or through the distillery?

Kraft: Most of our sales are from farmers markets.

UnCapped: Are you distributed at all?

Kraft: We do some self-distribution to local liquor stores in the Frederick and Hagerstown area.

UnCapped: When did Pathfinder open?

Kraft: We opened during the pandemic. … We had to get the zoning changed in our county to be allowed to do farm distillation without special exceptions. It was a lot of working with the government to get open.

UnCapped: Tell me a little about the farm.

Kraft: Our farm is in Keedysville, halfway between Hagerstown and Frederick. The farm is 42 acres and looks up on South Mountain. It’s split between crop land, pasture, a half-acre fishing pond ... it’s a beautiful place.

We decided to call it Pathfinder Farm because the Appalachian Trail runs on the ridge in front of the house. My family’s history is Pennsylvania Dutch and the language is German, and when I was a kid I was big into Scouts. The literal translation of scout from German to English is “pathfinder.” I found that connection and was like, yeah, we’re gonna be Pathfinder Farm.

UnCapped: Did you purchase this farm specifically for the distillery?

Kraft: We purchased the farm four years ago specifically to grow corn to make whiskey and have an agricultural, rural life for me and my family.

UnCapped: What did you do previously?

Kraft: I was in the Navy for 10 years and my wife was in the Pennsylvania National Guard. We lived all over the world. I was stationed on ships in Japan, Washington, San Diego. After I got out of the Navy, we traveled around Mexico in a sailboat, because that was our previous passion.

UnCapped: That sounds awesome.

Kraft: It was a really good time. Totally different: 42-foot sailboat, 42-acre farm.

Pathfinder

here in Frederick. That really helped me up my home distillation game.

UnCapped: The bourbon one?

Kraft: Yeah.

UnCapped: I went through that one. It was fun.

Kraft: Mark [Lambert] would be asking, “Anyone want to connect the hoses or dump the grain in?” I was always like, “Yeah! I wanna do that.” That’s cool stuff.

UnCapped: McClintock has a really good one, too, for rye whiskey. When did the seed to open your own distillery get planted?

UnCapped: What’d you do in the Navy?

Kraft: I worked on weapon systems … and then I did that as a contractor and then as a government civilian for a few years, while I was getting the distillery up and running.

UnCapped: How did you get into distilling?

Kraft: Well, that was back when I was in the Navy. I had to go to a school in San Diego. My mother-in-law had bought one of those Mr. Brew home brew kits. I made some home brew in Japan. Bought other beer brew kits in San Diego and brought them back to Japan to brew.

UnCapped: The percentage of breweries that started with a Mr. Brew kit is astronomical. It’s cool that there are distilleries that have roots in Mr. Beer also.

Kraft: The other root: My dad and I did the distilling class at Dragon Distillery

Kraft: About seven years ago, I was at a friend’s farm, fishing with my dad and my son, saying, “You know what would be really cool? If you could grow corn and make whiskey, have it all the way from the field to the flask, sunshine into moonshine. Have that whole process and own it.” That’s where the idea came from. Then it snowballed from there.

This excerpt has been edited for space and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at fnppodcasts.com/uncapped. Got UnCapped news? Email csands@ newspost.com.