The entryway for McAllister Brewing in North Wales.
Hard work and determination are two ingredients required to make it in the world of craft beer, and they are also the two things Mike and Kate McAllister have been supplying since the beginning of the year.
Mike, a police officer in Bucks County, and Kate, a nurse at Doylestown hospital, have been spending their “off” time preparing what was the former location of Prism Brewery for their new endeavor. Their third partner, Seth Montz, is currently deployed overseas.
“With our regular jobs and the time spent here, we are working 80 to 100 hours a week,” said Kate. “The closer we get to finishing, the more we see that needs to be done,” Mike added.
With the help of a few friends, the couple is doing almost all of the work themselves—though they admit to not building the barstools. From setting up the tanks to building the booths, it's been a hands on, DIY effort.
“When you sit down and order a beer, you don't always think of all the work it took to get there,” said Mike. “Even designing the bar-top to function properly is a science. When we see people sitting in booths that we built, drinking beers we brewed, it will make all the hard work worth it.”.
Mike started brewing in college as a hobby to occupy his free time, which he continued after graduating, eventually building a taproom in his house to serve the beer he had brewed.
“Next thing you know, tons of people were coming by asking for my beer,” Mike said. “We went to the Great American Beer Festival for our honeymoon and it suddenly clicked that we should open our own brewery.”
Kate's father also brewed beer while she was growing up, and while at the time she may not have appreciated the smell or mess, now she has a different view.
“My father brewed at home and I used to hate the smell,” said Kate. “Now it's a smell that I love.”
Kate had been a regular at Prism, and has fond memories of the brewery. The location has taken on an almost legendary status for many locals. Known for being hard to find but worth the effort, the mention of the location will often result in stories from those who regularly visited.
“We want to recapture that sense of community, that sense of belonging, and for people to invest with us the way they had in the past,” said Kate. “We hope to surpass any expectations and bring that same feeling back. We have redesigned the layout to create more space for brewing and for the customers”
That focus on bringing back a sense of community and inclusion is a driving force for McAllister's Brewing. They plan on launching with five beers to start, but with 13 taps and a hand pump the plan is to offer many styles of beer to let the public decide.
“All of the other breweries in the area are great,” Mike said. “The consumer has so many choices. We plan on using traditional recipes and experimentation and at the end of the day just provide a good glass of beer.”
In addition to beer, they also plan on serving some basic food to start while also having food trucks come to supplement their menu. There will also be a shuffleboard table, board games, pinball and arcade cabinets to give customers more things to enjoy.
The couple hopes to have a soft opening in the Fall of 2018, but with the remaining work to be done, an exact date has not been set. The brewery is located at 810 Dickerson Road in North Wales.
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