Welcome to our “Meet The Brewer” series! Where we interview brewers in Pennsylvania, from breweries small to large. Let us know if you know anyone who should be featured, email us at info@breweriesinpa.com.

McCall Collective Brewing Company opened at the end of August 2020 in Allentown, PA, with a 7 BBL brewhouse. Between the beer and the food, McCall has gotten a great name in the short amount of time they have been open. Matt McCall is the head brewer at McCall Collective Brewing Company. Read more to find out his introduction to beer, important lessons he has learned so far, and more!

What was your introduction to craft beer?

Honestly, my dad has been drinking craft beer for as long as I can remember, so that was probably my first “exposure” to it. I remember being like 12 years old and going to friends’ houses and their dads were drinking Miller or Coors, and then I’d come home and my dad had some weird beer from Colorado that I’d never heard of. It runs in the family I guess!

How did you get started as a brewer?

Well, I guess I’d start by saying I’ve always had a knack for building flavors that were built by the Food Network during the early 2000s. I decided to go to culinary school and worked at various restaurants in the Lehigh Valley for about 6 years. Soon, I started to realize that my desire to have a “normal schedule” to accommodate a family down the line wasn’t going to happen in the culinary world, so I decided to get into the retail industry. During this time I quickly realized I drastically missed the creative side of the kitchen and it was also around the time I really started getting into craft beer, so I decided to start homebrewing.

I went from brewing 5 gallons in a bucket in my mom’s kitchen to doing 10-15 gallons in the backyard, having a Keezer with 3 kegs on tap at all times and, and just became obsessed. I decided this was what I wanted to do for a living so I applied at Sam Adams’ production brewery here in Lehigh Valley. I got hired overnight as a shift brewer and ended up taking a pretty decent pay cut to do so. I started at the bottom of the food chain there and was just cleaning tanks and scrubbing floors. Soon I was offered to learn some more roles there and eventually was offered to take Siebel classes online at the brewery’s expense so I jumped on it.

After 3 years at the brewery, I applied for a role as Head Brewer at Boston Beer’s Coney Island Brewery in Brooklyn and was given the role. I spent two years there learning the ins and outs of running a small brewery and creating recipes on a larger scale. In January of 2020 I moved home to Allentown, my wife gave birth to our first child in February, and we opened our brewery in August at the height of the Covid pandemic – perfect timing haha.

What style allows you to be the most creative, and why?

That’s a tough question to answer because I like to play around with all kinds of styles. I’ve done everything from Black lagers with spruce tips to kettle sours with tarragon. If I had to choose a style, I would say kettle sours are the most fun to play around with because you can kind of throw anything at them. Lactose, fruit, spices, herbs, etc – they’re extremely versatile.

What was the first beer you ever brewed, and what did you learn from it?

The first homebrew I ever made was a raspberry coffee stout that was aged on bourbon-soaked oak cubes. With that one, I learned that less is almost certainly more and to dial it back a bit. My first professional brew was an ESB at Coney Island and with that, I learned that even though it was delicious, most beer drinkers these days won’t try an ESB because it has the word bitter in it!

Where do you see the craft beer industry heading in the next few years?

That’s a really hard question to answer. The pandemic has thrown a wrench in the way every brewery operates. Here in the Lehigh Valley, we’re seeing a huge shift into packaged beer to go, with more and more places putting their beers in cans and crowlers. I think that trend is going to continue to grow. I also see a bit of a shift of the beer drinkers looking for more “traditional” styles like lagers and more malt-forward ales. I think the one thing we can agree on, though, is that the IPA category isn’t going anywhere soon.

Describe what it’s like to be a brewer in Pennsylvania.

For me, it’s extremely special. I’ve spent a majority of my professional career brewing in NY state and while that was amazing, I often missed the experience of having people from my hometown getting to enjoy my beer. A large part of the reason I got into the brewing industry was to share beer with the community around me. I very much enjoy brewing while we’re open to the public to talk beer with anyone who wants to learn more. Getting to do that in my hometown with strangers and friends alike is pretty rewarding.

What is the inspiration behind your beer names?

I love a good pun so I’m always trying to incorporate that as often as possible. Also, I love to draw from local history, local geography, and even some local architecture. I think it’s important in the craft industry to pay homage to the community around your brewery. Our flagship IPA’s are named after the local rivers that run through our area. I also love to draw from 90’s nostalgia as well as current shows/movies. We have a Hey Arnold inspired beer coming out soon, and our Marzen is called “Better Call Fall”.

What is your favorite beer to drink right now?

I always love a good cream ale, so anytime I can get my hands on some Genesee that’s what I’ll drink. But at the brewery, our light lager with rye “Lyte Done Ryte” is my go-to.

What is the most important lesson you learned in the beer industry so far?

Pay it forward! The craft industry is unique in the fact that small breweries aren’t really competing with each other, so I think it’s extremely important to be as helpful as possible with other breweries. I’m never shy to give advice or any kind of help a neighbor might need. I’ve been on the receiving end of so much help from other brewers/breweries and I think that’s what makes our profession so damn cool!