Monday Rant: Beer Metallica

There was a good piece in Craft Pittsburgh Magazine in its latest issue about how having to expand into canning, bottling and new buildings are all great problems to have for a few local breweries. Two of the brewing companies mentioned in this feature were North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock (which provided me with my very first taste of microbrews while in college) and Rivertowne in Export. Both places are in the beginnings of starting to can some of their beer.

In my mind, the fact remains that this is a great thing for these companies on our local scene. There's more beer to be purchased out on the market and we now can enjoy some of these brews in the comfort of our own homes instead of physically going to the pubs of these companies like we had to previously.

I have a grandmother that can't get over how picky I am sometimes at the dinner table. We're a Slovak family and that shows in our holiday gatherings as the meals are very ethnic. Let's just say I only eat half of what's actually served for dinner on Christmas Eve.

The same can be said for other aspects of my life. When it comes to beer I'm picky about how it's served. I don't really prefer beer from a can as I can easily distinguish some type of metallic taste that seems to settle in the beer.

Some craft breweries are going to can their beer whether I like it or not. So, this is just going to be something I have to get over. Still, I'm excited to have a chance to purchase some beer that I couldn't do previously.

Full Pint Brewing Company: Growing Fast

I was privileged to spend a good portion of my day, yesterday at Full Pint Brewing in North Versailles. The brewery's Twitter account bio reads "Good people, good beer." In my opinion, this holds true.

I got to meet some of the brewers there as well as tasting some of the newer concoctions it has to offer. Over the last two years or so, Full Pint has gone from newcomer to a household name on the shelves at our local beer distributors.

Full Pint's current brew house

The brewery intends on releasing a new beer series entitled Beer Nerd Saison. I was fortunate enough to try the most recent batch, which was brewed with a helping of Elderflower. Expect to see this beer on local taps soon as mostly a draft-only release.

I was also lucky enough to try the recently released Night of the Living Stout by Full Pint, which features a strong, roasted malt presence with plenty of cocoa notes. That should be both bottle and draft.

Full Pint is also getting ready to expand. According to Jake Kristophel, the brewery is planning on adding to the current brew house and possibly adding more 30-barrel bright tanks. More Rumplepilsen and White Lightning for craft beer fans in this area can only be a good thing.

A new batch of Chinookie IPA being brewed.

The Infamous Blue-Eyed Blueberry Blonde Ale Still Exists

I've always let it be known about my obsession with the Blue-Eyed Blueberry Blonde Ale I drank two years ago while on a trip to Buffalo. The place I had it was Pearl Street Grill and Brewery, a six floor bar and restaurant that brewed all of its beer in-house just outside of Buffalo's HSBC Arena. I honestly can't stop thinking and talking about it.

Pearl Street's Beer Profiles

A few weeks ago I wrote a decently long piece on my fascination with blueberry ales, with an emphasis on the aforementioned craft brew. While writing that, I looked on Pearl Street's website for a description and couldn't find any trace of the beer. I also referenced this supposed fact in my Beer Rankings update last week.

Since it's getting to that time of the year in which it usually comes out, I took one last look and was relieved to find it still in existence. It was just well hidden. It's also evident that the brew is part of a special release series the brewery has.

I've also taken a screen cap of the beer's profile, but it can be found if you click on "St. Pearlie Girl Persuasions." Once the button is clicked, the beer lists under the Persuasion series appears. I simply took the Persuasion label as a single beer. Oh how wrong I was.

The good news is that one of my all-time favorite beers still exists. The next step is finding out an easier way to get it instead of driving all of the way to Buffalo again. I'm definitely open for suggestions.

This was me for a bit there.

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Apparently North Country Brewing Has Beer on Cask

I've made it known that Blue Dust in Homestead is my favorite brew pub to frequent due to its 26 beers on-tap, but before I had Blue Dust I had North Country Brewing Company in Slippery Rock.

North Country was the first time I had craft beer when I turned legal age and it opened up an entirely different world for me. It's also the primary source for my love affair with fruit beer. Last week I stopped in once again with a friend and noticed something that I hadn't before, even though it's most likely been there the entire time.

Apparently North Country has a cask system. Now, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. It's just a single cask, but at least it's there. I'm a newbie when it comes to cask beer, but I know enough about it being live beer at it's best to realize it's worth a drink whenever you get a chance to snag a glass.

This isn't my first rodeo when it comes to cask beer. Just check out one of the most-read posts in the young history of this blog, it's just my second.

I really didn't have a single idea of what cask beer was before I tried it a month back. To make a long story short, I loved it.

Case-in-point, the actual news here is that North Country Brewing does have a cask system. I wouldn't have even noticed it except for the fact that I was on the bar stool directly in front of it. It almost looks as if it's out of use. There wasn't even anything on the tap list that said anything was on it (FYI Squirrel Nut Brown was the beer on cask). If I was North Country I'd be promoting the hell out of it up there.

I know that North Country has that smaller bar upstairs and the split-open kegs in the bathroom that are urinals that everyone loves, but this cask system is one of the lesser-known gems in this place.

According to Pittsburgh's favorite craft beer writer at Craft Pittsburgh, North Country isn't the only place to sample their brand of beer beer on cask.

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