Beer Review: North Country Squirrel's Nut Brown.

Serving Type: Cask

ABV: Five percent

Appearance: Squirrel's Nut Brown is one of the darker brown ales I've come across. It looks very thick and opaque. Since this beer was on the cask system that took me three years to notice the head was lively and beautiful. Very white and puffy. It lingered around for a good while and added a slight creaminess to the the rest of the beer.

Smell: I got plenty of dark malts from this beer. Behind that was a scent of both caramel and nuts.The head was so lively that I had to be weary of not getting my nose caught in it.

Taste: The dark malts and the caramel are dominant on the tongue. The nuts come in on the finish. I've also had this beer on regular draft. I must admit that the taste seems a lot stronger and darker when it's served on cask.

Overall Rating:   

I've been able to enjoy this beer both on tap and cask. I like it much more on cask. The beer seems more lively and flavorful that way. North Country Brewing is a bit forgotten due to it's location on Main Street in Slippery Rock, but its been known to put out some decent brews.

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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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