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.

Make sure you're following the Beer Snob on Twitter!

East End Brewing Takes Over Casks at Piper's Pub

Piper's is one of the coziest places to be.

One thing I regretfully didn't get too familiar with during my first venture to Piper's Pub was the cask system the bar has. There isn't really time to explain what beer on cask is, so if you aren't too familiar with it just click here. Craft Pittsburgh did a piece on cask beer in an issue last year. You can download that issue by clicking right here. In essence, and you'll read the same in the Craft Pittsburgh piece, drinking cask ale is a chance to experience a beer in a livelier fashion than you're used to when having one off of a typical draft system.

Starting today, our own East End Brewing has taken over the cask system down at Piper's for the Festival of Darkness (a celebration of dark beers). On cask are three of East End's brews: Smokestack Porter, Homewood Reserve 2011 and Milk Stout.

Just as I has bragged about having the last glass of Southern Tier Pumking in almost all of Pittsburgh one night at Blue Dust in Homestead, I came across another milestone in my beer-drinking adventures by having only the second beer out of the Festival of Darkness casks today.

Tasty. Not me. The beer.

I decided to go with the Smokestack Porter and I wasn't disappointed. With this being the first beer I've ever had on cask, I noticed the beer's temperature. It was significantly warmer than any beer I've had on regular draft. I suddenly felt like I was sent back in time to London in the 1890's. Just watching the bartender use the hand pump to get my beer instead of simply lowering the tap lever and waiting for the glass to fill was exciting for me. Don't ask why.

The smoked malts came through strongly in the beer's taste and was very creamy towards the finish. It was very enjoyable. I can admit that a good portion of the flavor wouldn't have come through if the beer was much colder.

The fact that there was less carbonation in the beer in order to help create the pressure to pump it upstairs almost seemed to bring out more in the beer. The head looked thicker than most any other beer I've had (no nitro was involved!) and the flavor exploded once it hit your tongue. Despite my inexperience drinking beers on cask, something tells me that this is the way beer is meant to be drank, as I am a traditionalist in many senses.

As a heads up, the bartender let me know that Piper's intends to rearrange its tap/cask organization on the bar. Apparently imports and Pennsylvania beers will have there own section. Keep an eye out in the future.