The beer that Bob McCafferty and his staff brew at the North Country Brewing Company, in Slippery Rock, is certainly worth the journey. But the craft beer isn’t the only reason to give North Country a look. Since it opened in 2005, McCafferty and his wife, Jodi, have aimed to serve fresh-brewed beer and pub grub, as well as operate a business that is environmentally and community conscious.

For example, 5 percent of the  sales of North Country’s Station 33 Firehouse Red is donated to the local fire department. Additionally, McCafferty founded an initiative called Polishing the Rock, a community-wide clean-up day. 

But helping the environment doesn’t stop there. The spent grains from the brewing process, for example, are used to feed the cattle on McCafferty’s farm. Those animals provide the meat for the farm-to-fork half-pound burgers. (North Country also offers local buffalo and Angus burgers.) The McCaffertys also grow a lot of their own vegetables.

Much of the restaurant’s waste is turned to compost. “Only 10 percent of our waste goes to the landfill,” says McCafferty. “We are trying to do things differently here. When you think about it, a microbrewery is the perfect place to be environmentally friendly. The beer is served in reusable glass mugs and you can even take it home in reusable, re-fillable containers.

“We do what we can.”

141 S. Main St., Slippery Rock. 724-794-2337 or www.northcountrybrewing.com

This article appears in Jan 18-24, 2012.

3 replies on “North Country Brewing Company”

  1. Thanks for a terrible article!! You could do more than print a half-formed idea as a “column”. It would be nice if this article had a few more paragraphs to actually explain what the bar is and where it is and perhaps a photo or two. If someone had never heard or this place, I doubt they would learn a darn thing from this terrible excuse for writing. This “paper” is yet another reason I am often ashamed of Pittsburgh.

  2. While I enjoy their beer and food, the bartenders are horrible and pretentious. You will wait 10 minutes for a beer while they chitchat away. Yeah I’m talking about you Freeze especially. The hippy guy (Dave?) is okay though. Don’t sit at the bar.

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