Day 48, 2.17.11, North Coast Brewing - Cask Conditioned Red Seal Ale

We stopped into the pub/tasting room in Fort Bragg's North Coast Brewing Company.  I'm always excited to visit a brewery, because oftentimes they have beers on tap that aren't otherwise available.  Such was not the case with North Coast, as I'd had all twelve of their offerings previously, save one: the cask conditioned version of their flagship red/pale ale, Red Seal.
Our bartender worked her tail off hand pumping glasses and pints for the Sunday lunch rush.  She was also busy pouring 12 item samplers about once every five minutes or so.  We collectively kept her on her toes.  Well done, we appreciate it!
It was forced from it's cask into a glass of nearly solid head, which slowly cascaded into a beautiful copper red beer with a nice dense foamy white head.
There is plenty of malt on the nose, as well as some bitter orange and a touch of hops.
The hops come through much more fully on the palate, and is nicely rounded into a beer with some nice malt body and a fair amount of citric sour character.  I've always thought Red Seal was a decent basic red ale, but I really did  prefer it cask conditioned.  It was just lightly effervescent, but with a nice creamy head and not overly cold.  7 out of 10