A beer tradition that has been going on in Williamsburg for many years is happening again this weekend.  March 6th & 7th welcomes the annual Split Thy Skull strong ale festival back to Mugs Ale House.

Mugs Ale House is a long running beer establishment, and an establishment that champions craft beer.  If you want a good brew,  great bar food, an incredible draft selection, and some of the most reasonable prices in town this is where you want to be.

With that said you can find the full list of beers for Split Thy Skull 2010 here, but I’m going to give you my personal picks by style too. Please note that each day has a different tap list (yes, I know that sounds crazy…but it’s true).

Saturday March 6th:

• Brown Ale
  • Goose Island Brown Goose 9%
• Double IPA
  • Two Brothers Hop Juice 9.9%
• Dark Belgian Ale
  • Sixpoint Express 2008  11.3%
• Barley Wine
  • Nogne O #100 Barleywine 10.0%
• Belgian Pale Ale
  • St. Somewhere Lectio Divina  8.00%
• My number one recommendations is….
  • Cask Ale// Barley Wine double fermented with Champagne yeast
    • Otter Creek Quercus Vitis Humulus
      • If you go you must try this.  Like nothing else.

Sunday March 7th:

• Barley Wine Cask:
  • Heavy Seas Below Decks
• Double IPA
  • Greenflash Palate Wrecker 9.0%
• Old Ale
  • Kuhnenns 4th Dementia 9.5%
    • these beers don’t make it here that often, and everything I’ve had has been amazing.
• Imperial Stout
  • Heavy Seas Siren Noire  8.0%
• Dark Belgian Style Ale
  • 21st Amendment Monks Blood  8.3%
• Intergalactic Oak Aged Stout (self proclaimed)
  • Brewdog Tokyo 18.2%
• Aged Barley Wine
  • Sierra Bigfoot 2005  9.6%
    • fucking classic.

Check out the full tap list here!

Those are my short lists…and I won’t even get to try all of those…and there are so many that I’ve never even had.  This is a beer event not to be missed.  Get to Mugs, grab a table, order a beer, and chow down on some good and cheap bar food.

If you can’t make it this weekend stop in next week…you will get the dregs of the fest, but when we are talking about strong ales that isn’t bad at all…I plan on doing that myself.

• More What Ales You can be found here.
• More on Mugs Ale House can be found here.

Raging Bitch.  Not something I would normally title a post, but this is a special occasion…I have to be honest and say that I haven’t been all that interested in Flying Dog Brewery over the past couple years.  When I was first getting into beer their mixed 12 packs at $11.99 were a great price to experience a whole bunch of different styles, but these days I don’t really reach for it…until the other day…

klk went up to Brouwerij Lane and picked up a growler of Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch.  Raging Bitch is a Belgian IPA that weighs in at 8.3% abv.  While it claims to be a Belgian IPA there is very little that is Belgian about this beer when you first get it in your hands.  It caters to the IPA fan.  The scent and taste  are of deep resiney aggressive hops… a truly American take on the Belgian triple, and when I say American I mean that the hops are the star of the show, and the sweet malt profile and the fruity yeast are just a faint backbone.  Only after the beer warms a bit does the fruity aspects of the Belgian start to show.  The best beer I have had from Flying Dog in years…I guess that is why it is their 20th Anniversary Ale.

It’s hard to believe that Flying Dog Ales is 20 years old.  A brewery that started in Colorado that now has an equally large brewery in Maryland (where they contract brew for Highland, Terrapin, Blue Point and others).  A craft brewer that I don’t think about too often, but this beer just might bring them to mind all the time.

The Raging Bitch Belgian IPA was tapped at Brouwerij Lane just a day or two ago, and is $16 a growler (you can also get a pint in the store). Honestly I’m a sucker for this style, but if you are in the area I highly recommend trying it.

Brouwerij Lane is located at:
78 Greenpoint Avenue
(at the corner of Franklin Ave.)
Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Links:

• this is part of my series called What Ales You.
  • read more of these posts here.
• more on Brouwerij Lane here.
• more on Flying Dog here.

So the GRE is finally over, and last night klk and I went to Mugs Ale House to have a couple drinks and celebrate.  Mugs annually has a Belgium Comes To Brooklyn Festival where they showcase many rare Belgian and Belgian style ales, and while we missed this event this time around there were still quite a few on tap, and at extremely reasonable prices.

Last night we drank a twenty ounce pint of Pretty Things Baby Tree Quad (8.7%abv, and only $7).  The Baby Tree  “benefits from the addition of 40lbs of dried California plums in the kettle – hopefully contributing to the overall dark-fruit character of the beer”.

We also had a Saint Somewhere Athene (also a twenty ounce pint, 7.5%abv, and only $7).  This one is brewed with chamomile, lemon zest, herbs, and bacterial sour yeast.  Sour and savory, and completely unique.

Avery’s Salavation is on tap and on sale for $3 for 16 ounces…this beer is 9%abv, and Avery Brewing Company’s excellent Belgian style triple.  They also had the extremely rare Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus on tap as well as many others.

If you get a chance to stop into Mugs today or tomorrow you will surely enjoy some excellent Belgians that are rarely seen for an extremely affordable price. Oh yeah, and for bar food…they have some of the best (and cheap too).

Links:

• More What Ales You can be found here.
• More on Avery Brewing can be found here.

My two favorite beverage establishments are having events this week revolving around my favorite squash!

The first event is tonight:

The Diamond presents

Pumpkin Carving Tonight, 7-9pm
-pumpkins for sale at the bar
-we supply the knives
-$1 off drinks for participants

I’m about 99% sure you will be able to drink the Southern Tier PumpKing while you are carving at the Diamond…sounds like a perfect combination!

If you are looking for something that involves beer, but does not involve knives and cutting up squashes…you might should check this one out on Thursday:

Brouwerij Lane’s Pumpkin Harvest Party

This event will have Dogfish Punkin on tap, and let it be known that this is my favorite pumpkin ale.   And if you aren’t into that the Victory Wet Hop Harvest is a treat every year…made with fresh hops!

The Diamond and Brouwerij Lane consistently have wonderful beer selections, and have been supplying me with some of my favorites this year.  Fall is a great time for Craft Beer (the alcohol seems to increase as it gets colder outside) so grab your pumpkin and get out there and have a drink!

Links:

• more on the Diamond here.
• more on Brouwerij Lane here.

Last week I went to Alphabar NYC.  If you don’t know what Alphabar is…well it’s a drinking club.  Basically every two weeks the group goes to a different bar.  The first week was a bar that started with A, the second meeting was a bar that started with  B, and last week was H…the bar for H was HiFi, and next week will be I (not sure where that is going to be yet).  I hear that I will be Alphabar NYC’s first trip to Brooklyn!

But basically you join the group on Facebook, and when you go to the events you get drink specials that Alphabar as arranged with whatever bar is for that Letter.  Hifi gave us $4 draft beers til 10pm, and this was the perfect way to have a couple drinks before heading over to Sufjan Stevens at Musichall of Williamsburg.  Alphabar is a great way to get some cheap drinks, and meet some good people.

Hi Fi is one of my favorite spots in the East Village, and they typically have great drink specials every week night from 9-12am…and they have the best jukebox in the city (click here for more on that)

In the back of the bar they have a pool table, big buck hunter, and a CSI Pinball machine.  This was my first time playing this machine…it is a newer one made by Stern, and as expected it is crime scene/science themed.  This machine was in perfect condition with a really fun playing field (a centrifuge that you could hit the ball into, skull shaped ball lock mechanisms, microscopes, ect).  The multi-balls weren’t easy to get, but if you can they are super fun.  Not all of the new machines by Stern are good, but this one was pretty awesome.

I know it’s not in Brooklyn, but it is highly recommended.

The specifics:
Machine: CSI
Price: 75 cents per play, or 3 for $2
Level: a bit steep, but overall fair.
Condition: Brand new. Works perfectly.
Notes: A great machine at a great bar.  Another reason why I love HiFi.

Links:

• The North Brooklyn Pinball Directory
• Join Alphabar NYC (everyone is invited) here!
• more about HiFi and their amazing jukebox here.
• more on Pinball here.

Roth-toberfest is upon us!

You might recall the info the Diamond released last week:

Roth-toberfest is Saturday, 10/10 from 2-6pm
What:  combo David Lee Roth’s b-day & Octoberfest Celebration
What:  3 unique wooden barrels of festbier straight from Germany served in the yard
What:  Wear a long blond wig and get your first beer for free
What:  $5 sausage & spaetzle plates brought to you by the fabulous Bob Pickett
What:  DJ’s Herr Mark, Frau Mary, and Diamond David Lee Pollack spin your favorite German Tunes & Van Halen

Now I bring to you the details about these “3 unique wooden barrels of festbier straight from Germany served in the yard,” but there is one kicker…they aren’t all from Germany!

• Hochzeitsbier von 1810, Served on Gravity from Wooden Barrel (this one is brewed in Austria)
  • “Original Maerzen style beer  brewed for the Royal Wedding of 1810”
  • darker in color, much stronger in alc/vol (6.3% abv), and much more full-bodied!

  The annual commemoration of this historic event and brew is now known as the “Munich Octoberfest” which is held every year in Muncih from the last week of September through the first week of October. The “Original Hochzeitsbier von 1810” goes back to the Original “Maerzen-style beer” that was served in 1810. Relative to today’s “adjusted” Octoberfestbiers it is much darker in color, much stronger in alc/vol, and much more full-bodied!  Just the way beers were brewed around that time!

• Schneider Weisen Edel Weisse, Served on Gravity from Wooden Barrel

  Schneider’s Wiesen Edel-Weisse was traditionally brewed for the Octoberfest in Munich. The term ‘Wiesen’ in Germany means meadow, and it is a slang term for Octoberfest.  Many years ago, the beer brewed for Octoberfest was not necessarily the standard maerzen style lager beer associated with the event today. At this time, there were many styles of beer brewed there. The festival was in October rather than September, and it was often quite cold out, making necessary richer and stronger beers. Thus, Schneider’s Wiesen Edel-Weisse was made to be warming. It was quite full bodied, as the malt contained a fair amount of unfermentable sugar. In order to balance such a beer, it had to be brewed with more hops for balance, resulting in more noticeable hop character than is usually found in hefe weizens.  By law, German brewers must have their production facility in Munich in order to participate in the Octoberfest. Thus, Schneider had to leave the Octoberfest in 1942 when their Munich brewery was destroyed in the war. Fortunately they have chosen to re-create the style for the American market.

• Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock, Unfiltered

  This beer is brewed with 100% beech smoked malt. The brewery’s flagship is a smoked Maerzen around 5.5%. The Urbock clocks in at 6.4%. The brewery generally filters both beers so for us to get this unfiltered keg was highly unusual. Looking forward to trying it. Should go great with the sausages!

These three very rare beers will be served for $7 a pint which is quite a good deal considering we may never see them again!

The Diamond will also have one domestically brewed ale on special:

• Southern Tiers Harvest Ale
  • it’s and ESB and will be on special for $5

  Harvest Ale is our celebration of the changing weather and the sowing of hops and barley that will be used in our upcoming brews. We usher in the fall with a classic English style Extra Special Bitter of the highest order. Deep ruby in color with an even deeper hop flavor… in fact, we throw fresh English hops into every brewing vessel, then dry hop after fermentation to impart a zesty kick. This beer has real hop character that mingles with fresh malted barley for an experience that will make you wish it were fall year ‘round.

As I mentioned last week Southern Tier’s Pumpking is on tap through Thanksgiving so you will also have an opportunity to drink that if you need something that boasts 9% abv.

I look forward to drinking all of these tomorrow (and eating the artisnal sausages as well).  Hope to see you there.

Links:

• more on the Diamond here.

The Diamond has a lot of special things planned for the fall and it all started on Tuesday night when a cask of Brooklyn Brewery’s BLAST! was tapped.

The blast is one of my favorite beers that Brooklyn Brewery does, and it is a extra pale ale, almost an ipa, but not quite.  Extremely drinkable, and dangerously alcoholic.  It is the middle ground where the pale ale drinker and the ipa lover meet.  On cask this beer is even more delicate with a toned down hop profile…and a silky smooth mouth feel.  An excellent beer for

anytime of the year, but nice and warming at 8.5% abv for these cold days that just arrived…and only $6 a pint!.

Next up is Southern Tiers Pumpking! The ridiculously big imperial pumpkin ale, that graced the Diamond for the presidential debates last year, and will be tapped again tonight or tomorrow…as soon as one of the tap lines runs dry.  The Diamond says that the Pumpking will be around until Thanksgiving so you have plenty of time to try this wonderful seasonal.

These two wonderful beers are paving the way for what I consider the only Oktoberfest party worth attending (well maybe there is another one, but this one kind of seals the deal for me)!

Roth-toberfest is Saturday, 10/10 from 2-6pm…less than 2 weeks away.
What:  combo David Lee Roth’s b-day & Octoberfest Celebration
What:  3 unique wooden barrels of festbier straight from Germany served in the yard
What:  Wear a long blond wig and get your first beer for free
What:  $5 sausage & spaetzle plates brought to you by the fabulous Bob Pickett
What:  DJ’s Herr Mark, Frau Mary, and Diamond David Lee Pollack spin your favorite German Tunes & Van Halen

I hadn’t been to the Diamond in a while, but we stopped by last night for a couple rounds…and got to hang out with Dave.  I’m not going to spoil any surprises, but the “3 unique wooden barrels of festbier straight from Germany served in the yard”  are not to be missed.  From what we heard these are going to be very special brews, and most likely ones you haven’t tried (or at least not in this form).  Mark your calendars…I will be there at 2pm to make sure I get to try all of them.

More details to come on Roth-toberfest as the Diamond releases them!

A little bit of sad news…the Diamond will be going back to winter hours starting Saturday October 17th…they will be openinging at 4pm instead of 2pm on Saturday and Sundays.

Dave also gave clues to some other special kegs that are living in the basement of the Diamond… it is a good time for beer.

Oh Diamond I have missed you, and I won’t stay away that long again.

• Photo by Jenojenny via flickr
• more about the Diamond can be found here.
• previous What Ales You post can be read here.

This weekend involved much more than pinball (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and the Edible Manhattan Fall Harvest Party), but we did manage to check out a couple more machines.

I had been reading about Satellite Lounge for a while, and heard that they had several machines… Satellite Lounge is a very short walk from Grand Street, and after finishing dinner at Caracas we headed over for a beer.  The sign outside the bar said “Good Vibes,” and that is something harder to deliver than one would expect…but that is exactly what Satellite Lounge is….Good Vibes.

As we walked up to the bar we could see five glowing pinball machines!  Typically I’m surprised to see a bar with two machines, but 5 is unheard of.  Four of the machines are newer machines produced by Stern (Batman, Simpsons, 24, and Lord Of the Rings), but they also had one machine made by Williams (Taxi). All of the machines were 50 cents a play, expect for Batman (75 cents per play, or 3 for $2).  All of the machines were pretty level, but the Lord of the Rings and 24 machines were a little on the steep side…not bad, but a little fast.

Beers were reasonably priced too…Lagunitas IPA for $5, and the bartender had good taste in music as well.  I will definitely be making the trip to Satellite whenever I have the urge for pinball…it is by far Brooklyn’s Best Pinball destination.

Saturday night we stopped in at the Levee on the way back from the Harvest Party.  The Levee isn’t my favorite bar, but they do have really reasonably priced beers (and good beers at that…$5 Dogfish 90 mins).  The Levee only has one machine, and that is the same Batman machine that Satellite Lounge had.

The Batman machine showed me how much two identical machines can differ.  The machine at the Levee was very steep (I can’t call this one level), and wobbly (the machine shook when you hit the flippers hard). The machine itself also did not work like the one at Satellite Lounge Machine either.

A little bit on the Batman machine itself…at Satellite Lounge this was our favorite machine.  Very unique playing field, and bonuses…the machine even rumbled (literally shook the whole machine) during some of the bonuses, but at The Levee this feature was broken.  The machine at the Levee is playable (although we did have problems with the ball getting suck), but not ideal.

For more (easier to read details..including addresses to these places) please click through to the North Brooklyn Pinball Directory.