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.

Beers come and go, but there are those few that people look for, age, and hoard…and one of those beers is Goose Islands Bourbon Country Stout. It is one of the last two bottles that have been aging for years in my house, and I’m happy to say that 12oz bottle of the 2007 vintage will be sitting on that shelf for a very long time to come.

But in the mean time if you would like to get a taste of the 2009 batch Brouwerij Lane has recently tapped a keg.

Bourbon County Stout is probably one of the most expensive domestically produced beers, and when you see a 12oz bottle in stores they typically sell for $8.99 and up (and $9 a bottle is a very good price for this one). Brouwerij Lane is offering this rarity for $8 per 12oz goblet, or $44 for a 64oz growler to take home ($22 if you want the 32oz). While this seems like an expensive beer…it is, and you should be aware it is very possible that you will not see it on tap for at least another year.

Bourbon County Stout is pitch black in your glass…no light can penetrate it. The smells that come off of it is of bourbon whiskey (as expected), oak, and strong roasted chocolate malts. The mouthfeel is thick, and rich…and the taste is a sensory overload that coats your mouth, and leaves you with an after taste that lingers much longer than any other beer I have tasted in recent years. It is said to be an excellent cigar beer, and I can see why. On top of it’s wonderfully intense smell and taste the Bourbon County Stout weighs in at 13% abv so even a little bit packs a punch.

This beer will only be available for a very limited time. I you are a fan our whiskey and/or stout I highly recommend making it over to try a glass, or if you have friends with you pick up a growler. This is a beer that is meant to be shared.

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

• more What Ales You can be found here.
• more on Brouwerij Lane can be found here.

Barley Wine…well it’s not actually a wine, but the style of a very strong ale.  The style originally developed in England and was considered a drink for aristocracy and royalty, but a lot has changed since then.

Barley Wine as a style  is a very strong top fermented ale, and typically has an alcohol content ranging from 8.5% up to 14% or 15%.  With a beer as strong as the barley wine the flavors change as the beer warms showing it’s true complexity, and in proper conditions can be aged for years…and even gets better with age.

Due to the strength of barley wines they are typcially on the pricey side, especially in bars…but Brouwerij Lane has set up a Barley Wine tasting where you get two hours to enjoy samples of 10 of America’s finest. While the style originated in England I for one think the American’s do a damn good job brewing these beers, and have added their own signature to most of these brews….lots of hops (at least most of them have).

Brouwerij Lane’s Barley Wine Tasting:

• $25 for 4 ounce pours of 10 different barley wines.
• There are four sessions
  • Friday 2/19: 6-8 pm
  • Saturday 2/20: 3-5pm
  • Saturday 2/20: 6-8pm
  • Sunday 2/21: 3-5pm
    • sign up fast!  Saturday Night is almost full.
• The beer list above (on the flier) speaks for itself.  Some of my personal favorite barley wines will be present…including Great Divide’s Old Ruffian, Avery’s Hog Heaven, and the most well known of the bunch Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot.
• It is my understanding that this tasting will start from the maltiest and finish with a the hoppiest…this way you don’t burn your tounge out on a hop bomb.
• make sure to take the train or have money for a car service because you should not drive after drinking 40oz of these beers.  it should be a real good time.
• this is a great introduction to the style, and the perfect event for the beer enthusiast that wants to learn more.  Brouwerij Lane has an extremely knowledgable and approachable staff…get in there and have some fun.

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

————————————————–

• more on Brouwerij Lane here.
• more on beer in general 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.

I haven’t done a proper What Ales You in quite a while, but I felt that the new IPA from Avery deserves it.

Avery is the brewer of what I have been calling my favorite beer for years now…the Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale, and when I saw that they were doing another Imperial IPA I couldn’t wait to try it.

One might wonder why would a brewery brew two beers in the same style?  But the that can be answered easily just by the smell…it’s all about the hops.  Where as the Maharaja has big fruity flavors, like apricot and peach, from both hops and yeast, the dunganA IPA is a beer brewed, in my opinion, for much colder weather.

The dunganA is almost a Christmas beer in the sense that the hops bring to mind pine trees with it’s dank resiney skunkiness.  This is an IPA for the hop lover, the type of person that finds beers like Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA too sweet.  Don’t get me wrong…there is a ton of malt in this one, and the 8.5% alcohol shows it, but the hops are extremely aggressive.  Mouthfeel is thick and a little bit syrupy, but gives you the feeling that you are drinking something that can warm you all the way down to your toes.

This is a limited release, but so good I image that Avery will be putting it into regular rotation.  I was afraid of another IPA from Avery, could it be as good as the Maharaja…but of course it can…and this one is damn fine.

The dunganA IPA is now available at

Brouwerij Lane
78 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

$18 per growler (which is a great price considering that a 22oz bottle runs $9 or more)
it is also available to sample in the store in both 8oz and pint sized portions (unsure of the prices…thinking $3/$6)

The keg was tapped this past weekend and I don’t expect it too be around too much longer…and I’m hoping to get a second growler of it…so hurry up and get down to Brouwerij Lane.

Links:

• more on Avery Brewing Company  here.
• more on Brouwerij Lane here.
• more What Ales You 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.

Kombucha (käm-ˈbü-shə, -chə) is a fermented tea that is imbibed for medicinal purposes, although there is currently no specific scientific information supporting any purported benefits.^[1]. Kombucha is available commercially, but can be made at home by fermenting tea using a visible solid mass of microorganisms called a kombucha culture or mushroom. (via)

Kombucha Brooklyn and Brouwerij Lane are having a Kombucha Keg Launch this Saturday.  Kombucha Brooklyn will have their signature natural kombucha on tap for the first time, and they will also be premiering two new flavors (also on tap)!  Starting tomorrow October 24th Brouwerij Lane will have a keg of Kombucha from Kombucha Brooklyn on tap all the time! The kegger starts at 6pm!

Here are all the details:

If you haven’t tried kombucha… it’s good for you and it’s a great hang over cure!  I can’t wait to get 64 ounces of the stuff to bring home.

Links:

• more on Brouwerij Lane here.