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.

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.

Continuing my research on pinball in North Brooklyn last night, klk and I stopped into Mug’s Ale House to play their machine.  I was skeptical of the Family Guy Pinball, because honestly I’m burnt out on that show…but it proved to be a really awesome machine.  So far I feel like this machine is the gold standard.  Really fun.

Click HERE to go to the North Brooklyn Pinball Directory!