Hey it’s Friday and the weekend’s almost here. The temperature’s dropping and you’re more ready than ever for some serious fun. Well good, because we are on it! From the nation’s coolest beer festivals to movies, music, and cutting-edge TV – we’ve got your back big-time. Plus we’ve got another one of our weekend beer picks for you to enjoy. So welcome to this week’s edition of our awesome Weekend Picks.

A Winter Harvest of Craft Beer in the Big Apple (New York, NY) – One of the East Coast’s best craft beer festivals is taking place in Manhattan this weekend. The Hand Crafted Tasting Company will be bringing the NYC Craft Beer Festival – Winter Harvest to the Lexington Avenue Armory in Manhattan this Saturday, November 23^rd and will feature two Saturday sessions, and also a “specially priced” afternoon session on Sunday. This year’s festival will showcase more than 150 winter seasonals and favorites from 75 of America’s best craft breweries and the special stash that the brewers are serving up in their VIP/Backstage Connoisseurs Lounge are very cool! This is a fun one, gang – try not to miss it.

On the Big Screen – This weekend’s big opening explains why last week’s new movies were so marginal. Clearly Hollywood was gearing up for the huge holiday offerings and they start this week when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens nationally. Many in the film community thought 2012’s The Hunger Games was one of the most satisfying franchise-starters in some time and the level of anticipation for this sequel couldn’t be stronger. Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss Everdeen, the hesitant young warrior who’s forced once again to participate in the deadly Hunger Games, and this time around, she’s joined by the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Serious Beer on The Boston Waterfront – Our friends at the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts are throwing their 4^th Annual Local Craft Brewfest tonight (11/22) from 6:00pm – 9:30pm. This popular event will once again showcase and celebrate the region’s best craft brewers, distilleries, cideries and meaderies. It’s all taking place inside of the John J. Moakley Courthouse, where the city meets the sea and a wonderful place to drink seriously.

Reggae in Miami – With winter coming on and the weather turning colder, we can’t think of a better alternative than rolling down to Miami for a day of great music, cool vibes, and whatever else is wafting through the air. The Miami Reggae Festival or as it’s known in south Florida, the One Love Nutrifest, is a one-of-a-kind festival that combines some of Reggae’s biggest artists like Stephen ‘Ragga” Marley with street foods, arts and crafts villages, massage and yoga stations and holistic workshops. For more info on this musical Zen-fest, check out: Miami Reggae Fest 2013

Our Awesome Weekend Beer Pick

Goose Island Beer Company has been doing some interesting things lately and just introduced the first of three new limited release beers slated for this year and 2014. Ten Hills is a 6.2% Pale, brewed using a unique combination of Perle, Cascade, and Saaz Hops grown especially for Goose Island at Idaho’s Elk Mountain Farms. Beginning in December, this new Pale Ale will be available nationwide in bottles and also on draft through next March.