Hey it’s Friday… Spring has sprung and you’re ready for some fun. Well good, because we’re all about it and we’ve got all kinds of ideas. From the nation’s coolest beer festivals to movies, music, and cutting-edge TV – we’ve got your back big-time. We’ve also a Weekend Beer Pick for you too, because we know you’ll be drinking.

So welcome to our awesome Weekend Picks…

Real Ale Returns to New England (Somerville, MA) – The longest running Real Ale Festival in the United States is going on now and into the weekend (March 26^th-29^th) and if you’ve never attended this one-of-a-kind event, you’re missing something very special. The New England Real eXhibition is taking place this year at Aeronaut Urban Farmhouse near Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts, and will be serving up more than 100 firkins of Real Ale and Cider including 50+ British beers from England, Scotland, and Wales. All the beers are cask-conditioned, and served by gravity or hand-pump. For more info on this unique event, check out: New England Real Ale eXhibition

On The Big Screen – This weekend’s big budget commercially risky offering comes from Darren Aronofsky, who directed the award-winning Black Swan. Noah (yep that Noah) stars Russell Crowe as Noah in this CGI leaden retelling of the biblical story. If you’ve seen any of the film’s trailers (that look like they came straight from the Lord of the Rings trilogy), you’ll understand that this film may owe more to films like The Hobbit than anything you learned in Sunday school – not that that’s a bad thing.

Rare Gets in Minnesota (St. Paul, MN) – The 2014 Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest is taking place this weekend at the beautiful Minnesota History Center – a spectacular setting for an experience unlike any other. Featuring rare, vintage, and one-off specialty beers from a carefully curated list of the region’s best craft breweries, this one night-only, March 29^th event showcases the creativity and skill of a select group of brewers with emphasis on incredibly hard-to-get offerings. This is where you want to be to sample beers that you’ve only heard of and may never see again. For ticket information and updates on this rare event, check out: Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest

IHeartRadio Country 2014 will be kicking it up in Austin, Texas, this weekend and if you care about country music, this is where you want to be. Country’s biggest stars including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, and Florida Georgia Line will all be performing and there are rumors that more than a few surprise guests will be showing up too. For more info and artist updates on this special Clear Channel-sponsored event, check out: iHeartRadio Country 2014

Our Awesome Weekend Beer Pick

SweetWater Brewing is celebrating an anniversary and they’ve brewed up something special for it. Their 17^th Anniversary Ale is a big, complex farmhouse-style Saison that’s initially fermented with French Saison yeast and then run through a secondary fermentation using Brettanomyces Bruxellensis – a powerful strain of yeast responsible for the brew’s big 9% ABV.