For the past six months, the most raved-about beer festivals in New York have been the Get Real cask festivals. In September and March, Patrick Donagher of Rattle-N-Hum and his hard-working cohorts assembled a mass of cask beer from all over the world to pour throughout a whole weekend of festival sessions. While we here love cask beer, we know it’s an acquired taste, and given the success of their cask festivals, we hoped they’d do a beer festival that serves beer at a little less than room temperature.

Our prayers have been answered. The Get Real NY Belgian Festival is slated for July 8th and 9th at the Altman Building in Chelsea. And while it’ll still be the same format - pay one price, get lots of delicious, rare beer - they’ll make improvements still on what was already a great beer festival format.

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Here are the beer-related goings-on after work in and around New York tonight:

• It’s the “Battle of the Beers” tonight at 6:30pm at The Porterhouse Brewing Company at Fraunces Tavern (54 Pearl St., at Broad St., Financial District). Brought to you by Porterhouse Brewing and Tapped Craft Beer Events, this
  tasting event pits American beers up against their Irish counterparts in a fight to the death. Okay, fine, no death. It’s just $20 for the flight.
• Celebrate “The Big Lebrewski” today starting at 4pm at Rattle-N-Hum (14 E. 33rd St., at 5th Ave., Midtown). They’re tapping kegs of a ton of imported beers from Shelton Brothers, including Denmark’s Mikkeller, Norway’s Nøgne Ø, Belgium’s De Struise, and many more.
• Bierkraft (191 Fifth Ave., at President St., Park Slope) has summer on its mind with tonight’s free Tuesday Night Tasting. They’ll be serving summer seasonals from a handful of craft brewers starting at 7pm.
• Blue Point comes to The Pony Bar (637 10th Ave. at 45th St., Hell’s Kitchen) tonight starting at 6pm, with some rarities like the No Apologies Imperial IPA, Sour Cherry Imperial Stout, Double Blonde, and more. Believe it or not, this is Blue Point’s first-ever Pony Bar event. Enjoy it.
• This week’s Ten Buck Tasting at Jimmy’s No. 43 (43 E. 7th St., at 2nd Ave., East Village) salutes some nice summer brews: saisons. For $10, you’ll be walked through a tasting of six different saisons. It all gets underway at 7:30pm.
• Sunswick 35/35 (35-02 35th St., at 35th Ave., Astoria) kicks off their 3rd Annual Belgian Beer Fest tonight starting at 7pm. The fest runs through next Sunday, and will feature 25 draft lines of Belgians from Maredsous, Dupont, Glazen Toren, and a mind-numbingly long list of others.

Here are the beer-related goings-on after work in and around New York tonight:

• Pennsylvania’s Tröegs takes over the taps at Bierkraft (191 Fifth Ave., at President St., Park Slope) tonight at 7pm, with the Javahead, HopBack Amber, Troegenator, and much more on tap.
• The Iron Monkey (97 Greene St., at York St., Jersey City, NJ) hosts New Jersey’s pride and joy: River Horse Brewing. From 6-10pm tonight, enjoy any of six of their brews, including the Summer Blonde, which sounds just about perfect when basking in the sunshine on the bar’s rooftop.
• The “Shitty Kitty” drink and draw event returns to Mission Dolores (249 4th Ave., at Carroll St., Park Slope) tonight from 7-11:30pm. The big draw, though, might be the $2 tallboy cans of Sixpoint. If you haven’t gotten your hands on their cans yet, here’s a perfect opportunity.

We’ve noted how many local breweries have been struggling lately to keep up with demand for their product. Captain Lawrence Brewing Company had fallen victim to this fate, having had pulled out of New Jersey last year. At its location in Pleasantville, there simply isn’t enough room to brew enough beer to even meet its demand in New York, and their beer is becoming increasingly harder to find at Manhattan bars.

Thankfully, that situation will improve later this year, as owner and brewer Scott Vaccaro announced they will be moving to a new, larger facility in Elmsford, about five miles south of their current brewery. The new space in an Industrial Park north of the center of Elmsford will more than double their square footage - to over 18,000 - and will leave room for additional expansion. More importantly, however, it will greatly increase their capacity for brewing.

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Here’s what’s brewing with beer in New York and beyond:

• Among ten NYC food and dining trends: growlers, gastropubs “officially dead” [Eater]
• New York Times visits Tap Room 307; suggests going for lunch
• Beer bar with outdoor decks, picnic tables, barbeque and 75 drafts coming to Bronx [YourNabe]
• Speaking of the Bronx, Daily News chronicles the competing beers made by contract brewers arriving in Bronx bars this summer
• Some people weren’t happy with this weekend’s Brewers Picnyc [Gothamist]
• “Battle of the Beers” next week at Porterhouse at Fraunces Tavern [Tapped Craft Beer Events]
• Before trying The Tonic, Brooklyn Brewery got a thumbs-down from the Feds on The Penicillin [Beernews]

Here are the beer-related goings-on after work in and around New York tonight:

• Anderson Valley heads over to Rattle-N-Hum (14 E. 33rd St., at 5th Ave., Midtown) tonight at 4pm, with ten beers on tap, including Gatlin Damnosus (a sour ale), Poleeko Pale Ale, and Rude Eye Red Ale. Plus, AVBC owner Trey White will be on hand, too.
• If you like IPAs, you’re in luck. Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village) celebrates the style all day today, with some exemplary IPAs, including Ballast Point Sculpin, Hill Farmstead Abner, a cask of Brooklyn Blast, and many more.
• Meanwhile, if you’re looking for some thirst-quenching session beers, head over to The Double Windsor (210 Prospect Park West, at 16th St., Windsor Terrace) for their Session Beer event tonight at 7pm. For just $5, grab a pint of some great summery low-alcohol beers like Firestone Walker Pale 31, Davidson Brothers ESB, and Greenport Harbor Summer Ale.