You can visit Kelso of Brooklyn this weekend as they open their doors to tours (photo via New York Cork Report)

If you’re looking for ways to incorporate beer into your weekend, we’ve got a few ideas for you.

Christen a Backyard: Bierkraft (191 Fifth Ave., at President St., Park Slope) opens up their backyard to outdoor drinking for the first time ever this weekend, and is throwing an Oyster and Cask Beer Party on Saturday from noon to 10pm to celebrate. Sure, the weather forecast doesn’t look too great, but with casks of Ithaca Flower Power, Brooklyn Blast!, and Kelso Oyster Stout in the forecast, you can easily ignore the raindrops.

Early-Morning Field Trip: If you’re the kind of person who likes standing in a parking lot at 7am, drinking beer while you wait to buy beer, then you’re wanted in Pleasantville tomorrow. Captain Lawrence releases their next batch of Rosso e Marrone, a GABF Gold Medal-winning American Sour Ale. At 11am, they’ll release it at their brewery for $15 a bottle (limit 6 per person), but tickets for the release (of the “take a number” variety) get put out the night before. Got any friends up in Westchester who owe you a favor?

Tour a Brewery: Speaking of Kelso of Brooklyn, they’re opening their doors to tours on Saturday at 2pm and 3pm at their facility (529 Waverly Ave., at Fulton St., Fort Greene). You can tour the brewery, which makes both the Kelso line and all the beers served at Heartland Brewery, and taste a few beers they’ve made in the process.

Get Soured: It’s sold out, but if you were one of the lucky 100 people who snagged tickets to April Sours at Jimmy’s No. 43 (43 E. 7th St., at 2nd Ave., East Village), this is your reminder to get there at the stroke of noon to squeeze in as much stomach-churning sour beer drinking as possible.

foursquared: In honor of “foursquare Day” (4/16), Amity Hall (80 W. 3rd St., at Thompson St., Greenwich Village) will be selling $4.16 drafts - or four beers for $16.

Pretty Things, Pretty Free: Tonight, enjoy a tasting of beers from Pretty Things at the Whole Foods Market Beer Room (95 E. Houston Street, at Chrystie St., Lower East Side) from 5-9pm. The owners of the gypsy brewery, Dann and Martha Paquette, will be on hand pouring free samples their spring seasonal Fluffy White Rabbits and other brews of theirs, too.

Here are the beer-related goings-on after work tonight:

• The Gate (321 5th Ave., at 3rd St., Park Slope) is hosting an Oskar Blues event tonight starting at 7pm, with old standards like Gubna and Dale’s Pale Ale, and rarities like One Hit Wonder, a special one-time release double IPA, and a 2006 vintage Ten Fidy.
• Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave., at Franklin St., Greenpoint) classes it up with Pretty Things tonight with their Pretty Things Social starting at 6pm. They’ll be serving Jack D'or, Fluffy White Rabbits, Baby Tree, and more for glasses and growler fills.
• The No-Suck Dogfish Head Event continues tonight at Downtown Bar & Grill (160 Court St., at Dean St., Cobble Hill). Now through Sunday, they’ll have a dozen rare beers from Delaware, including a 2009 Olde School barleywine, a 2009 Red & White, Bitches Brew, and two beers running through the patented Dogfish Head Randall.

Taproom 307 is one of a healthy handful of craft beer spots opening this spring in the New York area.

Spring is a time of rebirth, and nowhere is that more true than with the craft beer scene in the New York area. Already, two beer hotspots - Bierhaus NYC (712 3rd Ave., at 45th St., Midtown East) and Taproom 307 (307 3rd Ave., at 24th St., Murray Hill) - have opened up shop this spring. But there are quite a few more on the horizon that we’re looking forward to.

The details on the new spots - and projected openings - are after the jump:

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Here are the beer-related goings-on after work tonight:

• Like the good Northern California-themed beer bar that they are, it’s fitting that  Pacific Standard (82 4th Ave., at St. Marks Pl., Boreum Hill) would be the site of the New York release of Sierra Nevada’s Ovila Project. The series of Belgian-style ales are brewed by honest-to-goodness monks from the New Clairvaux Abbey in Vina, California. Proceeds from the beers will help rebuild the monastery. Pacific Standard will tap their Dubbel tonight, along with a few traditional Sierra Nevada brews, including Glissade and the new 2011 Bigfoot Ale.
• It’s dreary and rainy outside, so why not help yourself to some beer from Seattle? Elysian takes over the taps at Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village) today starting at 4pm. They’ll be celebrating the brewery’s 15th anniversary with Avatar Jasmine IPA, Analog Pale Ale, XOXO (a chocolate chili stout), Pandora’s Bock (a dunkel aged in French Oak), and countless others.
• The Stag’s Head (252 E. 51st St., at 2nd Ave., Turtle Bay) gets the whole kit-and-kaboodle from Kelso of Brooklyn tonight starting at 6pm. They’ll have Recessionator aged in Jack Daniels casks, and the big reveal of their new Industrial IPA. Kelso brewmaster Kelly Taylor will also be on hand to answer your burning beer questions, and they’ll have free cheddar cheese-stuffed meatloaf bites.
• It’s still a bit early, but you can get a sneak peek of the Hofbräu Maibock today at Bierhaus NYC (712 3rd Ave., at 45th St., Midtown East) starting at 4pm until they run out. Just ask for it by name and use the secret word, “MAYDAY.”

Brooklyn Brewery and The Vanderbilt (570 Vanderbilt Ave., at Bergen St., Prospect Heights) are coming together for a Belgian-themed beer dinner served with a selection of beers from the brewery and authentic Belgian cuisine. The four-course meal will be offered next Tuesday, April 19th at 7:30pm, and comes with five great beers, including Local 1, Brooklyner Weisse, and Wild One - a super rare version of Local 1 aged in bourbon barrels with brettanomyces yeast. Don’t worry if you don’t remember that - Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver will be on hand to remind you of all of this.

If you’re not too keen on merely eating a $50 meal, the dinner also comes with a souvenir Belgian crystal beer goblet.

For reservations, call The Vanderbilt at (718) 623-0570, or e-mail them at info [at] thevanderbiltnyc.com.

The full menu and pairings, for your mouth-watering pleasure, are after the jump:

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A little Dogfish Head for you?

Last year, Rattle-N-Hum (14 E. 33rd St., at 5th Ave., Midtown) took some very lucky individuals on a tour of Dogfish Head’s facilities in Delaware - a tour led by beer celebrity-turned-TV star, Sam Calagione.

Patrick and friends at Rattle are up to their old tricks again: they’ve pulled out the stops for the 2nd annual tour, which will take place this year on Sunday, May 15th. For $100, you’ll show up at the bar at the ass-crack of dawn (7am) to board a bus down to Delaware. Beer and food is included on the bus down, then a private tour of the Dogfish Head brewery, followed by an all-you-can-eat, open bar lunch at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, followed by a long trip back sobering up… or drinking more. You’ll get home around 9pm, and you’ll step off with a souvenir t-shirt, because what better way to commemorate the trip than something you can wear (and spill beer on)?

Tickets are on sale now at BeerMenus.com, and there are just 13 spaces left as we write this… so act fast!