Drain Pour Founder and Editor-in-Chief Steve Esparra is still nursing a mean hangover from the bender that is ACBF weekend. If you’ve ever wondered what the answer is to the question “how much beer is too much beer?” the answer can be found in the hours after the fest trying to continue drinking at the after party. 

Luckily, the early portion of the day was spent combing through 400+ beers to find the best the fest had to offer. Hopefully you got to try most or all of these, or that you at least get to in the future.

5. Vinyl Brewing – Lowlife Pilsner 4.2%
There’s nothing like an easy-drinking pils on a hot summer day, and this beer checked that box perfectly. The dudes behind the table were awesome to chat with, and explained that it’s called Lowlife as a play on Miller High Life, and not named after The Bouncing Souls song. Which is ironic, because I’d save money if I wasn’t a lush, too.

4. Neck of the Woods – Blueberry Brunch Berliner Weisse 5%
Normally, this fruited sour style isn’t in my wheelhouse, but I’m making an exception for this one. Blueberry Brunch is a berliner brewed with oats, blueberries, vanilla beans and maple syrup. It’s quite literally blueberry pancakes in liquid form. Wish Neck of the Woods tent was closer to the pork roll truck so I could just drink an unlimited number of these while waiting for my PEC+SPK.

3. Alternate Ending – Cooperator Doppelbock 6.9%
We didn’t have a doppelbock making the best beers of the weekend in our ACBF bingo card, yet here we are. Sometimes you need a change of pace, and this beer just was a right place/right time thing for me. Just a really good foeder-lager with great creaminess, a perfect heady foam, and malty/caramel goodness. Hops may be the hype nowadays, but AE puts out some truly magical lagers and crispies. To top it off, they are one of the very few breweries in Jersey able to serve food, because NJ is stupid and our laws suck.

2. Coastal Brew Works – MerMan(go) IPA 8.5%
There are pleasant surprises, and then there was our reaction to Coastal Brew Works brand new mango IPA, MerMan(go). If you wanna talk about refreshing and tasty, it doesn’t get much better than this. I can’t imagine how many of these I had throughout the weekend, and it still wasn’t enough. They can’t put this beer in cans soon enough; and there are talks of big things coming soon for the gypsy brewery in terms of opening their own space. Fun fact: CBW owner and head brewer Matt Potenski has satire exposure that even predates Drain Pour.

1. Eskerhart – Den Imperial Stout 13%
Speaking of brewers getting their own spaces… right before ACBF weekend, Eskerhart announced they signed a lease to open their own facility in High Bridge, NJ. Of course, this only builds on the hype and adds to the legend of getting to taste some of the best homebrew recipes in the business. Den is an imperial stout that was conditioned on cacao nibs, raisins, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews, and almonds. So it’s safe to say this beer is nuts. The 13% is hidden behind all the rich flavor and silky mouthfeel. The future is bright for owners Bobby & Brielle D’Angelo.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to lie down for about a week. Can’t decide if I’m going to give up drinking until next year’s fest or just drink more to build up my tolerance, but either way, 2023 is going to be tough to beat.