Hops & Props is Long Island’s premier craft beer festival because it provides attendees the chance to sample small batches of local home brewed craft beer, Long Island beers, and products made with sustainable ingredients. With a large selection of brews to choose from, craft beer enthusiasts are always looking for unique and rare beers to sample and savor.

Here are my top craft beer picks from the Hops & Props Craft Beer Festival.

Long Island’s home brewers sail the uncharted waters in the beer world and provide a product that delights your palette and tastes nothing like the beers at your local distributor or supermarket.

Eclectic Ales Russian Imperial Stout packed big bold flavors and was easy to drink. This beer definitely takes the throne with 11% abv. The Eclectic Ales Meyer Lemon 3x IPA, is sweet, strong, and will make you lips pucker.

If you have a gluten intolerance or sensitivity, finding a gluten free beer that taste good is not an easy task. However, Michelle Pagano aka the “Brew Babe” and Jason Scott were sampling their gluten free beer called Earnheart G-free Ale at the Hand Grenades and Homebrew booth. This beer just doesn’t taste good for “a gluten free beer”; it is a great tasting beer period! With food allergies on the rise, it is nice to have good options to choose from, not just a replacement that fails in comparison. Some of Pagano’s fellow HHCBS sampled two ciders: Crapple Cider and Stella’s Apple Pie Cider. These ciders were so amazing that they almost made be forget that this wasn’t a cider festival.

Flying Belgian, one of Long Island’s newest breweries is based out of Taste of Long Island in Farmingdale. One of the beers they sampled at Hops & Props is their Illegally Blonde Belgian style ale brewed with 80% NY State malt and 100% NY Hops. Just because some breweries are based out of Long Island doesn’t mean they use local ingredients in their beer. Illegally blonde is smooth, drinkable, and truly great for the local beer. This blonde gives it a thumbs up!

Lithology Brewing will be taking over the Taste of Long Island space this summer. I highly recommend you try their Rock Hammer Vanilla Porter; it has subtle hints of chocolate and coffee with a floral aroma from the vanilla beans. I am excited to see what they are going to brew next.

Sand City Brewery opened up a few months ago in Northport and is already becoming a local favorite. Their Beech Fire Smoked Porter is brewed with beechwood-smoked barley, hints of tobacco, but has caramel and molasses to add some sweetness. Definitely check out Sand City’s tasting room this spring and summer, it is located close to the beach and it is also pet friendly!

If you love collaboration beers you definitely want to try the Sly Fox Olso Coffee Porter on tap. The Olso Coffee porter is a London-style porter made with roasted espresso beans from Oslo Coffee in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This beverage is a great alcoholic brunch option, than even the manliest man can order and be proud!