not really. I had a close contact part of the process who revealed this to me.

Probably couldn't have hurt to reach out to the recruiter and/or hiring manager and make a personal case for yourself.

Why would you lower yourself to the level of having to justify drinking beer to get a job?

This is rationalizing. Just because some stuffy suit caught a glance at his profile and nixed him doesn't mean the team he would work with has any issue with it.

As with all interviews, you gotta do a little dance to get in, but they're not reflective of daily experience.