While disguising himself as the waiter in this video wouldn’t have been a stretch for Cohen the provocateur, the unlucky oaf appears to be a Greek so far identified only as Martin D. No confirmation on whether is still employed, or living.

There’s hope for the latter in that he was quoted in the Bild newspaper, “A colleague should have brought her the beer. But she was so nervous, she asked me to do it for her.” Big mistake.

Sasha Baron Cohen as The Dictator

Mr. D. claims he was jostled by someone behind him, prompting the Merkel dousing. But the wondrous slow-mo replay in the video strongly suggests that Martin was merely inept, and that in leaning over to give the Chancellor her beer, he thereby tilted the tray, sending five other glasses of undoubtedly fine German lager all her way.

Martin also said he was troubled that he uttered an expletive at the moment his life began crumbling in front of him, but he made no claim that his statement or action had anything to do with the Greek economic crisis or how it has been handled by Germany or other partners in the European Union.

Merkel, for her part, was clearly unperturbed, merely whisking away a stray fleck of foam from her cheek and going on to toast her tablemates. She also went on to address the assembly of Christian Democratic Union members gathered in Demmin as scheduled. Her reception was reported to be warm, even if she was slightly damp.

This, I thought, is the death knell of Megasuds Bellywash. With superior choices now available in non-breakable cans, golfers need to assert themselves and demand that the cart girl pack in better brews! Slake a thirst and strike a blow for quality!

So we’ve gone all cool aluminum with these suggestions for the warmer months–and mostly wheat beers at that, just because they’re so darn refreshing.

Mama’s Little Yellow Pils (Oskar Blues Brewery, Longmont, Colorado, 5.3% ABV; www.oskarblues.com): But let’s first give a nod to Oskar Blues, the brewery that put its Dale’s Pale Ale in a can in 2002, revving up the craft brew in a can movement. This one is an all-malt Czech-style pilsner, mildly hopped, and if it works for Mama it sure works for us.  (Click here for an entry on Gubna from Oskar Blues.)

Sunshine Wheat (New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado, 4.8% ABV; www.newbelgium.com): Another Colorado offering by way of a Belgium wit beer style–malty, spicy and fruity, with orange peel and coriander leading to a citric tartness that will scour away any thirst.

Royal Weisse (Sly Fox Brewing Co., Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, 5.6% ABV; www.slyfoxbeer.com): East of the Mississippi, this regional favorite is an unfiltered Bavarian-style wheat beer, the special yeast strain lending a bready malt and clove character. The aptly named Scott Summers, general manager of the brewery brewpub, said, “It’s a good morning beer.” We’ll consider that.

Nude Beach Summer Wheat (Stevens Point Brewery, Wisconsin, 5.17% ABV; www.pointbeer.com): Forget a collared golf shirt, this is a clothing-optional unfiltered brew with what the brewery claims are all “au natural” ingredients, including raw and red wheat. Light, crisp, nothing hidden. Remember the sun block.

Hell or High Watermelon Wheat (21^st Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, California, 4.9% ABV; www.21st-amendment.com): I would have picked this just for the name, but make no mistake, it tastes like watermelon. Melonheads will want to try it at least once, or have some on hand to whip out at a barbecue for the novelty value, which includes the instructions on the can to agitate before opening. Another plus–it’s seedless. (Click here for more on the 21^st Amendment Brewery.)

Sorta fits the theme, right?

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen (Paulaner Brauerei, Germany, 5.5% ABV; www.paulaner.de): A classic Bavarian style unfiltered wheat beer (“hefe” means yeast) with banana esters and a strong clove character. The canned version of the Munich brewery’s best-selling beer will debut in the U.S. at the end of May. Prosit!

In somewhat different form, this piece was originally featured in the May-June 2011 Fairways + Greens Magazine, courtesy Madavor Media. To read the latest digital edition, click here.

After my pleasing reacquaintance with Pinkus-Müller in February I was happy to recently find what appeared to be a new beer from the brewery, and thought it might be a holiday seasonal. I also thought maybe it had something to do with Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165), a 15-minute motet for soprano that pops up fairly frequently at Christmas time.

I thought wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.

But at least the beer was a good choice. It is considered a celebratory beer (and hence makes the cut for this month), albeit one that’s been around since 1966, when the brewery proudly took note of its 150^th anniversary by harkening back to darker German lagers of the early 19^th century. It has been available in the U.S. since 2008.

Mozart

Mozart never entered the picture. Nor is Exsultate, Jubilate a Christmas motet, per se. It’s simply celebratory, too, and is loaded with alleluias, and hence seems appropriate to the season.

Venanzio Rauzzini

Nor was Mozart’s work, written when he was not quite 17, intended for a soprano. It was written for the Italian castratro Venanzio Rauzzini, who had performed in Mozart’s early two Italian operas. Given the contemporary paucity of applicants for the position of castrati, the part is a staple in soprano portfolios, thanks in part to a wow finish.

Might as well include a sample here. I don’t think there are too many beer reviews with Mozart arias included in them, but we try to appeal to all the fine tastes of our readers here. Beethoven’s 240^th birthday is Thursday, but I don’t think he’ll take offence. (Mozart’s birthday is January 27.)

This is only the concluding Alleluia section here, and the sound and image are a little out of sync, but the lovely Cecilia Bartoli overcomes all.

Speaking of synchronicity, it might be timely to crack open a bottle of Jubilate while listening. Imported by Merchant du Vin, the beer comes in a hearty 16.9-ounce bottle.

Pinkus Jubilate is called a dark lager, but it’s more of a chestnut hue. The beer has a beguiling nose, a grassy, herbal, yeasty swirl with light notes of toffee and chocolate. I realized, taking a whiff of this one, that it had been a while since I’d had a good malty lager. I was seduced pretty easily just by sticking my nose in the glass.

The palate is predominately a kiss of caramel malt, more friendly than amorous, as the Hallertau and Tettnang hops kick in brightly for a crisp, clean and lightly spicy finish. It’s not a beer that will knock you off your feet, but it should leave you smiling contentedly.

The Munster brewery was founded in 1816 by Johannes Müller and his wife Frederika Cramer. Barbara Müller is the current brewmaster, and with her husband, Friedhelm Langfeld, represents the seventh generation to run the brewery and its brewpub restaurant. Barbara’s father, Hans, made the decision to go organic in 1980, and the brewery believes it was the first to do so.

The great grandson of Johannes and Frederika, Carl Pinkus Müller, ran the brewery in the 1930’s and 1940’s and it still bears his name. He was known as the “Singing Brewer,” though no word on whether he ever tackled Exsultate, Jubilate.

Name: Jubilate
Brewer: Pinkus-Müller Brewery, Munster, Germany
Style: Dunkel lager, organic
ABV: 5.1
Availability: Year-round, in all but four states (AL, MS, NH, SD)
For More Information: merchantduvin.com

But Oktoberfest is also a beer style, more accurately called Märzen, that is perfect for autumn days–a little on the fuller-bodied side, with a touch more malt and color than pale summer beers, just enough to complement what is going on outside–those color-turning leaves, that crisp snap in the air, the late harvest crops rolling in. Then there’s the Fall sports calendar, as stuffed as a Halloween trick-or-treat bag.  As we did with our Summertime Brews entry, here’s a lively seasonal six-pack:

1) Spaten Oktoberfest (Germany; 5.9% ABV–alcohol by volume): Though preferably served in liter mugs by busty fräuleins, this is the original Märzen beer (hence, Ur-Märzen), introduced by Spaten in 1872, brewed in March and then conditioned in ice-filled caves until Oktoberfest. Like many Munich beers it is malt-accented, amber, if now brewed more for foreign consumption than German, where Oktoberfest beers have gradually become lighter-bodied. We can deal with it. (spatenusa.com)

2) Goose Island Harvest Ale (Chicago, IL; 5.7%): President Obama recently touted Goose Island’s 312 Urban Wheat Ale, but for autumn he’d do better with this copper-colored beauty made with all-American Cascade hops and midwest malts, that brewmaster Greg Hall says, “Has enough body and richness to be a perfect match with richer foods–roast meats, game, turkey.” Game on. (gooseisland.com)

3) Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout (Rock Art Brewery, Morrisville, VT; 8%): Part of owner/brewer Matt Nadeau’s Extreme Beer series is this interpretation of a colonial-style beer in a full-bodied stout: “I haven’t used any pumpkin pie spices, but like the early settlers used pumpkin for added starch, as well as spruce tips harvested in the spring for flavor and bittering along with the hops.” (rockartbrewery.com)

4) Saison de Silly (Brasserie de Silly, Belgium; 5.5%): If temperatures spike during Indian Summer, there’s nothing silly about this tart refresher from French-speaking Belgium.
Saisons were traditionally made for Wallonian farmhands, and the brewer at Silly makes it the old-fashioned way, blending a year-old batch of the beer with a fresh brew and then storing it away another year for conditioning.

5) Indian Brown Ale (Dogfish Head, Milton, DE; 7.2%): In the kaleidoscope of innovative brews from Dogfish founder Sam Calagione, the Brown is another intriguing hybrid, with the malty character of a Scotch Ale, the hoppiness of an IPA, and the strength of an American Brown. We took an earlier and more extended look at this beer here. (dogfish.com)

6) Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale (Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA; 5.5%): Any new offering from this pioneering brewery is worth a try, so I’m recommending this one sight unseen or as yet tasted. Sue me. But not unless you try what is likely to become a seasonal regular.

It’s made with fresh malts straight from the roasting kilns, some of them smoked–summoning, perhaps, the days you were actually allowed to burn those piles of raked-up leaves. (sierranevada.com)

In slightly different form, this piece was originally featured in the October 2010 Fairways + Greens Magazine, courtesy Madavor Media. To read the latest digital edition, click here.

As the days shrink and afternoon tee times are moved up to get the round in before twilight, there’s no denying another summer has burned off and harvest time has come, with the leaf rule in full effect. Enjoy the brisk approach of fall; it’s no time for dark moods, but somewhat darker beers may well be in order. Rather than bobbing for apples at the Halloween party, fill that metal tub with ice and stock some richly malty lagers and ales for autumn.

There’s a solid 200-year-old precedent for this. Oktoberfest, the party, began in Munich in 1810 as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig I and Princess Therese. It has been going strong ever since, always beginning in mid-September, a fortnight before the first Sunday in October. It always begins the same way, with the Lord Mayor of Munich tapping the first keg of beer at noon. But this year’s anniversary is being called a Jubilee Year, and so festivals-goers will have one extra day to cram in as much sausage and pigs’ knuckles as possible.

Oktoberfest, the beer, is actually a style called Märzen (or Vienna lager), that no self-respecting former apple-bobbing tub should be without. So here are some suggestions, in good company with other seasonal picks. Some are more regional than others, but most should be widely available in better beer shops:

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen (Germany, 5.6% ABV (Alcohol by volume), merchantduvin.com) In pre-refrigeration days of the mid-19^th century Bavarian brewers began producing full-bodied, malty beers in March (Märzen) and then lagering them in cool caves until it was time to celebrate Oktoberfest. The style has existed ever since, and this interpretation from the town of Aying represents exporting at its best.

Rahr’s Oktoberfest Celebration Lager (Rahr & Sons Brewing Company, Texas, 5.5% ABV, rahrbrewing.com) A snow-induced roof collapse this past winter has slowed down but not stopped Fritz Rahr of Fort Worth, who decided to sponsor a September 25 Rahr Oktoberfest 5K Run to benefit the local Habitat for Humanity. Lederhosen race togs are optional, but the post-race beverage should be interesting.

Hoptober Golden Ale (New Belgium Brewing, Colorado, 6% ABV, newbelgium.com) A bit lighter in profile if not strength is this August through October seasonal from the makers of Fat Tire, packed with barley and wheat malts as well as oats and rye. Five different hops contribute a citrus note. Those closer to Colorado can look for the Fall Wild Ale from the Lips of Faith series, a malty dubbel at 8.5% ABV spiced with schisandra berries.

Harvest Ale (Long Trail Brewing Company, Vermont, 4.4% ABV, longtrail.com) It’s an apt year for the beers from Long Trail, since its namesake, the oldest long-distance hiking trail in the U.S. is now celebrating its centennial year, although work continued on the 273-mile Vermont Long Trail until 1930. Running from the Massachusetts line to the Canadian border, the Trail meets up with the Appalachian Trail for 100 miles, and just thinking about all that walking deserves a few bottles of this malty brown ale tribute.

Poperings Hommel Ale (Brouwerij Van Eecke, Belgium, 7.5% ABV, brouwerijvaneecke.tk) Don’t let the pale golden color of this ale fool you; it packs a wallop, and is loaded with about twice the bitterness of other Belgian beers, which are not big on hops. But the city of Poperinge was once the hop capital of the country, and still has a gala hop festival every three years. Tickets still available for the 2011 blowout.

Pumpkinhead Ale (Shipyard Brewing Co., Maine, 5.1% ABV, shipyard.com) What would the fall be without a pumpkin beer? Shipyard has two, the more widely available Pumpkinhead wheat beer replete with pumpkin pie spices, and the Smashed Pumpkin in the Pugsley Signature Series (named after brewmaster Alan Pugsley). The latter is a bigger, sipping beer at 9% ABV, with subtler spice flavors. Visitors to the Shipyard gift shop in Portland can get Smashed in a year-old cellar-aged limited edition.

Saison Dupont Vieille Provision (Brasserie Dupont, Belgium, 6.5% ABV, brasserie-dupont.com) Okay, this is a bit of a holdover from summer, but saisons are fine year-round refreshers, fruity and dry, and this corked beauty was dubbed a world classic by the late, great British beer writer Michael Jackson. Concocted in a Belgian farmhouse brewery and conditioned in the bottle, Saison Dupont will cellar well and grace any dinner table, matching nicely with fish or fowl.

Double Bastard Ale (Stone Brewing Co., California; 10.5% ABV; stonebrew.com) “Warning: Double Bastard Ale is not to be wasted on the tentative or weak.” It’s tough to compete with the copy on the Stone beer labels, but this hop monster takes the brewery’s popular Arrogant Bastard Ale one arrogant step beyond. It will appear November 1, just in time for San Diego Beer Week, which also goes a step beyond by lasting ten days, November 5-14.

Ommegang Zuur (Brewery Ommegang, New York, 6% ABV, ommegang.com) Baseball’s Fall Classic is threatening to linger into winter, and one can hope the same for this offering from Ommegang, a Belgian-owned brewery as American as cherry pie, since it’s in Cooperstown, home of the Hall of Fame. The Zuur is a collaboration, blending two beers from Liefman’s in Belgium including a kriek (beer with cherries), resulting in a Flemish Sour Brown ale with a cherry on top. Bring on the pies!

Rest easy, Scotland.  In the high alcohol arms race that has been brewing between BrewDog in Scotland and Schorschbräu in Germany (see my previous post and comments here), the irreverent Scots have responded, and have seemingly reached the end of the road in their experimentation with sky-high ABV beers. BrewDog has produced 12 bottles of a 55% ABV beer costing £500 each and wrapped in dead animal skins: The End of History.

It doesn’t appear to be a joke, as the brewers suggest at the BrewDog website (brewdog.com) that the beer is a blond Belgian ale infused with nettles and juniper berries.

Yet they display it all jokingly. As the website says, each bottle “…comes with its own certificate and is presented in a stuffed stoat or grey squirrel. The striking packaging was created by a very talented taxidermist and all the animals used were road kill.”

This has already set off criticism from animal rights groups in Scotland, and comes on the heels of a BBC News report that Scots drink 25% more alcohol than other Brits.

No word from Germany yet.

And if ever there were two breweries that seemed simpatico, these genre-busters are high on the list. Both seem intent on breaking down barriers, whether in terms of brewing, marketing or established beer styles.

BrewDog is notorious for brewing the world’s strongest beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin, which came in at an astounding 32% ABV. This blew Samuel Adams Utopias out of the water. The Boston brewery had claimed the record at 27% with the 2009 vintage of Utopias, packaged in a bottle that looks like a mini-copper brewkettle and selling for (at least) $100.

But then in February of this year Schorschbräu in Gunsenhausen, Germany, had the gall to brew a Schorsch Bock, at 40%.

BrewDog partners James Watt and Martin Dickie considered this a shot across the bow, and soon responded with Sink the Bismark at 41%, coming soon to a gas station near you.

There’s also a pretty funny video about all this on the BrewDog website and the beer arms race may not be over soon, so stay tuned.

King Baasha of Israel

I’ll have more to say on Stone down the road, since I’m visiting the brewery in San Diego in June, but it’s fairly well-known nationwide these days, with the in-your-face Arrogant Bastard Ale, a beer so hoppy the label even says, “You probably won’t like this beer.” Actually, everyone seems to love it, even if they’re not worthy enough to drink it.

The limited release collaboration brew was made in Scotland, and there’s a video about this as well (both BrewDog and Stone are master marketers), chronicling some of the outsized fun the principals clearly had in the process. No one has particularly come clean on what Bashah actually stands for, although one blogsite speculated that it meant “King,” after the ancient King Baasha of Israel.

Stone co-founder Greg Koch (pronounced Cook) seemed to debunk this theory when he commented on another blog that the name wasn’t a word at all, but an acronym. This was as far as he took it, leading one reader to suggest it stood for “Black as Shit, Hoppy as Hell.”

It is all of that, with a quintet of exotic hops in the mix–Hercules, Magnum, Warrior, Centennial and Amarillo. Beyond that it’s hard to judge on any known stylistic spectrum–probably just the way these breweries like it–since I don’t really know of any other Black Belgian Style Double India Pale Ales. It could just as easily been called a WTF? Beer, except that that name was more or less covered in March by Lagunitas, with its seasonal “Malty, Robust, Jobless Recovery Ale” called Wilco Tango Foxtrot.

One thing Bashah does not seem to have much of is any Belgian character, although it was surely made with a Belgian yeast. It may be that it’s just overwhelmed by other characteristics, rare as it might be for yeast to take a back seat.

At 8.6% ABV Bashah is like a beer with training wheels for BrewDog and Stone, but it packs a punch nonetheless. The brew pours with a thick tan collar, is a deep mahogany, and gives off aromas of a booze-soaked fruitcake. Then the hops come rushing on, along with a touch of cedar in the nose.

The flavor–bitter chocolate, black malt, molasses, licorice, all totally involving. There’s an extremely bitter finish which turns puckering and somewhat unpleasantly chalky. But I bought two bottles of this high-priced number, and no matter what it’s called, I have to say I’m looking forward to Round Two.

Would that I could look forward to what will be an even more limited release of an already limited release, aged in whisky casks and spiked with blackberries, tayberries and black raspberries. This version should be released sometime in June, but I have doubts whether it will even make it across the pond.  If you see any bottles with this label (above), grab them.

Name: Bashah
Brewer: BrewDog, Fraserburgh, Scotland; Stone Brewing Co., San Diego, California
Style: Well, it’s called a Black Belgian-Style Double India Pale Ale.
ABV: 8.6%
Availability: Good luck; about 14 states
For More Information: brewdog.com; stonebrew.com

Tim and Amy Brady hold the tastings every Saturday evening in the cozy pub of their 12-guest B&B, where they usually have two beers on tap and others in bottles.  Since most guests are from out of town, the couple rightly emphasizes Vermont beers, but they’re more concerned with serving up seven different styles for a one-hour crash course in beer diversity.

Amy and Tim Brady

The thirty-something young couple left their professional lives in New Jersey to take over the B&B at the end of 2007, and they’re energetic converts to and boosters of the charms of southern Vermont.  But they’re also beer nuts and evangelists for the best in the brewing arts.  They’ll travel just about anywhere to try an unfamiliar brew, and then they’ll post a video about it at their blogsite, Here for the Beer.  (I wound up in one, “Tim and Tom Talk Trappist,” a riveting essay on monastic ales.)

They’re also key players in the first Brattleboro Brewers Festival, which will roll into town in late May, with two evening pub crawls on Friday and Saturday nights, May 21 and 22, the festival itself playing out from 1 to 5 pm on Saturday.

There were ten of us for the tasting this past Saturday, four couples staying at the B&B–three from Massachusetts just visiting for a getaway, and one from New Jersey, newlyweds as of the previous evening.

We started off with a hefe-weizen  and rolled right through to an oatmeal stout, five Vermont beers, two German, a nice trip. I’d had all the beers before, but hadn’t sampled the Pinkus in a long time.  It was a pleasant reacquaintance.

There are a few novelties surrounding the beer.  The brewery, founded in 1816, is the only one of 150 breweries left in Munster, still family-run to the sixth generation.  It was the first to go all-organic, beginning in 1980, and is one of the few with a female brewmaster, Barbara Müller, at the helm.

And you don’t see an unfiltered pilsner every day, either, since cloudy beers still give some drinkers the willies.  But it may be the beer’s visual resemblance to a hefe-weizen that lends a zesty quality to the brew, not to mention the snap of the Tettnanger hops.  There’s a surprisingly fruity nose to the beer, redolent of apricots, and the overall impression is of a sturdy, filling and yet refreshing beer, suitable for any tankard.

Name: Pinkus Organic Ur Pils
Brewer: Pinkus-Müller Brewery, Munster, Germany
Style: Pilsner
ABV: 5.2%
Availability: Year-round, in all but five states (AL, MS, NH, SD, WY)
For More Information: merchantduvin.com

Tim talks beer at Forty Putney Road