I wanted to do something beer-centric for the German theme but don't know enough about beer to make an informed choice, so I enlisted the help of my resident beer expert, the marvelous Eric Stoller. Bless his heart, he made delightful suggestions, wrote me a detailed summary, added a bonus beer, and got in a little snip at Amazon! Good value! Thanks a million, Eric.
Diva Beer
This is a bit tricky as one does not often put "diva" and "German" in the same thoughts. Still, one good possibility here is a "Berliner Weisse". It's very different from the much more common Hefeweizen which is the yummy, low-alcohol, cloudy wheat beer.
Traditionally, Berliner Weisse was, as the name suggests, only available in and around Berlin--almost certainly the most diva-like city in Germany. The beer itself is nothing special--it's a slightly sour wheat beer. But in the bars and cafés of Berlin the beer is mixed with brightly colored, flavored syrups to make some truly weird flavors.
Here's a good article about the beer and the syrups. 30 seconds of googling suggests some of the syrups are available on the Deathstar that is Amazon .
https://www.sunnysidecircus.com/countries/germany/food-drinks-germany/berliner-weisse/
Mensch Beer
If you go with Berliner Weisse for the diva beer you obviously can't do Hefeweizen for the mensch beer. However, I recommend an Altbier for this category. That's not short for alternative, it's a northern German style that is a great year-round drinking beer very popular with small American breweries (though you can buy good German ones easily in NYC).
Diva or Mensch?
Given you're doing this in April another beer to seriously consider is Maibock. I don't need to tell you this more or less translates as "spring goat". It's a classic and very popular beer for spring in Germany--and many American brewers make very good ones as well. Unlike most bock beer, it is light in color. It's still fairly sweet and is relatively high in alcohol. That last quality sometimes results in the nickname "mind block". :)
But! Is this a Diva beer or a Mensch beer? I. Don't. Know.


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