Isn't it something to do with Ayingerbrau - old name for Alpine? I think I remember hearing something about it being brewed under license from a brewery in Bavaria
Used to be brewed under license from Ayinger Brau of Munich http://en.ayinger-bier.de/?pid=263 which is one of the best the area has, but in 2006 the arrangement seemed to terminate, seemingly because Hump decided to change the recipe very slightly and saw no need to license it any more. Years ago I was on a trade visit to the brewery and the brewing staff were immensely proud of replicating a genuine german bier, using imported Hallertau hops, albeit in pellet form, and told me that as part of the license an Ayinger brewer would travel to Tadcaster annually to check the quality! The wheat beer is also very similar to the Ayinger Weisse, and even the glasses are almost the same. Sams also used to do Ayingerbrau D pils at 6.2%, and Ayingerbrau Pils which was 5%. Neither were anywhere near as good as the basic lager.
The three beers brewed under licence were:
the standard Ayingerbr?u (bottled and draught);
the mid-range Prinz (bottled and draught);
the infamous D-Pils - formerly Diat Pils (bottled and draught);
Ayinger hefe-weiss (draught wheat beer).
There was also a Low Alcohol Ayingerbrau (both bottled and draught) and at one time a diabetic lager (possibly an early d-pils???)
The beers were all withdrawn when Humphrey asked the head-brewer to make the beers all vegan - this meant that they could be no longer made as one of the necessary enzymes was not allowed. Therefore, rather than compromise, the beers were withdrawn.
None of the Sam's beers were direct copies of the ones from Aying. Although there were parallels. And glasses were indeed sent over from Germany.
The man in the box does indeed bear a passing resemblance to Herr Franz Inselkammer (the owner of the Ayinger brewery) - having met him.
And finally, I can heartily recommend a visit to Aying - a brewery that is proud of its heritage and actively publicises this. I am sat enjoying a 0.5 litre bottle of Ayinger Jahr-Hundert Bier whilst writing this.
