You can expect to hear a lot this year about the Reinheitsgebot. The law’s 500th anniversary was April 23, 2016, and in honor of that, we want to arm you with some knowledge that you can humbly throw out to whomever mentions Reinheitsgebot—whether they celebrate it or vilify it.
Lets take a closer look at this beer purity law. What is it? And does it have any relevance today? No matter where your opinion lands, we suggest a healthy love/hate relationship, because like personal relationships, laws are complicated.
What is the Reinheitsgebot?
“Furthermore we wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, markets and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance shall be punished by the Court authorities’ confiscating such barrels of beer without fail.” – Reinheitsgebot, 1516
In English, Reinheitsgebot roughly translates to the “German Beer Purity Law,” which, for what it’s worth, is a hell of a lot easier to say. Signed by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV into law on April 23rd, 1516, it primarily limited the price of beer, but also limited what ingredients could be used to make beer: barley, hops and water. The original text makes no mention of yeast, malt, purity, or differences between ales and lagers. These were all later additions as knowledge of beer and brewing processes grew.
What most people don’t know is the Reinheitsgebot also regulated beer prices. The primary reason for the law was to keep beer and bread affordable. It’s likely that the bill was not to protect beer as much as it was to protect bakers: wheat and rye were reserved for bread, while barley, a terrible product for bread-making, was given to the brewers. In other words, the decree limited the price of beer while also keeping brewers’ malty mitts off the baker’s precious wheat.
Why is it called the Purity Law?
That is only the popular modern name, coined by a Bavarian politician in 1918. It’s arguably a mistake about the law’s intentions, since the idea was not necessarily to keep beer “pure” but to keep both beer and bread affordable. Of the 315 worded document, only 31 of them deal with beer ingredients. The rest of the law discusses beer price controls and penalties for violators.
What happens to violators of the Reinheitsgebot?
Well, nothing too devastating despite the feudal and archaic times. Brewers who violated the law had their beer barrels taken by the state and destroyed, and the owner(s) did not receive any money for the lost beer. Stated in the decree, “…Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities’ confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.” This punishment is still around today.
Was it really the first food safety law?
No. Freaking. Way. The decree didn’t address food safety or sanitation. Also, there were earlier local laws in some German cities around beer making. The Justitia Civitatis Augustensis, a civil code of Augsburg, Bavaria, issued in 1156 by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick “Barbarossa,” decreed that a brewer who made bad beer would be punished, and the beer would be destroyed or given to the poor at no charge.
Duke Albrecht IV, Wilhelm’s father, forced all brewers in the city of Munich to take a public oath of faithful allegiance to a 1447 ordinance demanding brewers use only barley, hops, and water in their beers, and Duke Georg the Rich extended the oath of allegiance to the central Bavarian duchy of Lundshut in 1493. All of this was before war reunited Bavaria; the 1516 order is the one that is remembered.
Some also call it the world’s “oldest consumer protection law,” maybe because it is still (somewhat) in effect. The Reinheitsgebot was repealed by the European Union in 1987 on the grounds of its violation of international trade laws. However, many German breweries still uphold it, and label their beers as such.
Is the law still in effect today?
Pretty much. You have to follow it if you want to brew and sell beer in Germany. But, a German company could brew non-compliant beer in another country and import it, or a German brewer could make non-compliant beer, but the brewery can’t market it as “beer.”
What does the law look like today?
Like legal jargon. Today it’s part of the Vorläufiges Biergesetz von 1993—the Preliminary Beer Law of 1993. The law includes a broad, complex, and sweeping set of regulations that touch everything from brewing techniques and cellar processes to recipe design, regulations many homebrewers and craft brewers would have a hard time complying with today.
But the law has evolved over the years, for example, to allow yeast. It also allows the use of wheat, or any other malted grains, as well as sugar, but only for top-fermenting beers (think ales). And there is no prohibition on the importation of non-compliant beers, or else it would violate various international trade laws. However, it still forbids the use of all unmalted grains.
How does it affect brewers today?
Although many Germans and beer lovers worldwide celebrate the law, the old rules can be a buzzkill for startup brewers trying to be creative and innovative. It holds back innovation in Germany’s beer scene. However, the law isn’t burdensome to homebrewers, though some are proud to brew within the law’s limitations.
The Ongoing Debate
The rigid strictures of the Purity law have created a distinct and unique beer culture, especially during the past century.
Homebrewers and craft brewers, with their dedication to brew freely, are now demonstrating to the world how exciting beer can be. In Germany, this divides brewers and consumers into two camps. One one side are those who consider the Purity Law an Orwellian overreach and a form of art censorship. People have brewed for 10,000 years using the ingredients that were available around them. One the other hand, there are those who hold that the Purity Law is a foundation in the defense of a sacred beer culture, worth preserving at all costs against the onslaught of cheap swill.
Regardless of what the future might hold for the Reinheitsgebot and German beer culture, history has shown us that change is inevitable. The particular form that change will take, however, remains to be seen.
Put what you just read to the test in the Tuesday Beer Trivia: Reinheitsgebot!
Sources:
- The Reinheitsgebot: Is it still Relevant? by Horst Dornbusch, May/June 2016 Zymurgy
- Oxford Companion to Beer by Garrett Oliver
- History of German Brewing by Karl J. Eden, Special Edition 1993 Zymurgy
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