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ReinheitsgebotThe Reinheitsgebot (literally "purity requirement") is a regulation that originated in the city of Ingolstadt in the duchy of Bavaria in 1516, concerning standards for the sale and composition of beer. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops. The law also set the price of beer at 1-2 Pfennig per Mass (the Pfennig being currency, and the Mass, 1.069 liters, the standard unit of volume when measuring beer). The Reinheitsgebot as it stands in Germany today states that "For the preparation of beer, only malt, hops, yeast and water can be used." Thus, compared to the original law, unmalted grain is no longer acceptable, but on the other hand, grains other than barley may now be used. Note that no yeast was mentioned in the original text. It was not until the 1800s that Louis Pasteur discovered the role of microorganisms in the process of fermentation, therefore yeast was not known to be an ingredient of beer. Brewers generally took some sediment from the previous fermentation and added it to the next, the sediment generally containing the necessary organisms to perform fermentation. If none was available, they would just set up a number of vats, and usually yeast would "appear by itself". The restriction of grains to barley was meant to ensure the availability of sufficient amounts of affordable bread, as the more valuable wheat and rye were reserved for use by bakers. Today such shortages no longer happen, and many Bavarian beers are again brewed using wheat. Hops are added to beer as a preservative, and their mention in the Reinheitsgebot meant to prevent inferior methods of preserving beer that had been used before the introduction of hops. Medieval brewers had used many problematic ingredients to preserve beers, including, for example, soot and fly agaric mushrooms. The penalty for making impure beer was also set in the Reinheitsgebot: a brewer using other ingredients for his beer could have questionable barrels confiscated with no compensation. Regulations similar to those of the Reinheitsgebot were incorporated into various guild regulations and local laws all over Germany, and in 1952, they were incorporated into the West German Biersteuergesetz (Beer Taxation Law). Many brewers objected to the law at the time, disagreeing more with the amount of the tax than the ingredient requirements. The law only applied to Pils-style beers, but brewers of other types of beer soon accepted the law as well. The ingredient requirements have since been moved from the Biersteuergesetz into the regular food additives laws, though beer brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot receive special treatment as a protected, "traditional" food. Today, European Union laws allow ingredients beyond what is listed in the Reinheitsgebot - anything allowed in other foods is also allowed in beer - but most German breweries voluntarily comply with the Reinheitsgebot, using this compliance as a valuable marketing tool. External link *The Reinheitsgebot - what a load of old b*llocks, a dissenting view on the law.
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