{"id":3079,"date":"2016-01-26T16:02:37","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T16:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/?p=3079"},"modified":"2019-06-28T18:20:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T18:20:35","slug":"10-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-reinheitsgebot-beer-purity-law-of-1516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-reinheitsgebot-beer-purity-law-of-1516\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things You Might Not Know About the Reinheitsgebot (Beer) Purity Law of 1516"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Original
\n[Segment of the original\u00a0Reinheitsgebot of 1516.\u00a0Credit: Deutscher Brauer-Bund e.V.]<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a beer enthusiast or perhaps fond of German beer, this probably isn\u2019t the first time you\u2019ve heard about the \u201cReinheitsgebot\u201d, or the (Beer) Purity Law of 1516. And with 2016 marking the 500th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of arguably the most famous piece of beer legislation the world has ever known, it probably won\u2019t be the last you hear of it either.<\/span><\/p>\n

But just because the Reinheitsgebot is\u00a0one of the most famous beer laws doesn’t mean it’s the most well understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

So with that, here\u2019s a quick rundown of ten things you might not know about the Reinheitsgebot:
\n<\/span>
\n 1.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Meaning and pronunciation of \u201cReinheitsgebot\u201d: In German, \u201cRein\u201d means “pure”, “Reinheit” means “purity”, and “Gebot” means “commandment” (“The Ten Commandments”\/”Die Zehn Gebote”), “decree” or “ordinance”, but “Gebot” is typically translated in this case as \u201claw\u201d. Therefore, \u201cReinhietsgebot\u201d is translated as \u201cPurity Law\u201d, commonly referring to beer<\/em> Purity Law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The law itself dictates, among other things, the ingredients that may be used to\u00a0make beer. \u00a0To be clear, only one sentence<\/span> of the\u00a0original Reinheitsgebot of 1516 discusses\u00a0limiting\u00a0beer ingredients, while the rest of the document\u00a0mainly focuses on\u00a0setting price limits on the sale of beer. \u00a0Some speculate that the main impetus behind the creation of the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 was to protect consumers from brewers who may add dangerous ingredients to beer potentially poisoning the public, while others believe that in addition there were\u00a0more economic motives involved (more on that later).
\n<\/span>
\n The correct way to pronounce “Reinheitsgebot” is like this: \u201cRine Heights Ge-Boat\u201d, not<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u201cRine Heights Ge-Bot\u201d where \u201cBot\u201d is pronounced like \u201cRobot<\/span>\u201d.
\n<\/span>
\n 2.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> There are technically two<\/span> different beer Purity Laws that German breweries might be following: The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot<\/span> or the German Reinheitsgebot<\/span>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, many German breweries will often specifically<\/span> indicate on the beer label which of the two Purity Laws their beer falls under as you can see on the images below:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bavarian<\/span><\/p>\n

\"German
\n And of course, sometimes the brewery isn\u2019t exactly clear which \u201cReinheitgebot\u201d they\u2019re following as you can see in the label below that merely states \u201cbrewed according to the Reinheitsgebot\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Schneider
\n<\/span>
\n Nevertheless, the distinction between the two Purity Laws is made not just because \u201cGermany\u201d didn\u2019t even exist as a country in 1516 (that only happened in 1871), and therefore there was no \u201cGerman<\/em> Reinheitsgebot of 1516\u201d, but also because the two Purity Laws are themselves objectively different with respect to the ingredients allowed in making beer, with the German version being the more lenient of the two:<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n A)<\/strong> The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516<\/strong>: The only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be barley, hops and water.\u00a0[1]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n B)<\/strong> The German Reinheitsgebot<\/strong>: Bottom-fermented beer (lager) may only contain barley malt, hops, water, and yeast. \u00a0Top-fermented beer (ale) must include barley malt, hops, water, and yeast, but it is also permittable to use other malts, pure cane sugar, beet or invert sugar, as well as colorants derived from modified starch sugar and any of the aforementioned sugars. [2]<\/sup>\u00a0If you wanted to put a date on what is referred to as the original \u201cGerman Reinheitsgebot\u201d, you could nail it down to May 31st<\/sup>, 1872\u00a0when Germany enacted the “Law Concerning Levying Brewing Tax” (Gesetz wegen Erhebung der Brausteuer<\/a><\/span>), however the ingredients listed above come from the “<\/small>Notice Concerning the Version of the Brewing Tax Act” from June 7th<\/sup>, 1906 (Bekanntmachung, betreffend die Fassung des Brausteuergesetzes<\/a><\/span>), which was a modification to the original German Reinheitsgebot of 1872.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Mark your calendars!<\/em> The official date of the 500th<\/sup> anniversary of the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516 is April 23, 2016<\/span>, which conveniently happens to fall on a Saturday. Accordingly, we recommend starting the celebration with a tall cool glass of your favorite Reinheitsgebot beer on Friday at midnight.
\n<\/span>
\n (Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if some breweries<\/a><\/span> got the crazy<\/em> idea to brew a special \u201cReinheitsgebot beer\u201d to mark the occasion? Hmmm\u2026<\/em>)
\n<\/span>
\n 4.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Many sources claim that the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest<\/span>, still valid<\/span> food safety law in the world. Technically, that statement isn\u2019t exactly true\u2026 and that\u2019s putting it nicely.
\n<\/span>
\n First of all, the Reinheitsgebot was officially repealed by the European Court of Justice in 1987 because it was found to be in direct violation of the Rome Treaty (Article 30, banning protectionism). [3]<\/sup>\u00a0This repeal thus allowed German brewers to produce beer for export with no regard to the Reinheitsgebot. \u00a0So, technically the Reinheitsgebot isn\u2019t \u201cstill valid\u201d.
\n<\/span>
\n Secondly, the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 was not the oldest food regulation in the world. Take, for example, the 1493 Duchy of Lower Bavaria Beer Decree which limited beer ingredients to malt, hops, and water. Before that there was the M\u00fcnchner (Munich) Reinheitsgebot of 1487, and before that was the Runneburg \u201cWirtshausverordnung\u201d (\u201cStatuta thaberna\u201d) of 1434 which stated that beer may only be brewed from hops, malt and water. [4][5]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n Then of course there\u2019s the \u201cNovus Modus Fermentandi Cervisiam\u201d(New Method for Fermenting Beer) introduced by Emperor Charles IV in 1364 which decreed that all beer brewed throughout the Holy Roman Empire must be brewed with hops. [6]<\/sup>\u00a0There were even earlier beer laws: one from Erfurt in 1351, and yet another from Nuremberg in 1293. Laws and regulations specifically concerning food and alcohol existed in ancient Rome, [7]<\/sup>\u00a0and depending on how you look at Kosher food regulations from the Talmud\/Old Testament, you have a pretty solid argument against the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 being the earliest law that\u00a0regulated food or food safety.
\n<\/span>
\n Nor has the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 remained essentially unchanged since its inception because as of the mid-1500s, Bavaria started to allow for other ingredients in making beer like coriander, laurel, etc.\u00a0[8]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n 5.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Neither the Bavarian nor the German Reinheitsgebot originally allowed for yeast<\/span> as an ingredient. Now, if you know a little bit about brewing science, you know that it would have almost certainly been impossible to make beer back then without yeast.
\n<\/span>
\n So what\u2019s the deal with the Reinheitsgebot missing this key ingredient?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Simple. People didn\u2019t know about the role that yeast played in fermentation in 1516. According to the history books, Dutch naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek was the first to microscopically observe yeast in 1680 (although he didn\u2019t consider yeast to be a living organism), [9]<\/sup>\u00a0while French microbiologist Louis Pasteur was the first to prove that indeed living yeast was responsible for alcoholic fermentation in 1857. [10]<\/sup>\u00a0Eventually, the Reinheitsgebot was revised to include yeast in 1906.<\/span><\/p>\n

6.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> If the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516 only allowed for three ingredients (barely, hops, and water), how was it then that wheat beers like Hefeweizen, Berliner Weisse or Gose were allowed to be brewed in Germany after 1516? Well, it was hinted at above, but the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot was updated beginning in the mid-1500s to allow for\u00a0other ingredients including wheat.\u00a0[11] \u00a0<\/sup>(In 1616, caraway, juniper, and salt were added to the Reinheitsgebot, which allowed Gose, a beer brewed with salt, to be considered Reinheitsgebot-friendly.)\u00a0[12]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Some speculate that the reason wheat [and rye] were intentionally excluded from the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 was to better control the grain-based food supply in Bavaria so that bakers could have sufficient access to wheat grain in order to produce bread in a time of food scarcity,\u00a0[13]<\/sup> and also to prevent price competition between the brewers and bakers. \u00a0Others go further and suggest that there were indeed\u00a0profit-driven motives behind the legislation\u00a0as evidenced by the powerful Wittelsbach family of Bavaria (in particular,\u00a0Dukes William IV and Louis X), who originally enacted the Reinheitsgebot, and later profited by selling special wheat beer brewing rights.\u00a0[14]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n 7.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> In 2013, the German Brewers Association attempted to have the Reinheitsgebot added to UNESCO\u2019s Intangible World Heritage List<\/a><\/span>, a list that already includes\u00a0the Flamenco of Spain, Mariachi music of Mexico, and the coffee culture of Turkey. [15]<\/sup>\u00a0The Brewers\u00a0Association\u2019s application was initially rejected, but there\u2019s still a chance it could get approved if the paperwork is appropriately revised and resubmitted.\u00a0[16]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n 8.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Bavaria demanded that their Reinheitsgebot be adopted by Germany in 1871 as a precondition to joining the new German nation. Bavaria\u2019s condition was met. After the first German Empire fell following World War I, a new German unification took place forming what was called the \u201cWeimar Republic\u201d in 1919 (officially known as the \u201cGerman Reich\u201d). Again, Bavaria refused to join unless their Reinheitsgebot was adopted by the rest of the newly reformed country. Bavaria\u2019s condition was met. Again.\u00a0[17]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n 9.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Even though the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516 is old, it only started being called the \u201cReinheitsgebot\u201d as of March 4, 1918. Prior to the term being coined by Hans Rauch of the Bavarian State Parliament in 1918, the \u201cReinheitsgebot\u201d was simply known as the \u201cSurrogatverbot\u201d, or \u201cSurrogate (Adjunct) Prohibition\u201d. [18]<\/sup>
\n<\/span>
\n 10.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> In the 19th century, Greece incorporated a nearly identical version of the Reinheitsgebot into Greek law. [19]<\/sup>\u00a0This Greek law was later struck down around the time the Reinheitsgebot was repealed in Germany in 1987.\u00a0[20]<\/sup><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n Test Your Knowledge<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n Based on the information above, what\u2019s wrong with the following two beer labels?
\n<\/span>
\n 1. Hint<\/strong>: The text at the top of the Rex Pils label states \u201cNach dem Deutschen Reinheitsgebot von 1516 Gebraut\u201d, or \u201cBrewed According to the German Reinheitsgebot of 1516.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Potsdamer
\n<\/span>
\n 2. Hint<\/strong>: The small text at the top of the Erdinger Hefe-Weizen label reads \u201cGetreu dem bayerischen Reinheitsgebot von 1516\u201d, or \u201cTrue to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516.\u201d The only other thing you need to know is that \u201cHefe-Weizen\u201d is a wheat beer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Erdinger
\n<\/span>
\n[Check the Answers on the Next Page]<\/span><\/p>\n

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