April 23rd is German Beer Day!
Courtesy [url]www.kleiner-kalendar.de:[/url] Some medium-sized and family-breweries in southern Germany have joined together in the
“Gütegemeinschaft tradition beer”, and make special limited edition brews under the name of “vintage beer 23:04.” These brews
will ferment for about 120 days, and will go on sale the end of August. The Sud is limited to about 6000 liters per brewery, each
bottle bears a serial number. They all, of course, follow the strict German Purity Law. Read below and then find time to enjoy
your own in this spring sunshine!
German Beer Purity Law – 500th Anniversary
Barley, hops and water – and nothing else. For around five centuries, the German Beer Purity Law has determined what can and
cannot go into German beer. It is the oldest food regulation in the world still in force today. The origins of the Reinheitsgebot, as it
is known in German, are a matter of some dispute. Not that it makes any difference to the quality of the beer. The Reinheitsgebot is
rigorously adhered to everywhere in the country. Brewing is an ancient craft in Germany, dating back to at least the late Bronze
Age, generally considered to have lasted in Central Europe between roughly 2000 and 700 B.C. The ancient Germans did not invent
brewing, but they were probably the first Europeans to make beer. Beer is a product of chance, it is said to have originated some
6000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The Germanic ancestors have made beer drinking a tradition as finds of beer amphorae from
around 800 BC show. Beer started its conquest quite slowly but became gradually more and more successful.
In the Early Middle Ages, mainly monks busied themselves with the art of beer brewing as they said that “liquid does not break the
fast.” Even today, there are breweries that still produce beer according to the old recipes of the monks. Soon merchants and traders
discovered the art of brewing, too. With the development of international trade routes began the era of the great merchants, wealthy
tradesmen and guilds. Naturally, the beer brewers benefited from the economic boom as well. Above all, the cities that had been
united in the Hanseatic League since 1358 experienced a boost.
By insisting in 1516 that the “only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be barley, hops and water” the German Beer Purity
Law (Reinheitsgebot) ensured the quality of German beer. Before 1516, the northern German brewers with their strict guild rules had
the best beer quality, but the Reinheitsgebot changed that. The Bavarians quickly increased their product quality and some think
they surpassed the northern guilds. However, in the expanding brewing industry, there were naturally some misconducts as well.
Many brewers were exposed as adulterators that wanted to get rich at the expense of the topers.
The year 2016 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, but it is not the first law about beer: While Bavarian brewers claim
it dates back to a document from 1516 and their Thuringian colleagues point to a local trading regulation passed in 1434, the Bavarian
city of Augsburg already began very early to put the lid on the adulteration of beer. As early as 1143 Augsburg passed a first purity law!
The municipal law had stipulated since 1156 that no beer of inferior quality is allowed to be brewed. Augsburg can claim that the city
provides the oldest evidence of middle-class brewing within our cultural area. Today, there are still four large breweries in Augsburg.
The brewery “Riegele” was founded in 1386 and is considered one of the oldest in the world. Prior to the Reinheitsgebot, many starchcontaining
botanicals other than malted barley were common additions to the people’s drink as were many flavorings other than
hops. Wherever beer was brewed, not just in Bavaria, brewers sometimes added legumes, tubers, tree bark, rushes, herbs, and
mushrooms to their beers. Some of these could make the drinker sick, others were downright poisonous! Brewers used these obscure
ingredients mostly to save money in raw materials and to mask off-flavors after their beers went bad. After 1516, however, such
practices simply had to stop, first in Bavaria and eventually in all of Germany. As a result, only good beers reached the
consumer, and bad beers had to be poured down the drain.
German brewers are justifiably proud that, even today, they still make all their beers from the same natural ingredients that were
mentioned in the 500-year old Beer Purity Law. While many breweries the world over now add cheap barley substitutes such as rice
and corn as well as chemical process enhancers, such as artificial enzymes and head stabilizers, to their beers, Bavarian brewers are
adamantly old-fashioned. They regard their continued dedication to the best, simplest, and all-natural ingredients, combined with
their insuperable craftsmanship, as an indispensable foundation of the consistently high quality of their beers. Few people are aware
that beer in Germany is very localized. Most beers are local products rarely found outside their towns of origin! There’s this air of
discovery around beer: wherever you go, there’s going to be a beer you’ve never heard of. There are outstanding beer destinations
beyond the Oktoberfest with the best beers Germany has to offer. Explore these destinations and discover regional tastes. Bypass the
industrial breweries and scout out family-run breweries that have been in business for more than 600 years. More than 90 percent of
the 1,339 breweries in Germany are independent, giving rise to a huge diversity of beers.
For more German beer information, click here for a “Quick Guide to Beer In Germany”.
So, who’s coming to Frankfurt during #BAFS 2017 for some Beerneuring?
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