Reinheitsgebot

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

The Reinheitsgebot (can be translated approximately as purity requirement) is a regulation that originated in Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, in Germany, in 1516. The regulation concerns beer. It regulates several things:

  • It says what can be part of beer, and what can not. Basically, a beer may only contain water, barley, and hops.
  • It gives a price to beer. This is important for taxation. The price is set to 1-2 Pfennigs per Maß.

Some people talk about the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or the German Reinheitsgebot. They all mean the same thing (similar acts were there for other states which later became known as Germany).

The Reinheitsgebot is no longer part of German law. It has been replaced by the Provisional German Beer Law (Vorläufiges deutsches Biergesetz), which allows things prohibited in the Reinheitsgebot, such as wheat malt and cane sugar, but which no longer allows unmalted barley.

Yeast was not known to be part of beer until Louis Pasteur discovered the role it played for fermentation. This was around 1800. Brewers, the people brewing beer, usually re-used some of the sediments of the fermentation. They took some sediments of an older brew and added those sediments to the next brew.

Hops was added as a method of preservation, to make the beer go bad only later. This was done mainly to prevent other inferior methods (like adding certain mushrooms to the beer, as was done in the Midlde Ages). Other herbs, like stinging nettles had been used. The stinging nettle is part of the same plant family as hops.

A brewer which did not go with the Reinheitsgebpt was punished as follows: The barrels in question were confiscated (taken by the state and destroyed) and he/she did not receive any money for his/her loss.

Even today, many brewers are proud of the Reinheitsgebot; most German breweries claim to follow it. Some only use it as a marketing tool (wheat beers are prohibited by the original Reinheitsgebot).

Belgian beer, for example, is not adhering to the Reinheitsgebot, as it often also contains sugar (to boost fermentation). Nevertheless, Belgian beers have a brewing tradition at least as long as those of Germany. They taste totally different from the German ones.

This short article needs someone to make it better.
You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.