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German Beer Law | History Sells Us On Beer

German Beer Law | History Sells Us On Beer

We’re not here to talk about laws and politics and society much – we’d rather just talk about beer.

German Purity Law of 1516

A long time ago, it was decided that the beer that was sold to the public had to meet a standard of purity (which is totally awesome in our book). It is based on the Reinheitsgebot -- the German Purity Law. It starts a little like this:

"We hereby proclaim and decree, by Authority of our Province, that henceforth in the Duchy of Bavaria, in the country as well as in the cities and marketplaces, the following rules apply to the sale of beer…”

It talks about Michaelmas and Georgi, and Pfennigs and Kopfs, a bowl for fluids (to drink from), and a lot of other stuff that was too German-y for us to understand. Basically, it was setting prices for the beer and the ingredients in beer. The central part of the Beer Law, though, was that beer could only be made with water, barley, and hops. Historically speaking, this was important, because beer used to be preserved with poisonous mushrooms and soot, among other things. With the Law, hops were the main preservative. Also important, historically, was that the Law helped to kill off local beer specialties that included other ingredients, like spiced beer and cherry beer.

It’s Not 1516 Anymore – What Has Become of the Law

The Law has since been adjusted and replaced with the Provisional German Beer Law. These days, on the market, there are wheat beers, fruit beers, and any number of different flavors of beer with a mind-boggling array of ingredients. Now, modern beer companies who claim to abide by the Law say so as a nod back to history – and because it’s great for marketing.