From the German Beer Purity Decree of 1516 to Craft Beer in the 2010s
The makers of German beer have long boasted about their unique “purity law” (Reinheitsgebot, actually “purity decree”), first proclaimed in 1516 by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV in the town of Ingolstadt. Although there had been earlier decrees concerning the ingredients for making beer in what is now Germany, they applied only to a particular city or region. The 1516 Bavarian beer purity decree was the first to apply to an entire German kingdom or principality.
Until 1987 the Reinheitsgebot was part of German law. It was also the oldest food quality regulation in the world remaining in force. But Germany, as a member of the European Union (EU), was forced by a court decision to change the law in order to allow free trade of goods within the EU. (Non-German brewers viewed the Reinheitsgebot as a form of protectionism for German breweries.) Since 1993, a new, more liberal German beer law has been in effect. Nevertheless, many German brewers still abide by the Reinheitsgebot, which dictates that beer may contain only three ingredients: water, barley, and hops. (A key ingredient in the beer-brewing process, yeast, was not discovered until long after 1516.) When Bavaria joined Prussia to become part of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) in the unification of 1871, one of the conditions was that the Bavarian beer purity law apply to all of Germany.
A television ad for Berliner Pilsner beer. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo (from German TV)
Critics of the old German beer purity law like to point out that the Reinheitsgebot in itself did not guarantee a good beer, and that it limited the types of beers that could be brewed and sold. (Wheat beer, Weizenbier, and most dark beers are technically in violation of the purity code.) They also point out, correctly, that the original 1516 Reinheitsgebot was in reality more of a bread bakers protection law than a beer law, reserving wheat and rye strictly for bread. However, the Reinheitsgebot did serve to keep German beer from being adulterated with other ingredients often found in non-German beer.
Some beer purists may decry the trend, but craft beer has been gaining market share in Germany over the last decade or so. About half of Germany’s breweries are now microbreweries, but the bulk of the beer sold in Germany still come from large breweries. Learn more below.
The Reinheitsgebot (English translation)
Also see the German version below.
We hereby proclaim and decree, by authority of our land, that henceforth everywhere in the Principality of Bavaria, in the country, as well as in our cities and marketplaces that have no such special ordinance for it: From Michaelmas [Sept. 29] until the Feast of St. George [April 23], a mug[1] or one head[2] of beer is not to be dispensed for more than one Munich penny, and from the Feast of St. George to Michaelmas, the liter mug shall not be dispensed for more than two pennies of the same currency, the head for not more than three Heller[3], by threat of the penalties spelled out below.
However, when one brews any beer (other than Märzenbier), it will under no circumstances be dispensed and sold for more than one penny per mug. Furthermore, we especially decree that henceforth in all our towns, marketplaces and the whole of the countryside, that for no beer shall any ingredients other than barley, hops, and water be used and employed. Anyone who knowingly ignores our threat and violates it, shall be punished by the court of his jurisdiction by having said barrel of beer summarily confiscated, each time it happens.
However, if an innkeeper buys one, two, or three pails[4] of beer from a brewery in our towns, marketplaces, or the whole countryside, for resale to the common people, he alone shall be allowed and permitted to sell mugs and heads of beer for one Heller more than prescribed above. Furthermore, We as the Prince of Bavaria reserve the right to ordain appropriate changes to this decree for the public benefit in the event that severe hardship should arise due to shortages and price increases of grains (since the seasons and the region and the harvest times in our land can vary); in that event, the right to adjust the regulations over the sale are explicitly expressed and established.
Footnotes
1. mug = (Bavarian “Maß”) 1.069 liters (1.13 quarts)
2. head = round container, holding slightly less than a Bavarian ‘mug’
3. Heller = half a Munich penny (Pfennig)
4. pail = 60 liters (16 US gallons)
German Craft Beers
Beginning in the 1980s in the United States, the concept of “craft beer” and microbreweries began to make inroads on the monoculture of massive industrial beer brewing in the US and worldwide. The first “Great American Beer Festival” held in Boulder, Colorado in 1982 featured 35 craft beers from only 20 breweries. Today that event features about 8,000 different beers. In 2018 there were more than 7,000 breweries operating in the US. In 2017 American craft brewers held 12.7 percent of the beer market.
A 1919 Budweiser ad from Anheuser Busch, announcing an alcohol-free beer to conform with Prohibition. Click on photo for a larger view. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons
The craft brew story actually begins in 1965. That was the year when Fritz Maytag, the well-to-do great-grandson of home appliances magnate Frederick Louis Maytag I (originally spelled “Maitag”), bought San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company, the maker of Anchor Steam Beer, in order to save his favorite beer from extinction. He got off to a rough start after discovering the company was heavily in debt, but he decided the best way to make money with his new brewery was to make a better beer. That move soon led to a larger revolt against the mass produced yellow swill that passed for beer in the US in the 1960s. Anchor Porter (1972) and Anchor Christmas Ale (1975) eventually led to West Coast-style IPAs, steam beers, and seasonal beers. Many beer experts consider the US beer scene – with its brew pubs, microbreweries, and craft brews – the best in the world.
This is ironic, considering the fact that US beer brewing was established by German and other European immigrants, based on beers that conformed to Germany’s Reinheitsgebot and/or used European skills to produce good lager beer. American beer was essentially German, Czech or Belgian beer.
That was until 13 years of Prohibition (the Volstead Act) decimated American breweries and turned them into makers of soft drinks, ice cream, and even dyes in order to survive. But by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, domestic beer brewing was dead, and it never fully recovered until recently.
Orange County Sheriff’s deputies dumping illegal booze in Santa Ana, California in March 1932. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons
Home brewing of beer (but not wine) was illegal under the Volstead Act, but many people did so illegally, using ingredients sold by former beer brewing companies. Brewing beer at home remained illegal after Prohibition. It was not until 1979 that President Jimmy Carter signed a law legalizing home-brewing in the United States. This encouraged the growth of microbreweries all across the country, but it was not until the 1990s that the craft beer movement gained a real share of the market. The big breweries soon joined in, but American beer would never be the same.
Craft Beer Arrives in Germany
The German term for craft beer is “Craft Beer” (handwerklich gebrautes Bier). That is largely the result of the American origins of microbrewing and craft beer brewing, a movement that has spread around the globe, partly as a revolt against international industrial beer brewers.
Although it has long had more local and regional beer breweries than in many countries, Germany also has witnessed a large-scale reduction in the number of big breweries. While there were 105 large breweries (more than 200,000 hectoliters annually) in Germany in 1994, by 2013 that number had shrunk to 69, reflecting mass consolidation over that period of time. Germany’s largest brewery concern is Radeberger Gruppe. It owns four German beer brands: Berliner Pilsner, DAB, Jever, and Sternberg. The number two beer concern in Germany is not even German! Anheuser-Busch InBev (legal home in Brussels, Belgium) is the world’s largest brewery group by volume. The result of the 2008 takeover of the American Anheuser-Busch by the Brazilian InBev Group, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) controls most of the world’s beer brands, from Mexico to Korea, from the USA to Germany. In Germany, AB InBev owns these five brands: Beck’s, Franziskaner, Hasseröder, Löwenbräu, and Spaten.
However, the total number of breweries in Germany had grown to 1,408 by 2017, largely as the result of micro brewing and craft beers. (The last time Germany had over 1,400 breweries was in 1978, when there were 1,415 in West Germany.) Surprisingly, the fastest growing region in Germany over the past 10 years was Berlin/Brandenburg, not Bavaria. Thanks to the craft beer trend, Berlin added 27 breweries since 2006, with many founded before 2015. According to the Deutscher Brauer-Bund e.V., about half of Germany’s breweries are now microbreweries (Mikrobrauereien)! Bavaria is still Germany’s beer king, with 624 brewery locations, followed by No. 2 Baden-Württemberg with 195. The German beer market has never been as innovative and varied as it is now. But Pilsner remains the most popular variety of beer in Germany, with about half of the total beer market there.
Das Reinheitsgebot (German text)
Also see the English version above.
A glass of German beer. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo
Wir verordnen, setzen und wollen mit dem Rat unserer Landschaft, dass forthin überall im Fürstentum Bayern sowohl auf dem Lande wie auch in unseren Städten und Märkten, die keine besondere Ordnung dafür haben, von Michaeli (29. September) bis Georgi (23. April) eine Maß oder ein Kopf Bier für nicht mehr als einen Pfennig Münchener Währung und von Georgi bis Michaeli die Maß für nicht mehr als zwei Pfennig derselben Währung, der Kopf für nicht mehr als drei Heller (gewöhnlich ein halber Pfennig) bei Androhung unten angeführter Strafe gegeben und ausgeschenkt werden soll.
Wo aber einer nicht Märzen sondern anderes Bier brauen oder sonstwie haben würde, soll er es keineswegs höher als um einen Pfennig die Maß ausschenken und verkaufen. Ganz besonders wollen wir, dass forthin allenthalben in unseren Städten, Märkten und auf dem Lande zu keinem Bier mehr Stücke als allein Gersten, Hopfen und Wasser verwendet und gebraucht werden sollen.
Wer diese unsere Androhung wissentlich übertritt und nicht einhält, dem soll von seiner Gerichtsobrigkeit zur Strafe dieses Fass Bier, so oft es vorkommt, unnachsichtig weggenommen werden.
Wo jedoch ein Gastwirt von einem Bierbräu in unseren Städten, Märkten oder auf dem Lande einen, zwei oder drei Eimer (enthält etwa 60 Liter) Bier kauft und wieder ausschenkt an das gemeine Bauernvolk, soll ihm allein und sonst niemand erlaubt und unverboten sein, die Maß oder den Kopf Bier um einen Heller teurer als oben vorgeschrieben ist, zu geben und auszuschenken.
Auch soll uns als Landesfürsten vorbehalten sein, für den Fall, dass aus Mangel und Verteuerung des Getreides starke Beschwernis entstünde, nachdem die Jahrgänge auch die Gegend und die Reifezeiten in unserem Land verschieden sind, zum allgemeinen Nutzen Einschränkungen zu verordnen, wie solches am Schluss über den Verkauf ausführlich ausgedrückt und gesetzt ist.
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Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY
- Beer and Wine – A guide to imbibing in Deutschland
- Cultural Differences – Beer and wine – USA vs Germany
ON THE WEB
- The Reinheitsgebot as a Guarantee of Quality – in English from reinheitsgebot.de
- Reinheitsgebot – Wikipedia (English)
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Referring to it as a “bread bakers protection law” is probably a simplification. To defend itself a fortified town or city needed walls, a water supply, and food to outlast a siege if the enemy chose that course of action. Therefore it was necessary to have large wheat and rye reserves stored to provide for feeding the population that was trapped by the encircling forces. In Nürnberg I believe that was the reason for at least one census to estimate how many people would be within the city defenses and how much grain would be needed to sustain them. Two of the larger surviving buildings in the old town, the Royal Stables and the Mauthalle, served as grain storage as well as others.