Scary title, right? Maybe just because I’ve been reading about the middle of the 20th century. But don’t worry, these laws are about nationalism! I mean. Wait, that still doesn’t sound good. These laws are about food and nationalism!
The Reinheitsgebot (purity law), which good ol’, reliable Wikipedia tells us is around half a millenia old, was designed to keep robots from taking over the parts of Germany that are made from chocolate and cinnamon. Just kidding. That’s what old people want you to think Wikipedia does.
The actual entry (and, fine, you old farts, some other places like beer-faq.com) said that the law decreed that beer could only contain three ingredients: water, barley and wheat. The idea was to give Bavarian brewers an advantage over brewers from neighboring countries that wouldn’t be going out of their way to meet those standards (and therefore couldn’t sell their beer in Germany).
Why do we care? Because as Chuck, a bartender at Wells Ales and Lagers in Brooklyn, N.Y., says, it means that all German beer is basically organic. It’s important to note that the purity law was replaced in 1993 with a new law that allows a few other components in beer (like sugar).
We’re hoping to talk to a brilliant German beer genius to find out what all of that means in relation to the organic-ness of German beer, though we’re sure that just about anybody interested in sustainability would be quick to point out that imported beer has a pretty big carbon footprint.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Fun blog, guys, but this post needs some qualifications.
The German Purity Law does not ipso facto guarantee an organic beer, but only that the beer be brewed exclusively with water, hops, barley malt, and yeast (except for wheat and other exceptions, which somewhat defeats the exclusive aspect … but I digress). There are no specifications for whether or not the barley or hops must be organically raised.
The law itself began in 1516 as a ward against adulterants AND as a grant to the Bavarian Duke of the exclusive right to brewing wheat beer. As wheat beer was the most commonly produced form of beer in Bavaria at the time, the “Purity Law” was in its effect the creation of a ducal monopoly.
Sorry to hear that Jeff Wells is no longer at his eponymous pub.
December 27th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Thomas, thanks for leaving us a note! We agree that the law wouldn’t require everything to be organic, but it does seem to do enough to make German brewers keep up with the (fairly loose) USDA organic certification requirements, which don’t appear to apply to certain ingredients like, surprisingly, hops! I should have written that more clearly, though.