Comments on: German purity laws http://greengrog.com/german-purity-laws/ sustainable, organic and other cleaner-conscience beer news Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:51:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Dave Burdick http://greengrog.com/german-purity-laws/#comment-34 Dave Burdick Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:07:11 +0000 http://greengrog.com/german-purity-laws/#comment-34 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. 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.

]]> By: Thomas Cizauskas http://greengrog.com/german-purity-laws/#comment-32 Thomas Cizauskas Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:01:56 +0000 http://greengrog.com/german-purity-laws/#comment-32 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. 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.

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