Devoted Reinheitsgebot Follower?

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Do you Reinheitsgebot?

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Brewing Clamper

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A simple reply on this thread made me wonder how many of you actually follow the Reinheitsgebot and how many of you don't. Nothing special really, just curious. I myself do it every now and then (when bottling... corn sugar!!) but it's not really a goal of mine. How about you?
 
I follow it if I'm trying to make a German beer exactly to style. Otherwise WGAF about the Reinheitsgebot?
 
Yeah corn sugar will get ya! I'm sure ph 5.2 cancels my membership to the Reinheitsgebot club as well. Actually a few things come to mind:

1.) Extract used to make starter
2.) Whirlfloc (in about half my beers)
3.) Ph 5.2 (In all of them)
4.) Kegging w/CO2
5.) Bottling with dextrose

It wouldn't be that tough to make a beer in compliance. Kai, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to krausen to prime the keg to be true to Da Reinheitsgebot?
 
Mikey's right. I happen to live in 'merka. Not Germany. The only time I follow Reinhetsgebot is incidentally when I'm making a German beer true to style.
 
I'm being dumb, but why would extract be a problem? If it's high quality, it's just malt. LME *should* just be malt and water.
 
I assume there is an actual book, right? I've know very basic law, but don't know much about it.
 
the_bird said:
I'm being dumb, but why would extract be a problem? If it's high quality, it's just malt. LME *should* just be malt and water.
Barley:rockin:, Water:rockin:, Yeast:rockin:, Hops:rockin:. No exceptions.
 
the_bird said:
.... and so what's in extract besides barley and water? :confused:

Extract is mashed barley product. The brewer has to do the work.
Germans are strict mofos! :cross: :drunk:
 
But if you look at a German beer label it'll read: Gerstenextrakt...Barley extract! Same goes for Hopfenextrakt.

I will use corn sugar if I am in a hurry and only have a few weeks to go the an appointed time to drink. Other than that I prime with DME...so then I would be in compliance with the RHG.:D ;)
 
I guess if I had to define my approach I'd be a "fair weather fan". I like the ideas of using minimal ingredients in beer. I like that fact that the idea prevents the use of bloating beer into a tasteless alien corn/rice product. What I do not like is that it immediately excludes many excellent styles because of the addition of say a small portion of processed sugars or fruit/spice additions. What I find interesting is how the whole idea has morphed into some mythical golden rule that people quote while saying "That aint beer", when in fact according to what I have read:

"The Reinheitsgebot was introduced in part to prevent price competition with bakers for wheat and rye. The restriction of grains to barley was meant to ensure the availability of sufficient amounts of affordable bread, as the more valuable wheat and rye were reserved for use by bakers. Today many Bavarian beers are again brewed using wheat and are thus no longer compliant with the Reinheitsgebot."

It was in part instituted for reasons other than making pure beer. I think you can capture more-or-less the spirit of what the law states without being anal about it. As long as you aren't just trying to make cheap hooch, to me that is what it is about. Heck I don't even care to bolster my Belgian recipes all that much with sugar and I like to experiment with some things. I think what happens in the corporate setting is indeed worlds apart from our homebrew kingdoms.
 
Looks like a thread for me ;)

The RGH is a cornerstone of the German beer culture. It limits the styles that can be brewed there, but also protects German beer. If if werent for the RHG, some german brewers would have already started to use adjuncts. They don't belong into any German style beer though there are (non-German) beer styles that are impossible w/o them.

I can only select fair-weatherd fan, though I'm striving to be a devoted follower. Here are the does and don't according to the currently valid German RHG as I know them right now:

- Primary ingredients only malted grain, water, hops and yeast. If you are using a lager yeast only barley malt is allowed. If you are using an ale yeas you can also add sugar, but not if you want to adhere to the Bavarian RHG.

here is the fine-print:

- Only the water can be treated with salts, not the mash. And after threatment the water still has to meet drinking water standards
- mash/wort can only be treated with lactic acid that comes from the malts lactic bacteria and malt sugar (acid malt, sour wort)
- no Whirlfloc or irish moss in the boil
- finings: Gelatin is out, isingglass and PVPP (polclar) are ok when you filter
- no artificial CO2 for carbonation of the beer. This gets most of the home brewers.
- hop extract only if it was extracted with water and fermentation CO2
- no isomerized hop extracts.


I generally start out with RHG compliance, but may deviate if I need to to fix the beer. One exaple would be the addition of gelatin as a fining agent. But I do carbonate naturally in the Keg before I start lagering the beer.

But for this years 4th of July I'll make a Classic American Pilsner which requires corn or rice ;)

Kai.
 
MA_Brewer said:
- no artificial CO2 for carbonation of the beer.

Meaning, not from a bottle of CO2?

yes. Only fermentation CO2 is allowed. Larger German breweries will actually collect their fermentation CO2. Because of 2 reasons, RHG compliance and cost.

But this is arguably the most debatable part of the RHG among home brewers.

Kai
 
I'm a total brewing atheist (though Catholic otherwise). I've used some sort of spice (paradise seeds, bitter and sweet orange peel, sweet gale, etc.), Belgian candy sugar and/or honey in all 27 batches I've made to date.
 
Well of course it depends on the type of beer I'm making. If I'm brewing a big Belgian, then it is impossible to follow the RHG. If I am making a Bock or Marzen, well then it is impossible NOT to follow RHG if I want to be true to style.
 
I don't follow it at ALL. I've added honey, brown sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, hazelnut syrup, blackberry extract, various spices, orange peels, molasses, raspberries, and peanut butter. It's a free for all! :ban:
 
My policy: beer should be primarily water, yeast, barley malt and hops. Now, do I adhere to this religiously? No. I do use corn sugar for priming most of the time and I use Irish Moss (assuming I don't forget to put it in).

Do I have anything against those who wish to make pumpkin ales, or spiced beer or whatnot? No, not at all. I just feel that it is possible to make so many different varieties of beer using those four simple ingredients, that there is really no reason in my lifetime to add anything else.

Oh, and did I mention that I don't like wheat beers? I don't know why, but I just haven't ever like them much.
 
Nope, I force carbonate, use isinglass, and adjuncts occasionally.

The way I see it is the RHG is to stop the German brewers from going down a slippery slope. If you allow forced carbonation, then why not allow diluting a high gravity beer with carbonated water to save on brewing space. Then why not allow cheap adjuncts, etc. I don't see why it applies to the homebrewer, where half the fun is messing around with ingredients. It's the same thing with CAMRA, here. I can see the point, but I just don't buy into it as a homebrewer.
 
mysterio said:
then why not allow diluting a high gravity beer with carbonated water to save on brewing space.

high gravity brewing is actually not a violation of the RHG and the taxation, which is done based on the original extract is done based on the OE that would have been necessary to brew the resulting beer. But it is not commonly practiced in Germany since it results in a less clean beer.

Kai
 
I'm a big fan of Belgians, so I'll say I'm a fair-weather fan. I try to keep my beers to the basics, but every now and then a little orange peel and coriander make a beer great.
 
I abide by this rule if it falls into two categories: Brewing a German Style beer, or brewing for Germans.

I take my Bavarian heritage with pride, but sometimes there are some damn good beers made with some additions.
 
Klainmeister said:
I take my Bavarian heritage with pride, but sometimes there are some damn good beers made with some additions.
Same here. Mom is Bayerisch, born in Munich (I was born farther up north in the red wine region of the Rhine river valley) so I have a fondness for the idea of adhering to the Reinheitsgebot. I've only just started brewing, but I already know that if I brew a German beer that I will follow it.

As for hefeweizens being an exception... I don't know if anyone addressed this (my apologies if I missed a post) but in my completely novice experience, I've always seen it referred to as "hefeweizen" and not "hefeweizen bier". If hefes are not viewed as "beer" per se, (since the Reinheitsgebot so strictly defines what beer is) then brewing a hefe is perfectly acceptable and lies outside of the Reinheitsgebot. It's just a fermented wheat beverage under this concept.
 
MariaAZ said:
As for hefeweizens being an exception... I don't know if anyone addressed this (my apologies if I missed a post) but in my completely novice experience, I've always seen it referred to as "hefeweizen" and not "hefeweizen bier". If hefes are not viewed as "beer" per se, (since the Reinheitsgebot so strictly defines what beer is) then brewing a hefe is perfectly acceptable and lies outside of the Reinheitsgebot. It's just a fermented wheat beverage under this concept.

No, Hefe's are still in compliance with the RHG. Maybe not with the original version of 1516, but definately with the currently valid one.

Kai
 
Kaiser said:
No, Hefe's are still in compliance with the RHG. Maybe not with the original version of 1516, but definately with the currently valid one.

Kai

Heck, the original didn't include yeast!

Eh, just use a scoop of the stuff from the last batch. :drunk: :drunk: :cross: :cross:
The dark ages were crazy times.
 
mmditter said:
I use Irish Moss (assuming I don't forget to put it in).

Alright, I'm not the only one... I'm usually too preoccupied with the late addition hops and unless it's a very very light colored beer I usually don't mess with it.

As for the thread topic - I know what it is (more so after reading the thread) but it holds no importance to me at this point. I make what I like (or I don't make it again) and the kitchen sink approach is half the fun. :D
 
chillHayze said:
Eh, just use a scoop of the stuff from the last batch.

That's actually what they used to call it: stuff (literal german translation: Zeug). There was "upper stuff" (Oberzeug) a.k.a ale yeast and "lower stuff" (Unterzeug) a.k.a lager yeast. And pitching was called "to add stuff" (Zeug geben).

Kai
 
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