Reinheitsgebot Debate

I've been doing a little research on Reinheitsgebot, and have found some things I find interesting.

IMO, if you were to be a true purist you would follow the original writing of 1516. Which would eliminate yeast, if you followed the law verbatum. That would make all of our beers non-compliant.

It also seems that the Purity Law, was written more to protect the wheat crop than the purity of beer. Thus allowing for enough bread to be made during those times to keep people fed. Which is a great principle, though I'm not really sure it applies today. I also think it was written to keep other beers out of Germany, creating somewhat of a Monopoly. So to me the principle of the law was to protect the German people , not the beer.

Later revisions of the law allow for additions of various sugars, but only in Top Fermented ales. Bottom fermented lagers cannot have additional sugar added. That makes no sense, and has me questioning the overall validity of the law. It also recognizes Yeast as a primary ingredient.

There's a part of me that really wants to adhere to Reinheitsgebot, but now I'm kind of thinking "What's the Point?", especially since it was repealed in 1987.

Anyhow, I found this all pretty interesting and thought I would bring it up and see what discussion came of it. Not that any of it really matters.

I would brew a beer with excrement from a purple snotted ass if it tasted great.

In my limited research, I believe the law was a lot of what you described, as well as a way to tax brewers.

I say screw it. Most common folk I talk to seem to think its to keep bad chemicals out of beer. With the huge movement of modern homebrewing and craft brewing, we can't let this hangup get in our way.

Its probably like the laws that existed before we could homebrew (thank you Pres Carter for signing that bill!). Those laws werent there to protect us from dangerous homemade beer, they were there to protect tax revenue and big business. im sure reinheitsgebot had some alterior motive to existing...purity not being the primary goal...

If you brew sour beers (like I do!), you don't hold to the Reinheitsgebot.

The Reinheitsgebot is only concerned with German beers and is more of a philosophical ideal than law. It's good for conversation, but not much else practically speaking.

That's not really true. The yeast they used came from the paddles used in previous batches. They didn't know what yeast was, that's why it was not included in the ingredients. Also, they called it Godisgood.

As far as importing other brews and a monopoly, IMO that is also an incorrect observation. Most beers at that time were local so importation was not really a factor.

Even King Wenceslas forbade the "smuggling" of Saaz hops out of Bohemia. The penalty was beheading.

By brewing IAW the Reinheitsgebot you're only stating that you are not adding anything to the brew except the original ingredients, ie.e gyle.

Either way, if you prefer not to brew IAW it then don't. Your choice.

But OTOH, if someone says they brewed IAW it then give them their due. They are brewing in the tradition of the old-time brewers.

I don't worry about adhering to that old text, but I do tend to agree with some of the spirit of the law: I don't like to put anything besides barley, wheat, hops, yeast, and water into my beer outside of some sugar for priming or high gravity beers. If you start putting a lot of other stuff in there it is not beer anymore, to me.

The timing of the brews also had to do with general quality and public safety. I don't remember the details but top fermented beers (wheat ales) were only to be brewed in the summer and lagers only in winter. This was because of infection problems due to improper ferment temperatures. They didn't know most of the details, they just new people were getting sick. It was also to prevent junk from getting put in beer to endanger the public.

If you want a copy, check this out:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/rheinheitsgebot-i-want-poster-print-78205/

First: Yeast was not included in this list because at the writing of the law, no one knew of it's existence.

The reasons that we have beer styles to day is because of the wide variety of ingredients locally available (beer has been a local phenomena until recently) and the limitations of technique and knowledge.

We can thank the Belgians for unitizing wild naturally occurring yeast and persisting with this tradition until literally the entire breweries of the area were saturated with yeast.

We can thank the Bay area for the Cal common style because of their relentless pursuit of a lager done at ale temperatures.

We can thank Pilsen, Burton and Dublin for their unique water composition for the styles offered in each respective area

And we can thank Reinheitsgebot for it's contribution in limiting German Brewers to a precise and seemingly limiting list of ingredients and processes for giving the world the malty lagers of Germany.

As a modern homebrewer you can chhose to follow Reinheitsgebot or not. You can certainly make these styles without following the tenants of the "law".

Or you can do as Kaiser, and celebrate the tradition and take joy in the process an the exercise of an ancient custom and cultural touchstone.


It's a big beautiful world.

maltMonkey said:

I don't worry about adhering to that old text, but I do tend to agree with some of the spirit of the law: I don't like to put anything besides barley, wheat, hops, yeast, and water into my beer outside of some sugar for priming or high gravity beers. If you start putting a lot of other stuff in there it is not beer anymore, to me.

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I agree, and according to what I have read so far, your within more current versions of Reinheitsgebot.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

There's a part of me that really wants to adhere to Reinheitsgebot, but now I'm kind of thinking "What's the Point?", especially since it was repealed in 1987.

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You want to obey a law that only has jurisdiction thousands of miles from where you live?? Are you afraid that some German brewing cop is gonna raid your homebrewery if you use a little wheat to aid head retention????

OK, all kidding aside, if you limit yourself to the Reinheitsgebot, you are cheating yourself out of some really fine beer styles (some awesome Belgians come immediately to mind). Why not just try to brew as closely to style as possible? Thus when you are brewing an Alt or something like that, THEN you can stick to that law if it makes your socks go up and down.

olllllo said:

As a modern homebrewer you can chose to follow Reinheitsgebot or not.

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How can you, without using priming sugar or force carbing with industrial CO2? The only way is to keg/bottle before reaching final gravity and crossing your fingers that the carbonation you end up with is not too high or too low.

ArcaneXor said:

How can you, without using priming sugar or force carbing with industrial CO2? The only way is to keg/bottle before reaching final gravity and crossing your fingers that the carbonation you end up with is not too high or too low.

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You use gyle or a portion of the original worth that is in high fermentation.

Beer was not the main motive of the origianal Reinheitsgebot, it was about revenue and the alluded to food ingredients. We all know that it's been abolished in our home-breweries and pretty much since then has it been held in high regard by some as a way of "protecting beer culture" by the Germans. Hops were outlawed by some cultures as well before the benefits were understood. There have been some crazy laws on the books throughout the history of beer production. Personally I don't hold the purity law in any higher regard than any of the others. It's just the most well known. Unless you're turbid mashing your big belgians you're breaking one of their old laws too. Unless you add corn or rice to your mash you're not making a "real" American beer.

The history of beer is pretty fascinating for sure. I feel that beer history is being made right now in the US because it is finally STARTING to gain acceptance as something other than an inebriation. It'll never be accepted as a staple like it still is in some parts of Europe, but the culture is definately growing. Hopefully the acceptance of home-brewing will follow!

spiess or krausen would be the traditional priming ingredients and can be done on a homebrew scale for those interested.

This is really analogous to why there is BBQ.

BBQ - cooking low and slow with spice rubs and sauses sprang from the fact that access to good cuts of meat were unavailable.

regardless of the reasons, without that limitation, there might not be BBQ as we know it now.

There used to be a law that said women couldn't vote, too. Sometimes, things just don't make sense anymore.

olllllo said:

This is really analogous to why there is BBQ.

BBQ - cooking low and slow with spice rubs and sauses sprang from the fact that access to good cuts of meat were unavailable.

regardless of the reasons, without that limitation, there might not be BBQ as we know it now.

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That's an excellent analogy, Rob! Paella also comes to mind; a dish that, by all accounts, is considered peasant fare but now enjoys a position in gourmet cuisine.

I'm glad the Germans stick with tradition. Let American breweries experiment with styles. It would be a very boring beer world without different approaches.

Bernie Brewer said:

You want to obey a law that only has jurisdiction thousands of miles from where you live?? Are you afraid that some German brewing cop is gonna raid your homebrewery if you use a little wheat to aid head retention????

OK, all kidding aside, if you limit yourself to the Reinheitsgebot, you are cheating yourself out of some really fine beer styles (some awesome Belgians come immediately to mind). Why not just try to brew as closely to style as possible? Thus when you are brewing an Alt or something like that, THEN you can stick to that law if it makes your socks go up and down.

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LOL, this gave me a good chuckle. But seriously, I'm pretty sure they're hiding in the bushes.

What really sparked this all for me , was how I prime my beer. I've used gyle on a couple batches with lackluster results for carbonation. So I've been questioning if it's really worth it.

Anyhow, I'm loving the dialog so far, thanks for the responses

Wouldn't using DME to prime be adhering to the rules? It's still just malt.

I think it has very little relevance to the majority of great beers today and is an interesting bit of historical beer culture and that's about it.

gabrewer said:

Wouldn't using DME to prime be adhering to the rules? It's still just malt.

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Yep, just takes a little longer to carb

Orfy said:

I think it has very little relevance to the majority of great beers today and is an interesting bit of historical beer culture and that's about it.

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That's kind of my thought on it, too. I figure if you're brewing a German style beer, by all means adhere to it. But don't deny yourself the opportunity to try other great styles of beer on the basis of some 500 year old "law" that was only in place in one country in the first place.

The modern Reinheitsgobot laws allow you force carbonate using CO2 captured through fermentation, IIRC.

gabrewer said:

Wouldn't using DME to prime be adhering to the rules? It's still just malt.

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good point

I think calling it a "purity law" is entirely misleading. I've drunk some piss-awful lagers whose brewers made a huge deal about how their beers conformed to the ancient German purity laws. They seemed to imply that any beer that didn't conform to these purity laws was likely to contain rat scrotums and granny spit, which is plainly bollocks. They themselves may have followed the reinheitsgebot, but all they had actually done was to make some bad beer using a limited number of ingredients. W00t .

The "purity law" is an interesting bit of beer history, but it's utterly useless in determining whether a beer is any good or not. That said, I bet sticking a reference to it on your beer labels would be a good way to impress people.