2-4. What is the Reinheitsgebot?
Description
This article is from the rec.food.drink.beer FAQ, by John Lock with numerous contributions by others.
2-4. What is the Reinheitsgebot?
This is the German (originally, Bavarian) purity law that restricts
the ingredients that can be used to make beer to being water, barley
malt, hops, and yeast. In the 1516 version of the law, only water,
malt and hops were mentioned, because yeast was not isolated until
the 19th century by Louis Pasteur. The Reinheitsgebot is actually
part of a larger document called the "Biersteuergesetz" or "Beer Tax
Law" which defined what beer was and how it should be taxed according
to strength.
"Rein" means clean or pure; "-heit" means "-ness"; so "Reinheit"
means "cleanliness" or "purity".
In 1987, the Reinheitsgebot was repealed by the EC as part of the
opening up of the European market. Many German breweries elected to
uphold the Reinheitsgebot in their brewing anyway out of respect for
their craft and heritage.
The full text of the Reinheitsgebot, as it existed before 1987, is
available via anonymous ftp in English or German from the archives
(see later).
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