Beer has a long history in Germany, with records of ale brewing dating back to around 800 B.C. During the time of the Romans, beer was frequently seen as a second class beverage when compared to wine; Emperor Flavius Claudias Julianus (A.D. 331-363) "felt himself called upon to rhyme a silly ditty about the superior virtues of wine as compared to beer" (Dornbusch 16). It should be noted that the Romans left behind their disdain at some point since evidence of Roman-built breweries were discovered in Germany in 1911 and 1983.
Following the end of the Roman empire, brewing changed from an activity that took place in the home to a commercial activity of the monasteries. An advantage of the move of brewing to monasteries was the rise of a more scientific method of brewing. "They [monks and nuns] experimented with new techniques and ingredients and created systematic records of the results. In the process, they discovered the virtues of hops as a bittering and preserving agent...and probably developed the first beers of consistently high quality" (Dornbusch 29).
Eventually the brewing of beer was so commercially successful that it moved out of the monasteries and into the domain of the aristocrats. There was a difference in how this process played out in north and south Germany: in the south, a lord would take over the beer production by building his own brewery and "issue a license to a secular private brewery" (Dornbusch 39), which produced mixed results in terms of beer quality. In northern Germany, the merchant class took over the brewing process and produced much better results; their beer frequently of high quality than that produced by the monasteries.
In Southern Germany during the Middle Ages, the ingredients that went into brewing were often remarkably different from those used in the present day. A wide variety of grains were used in beer production, and "though hops had been known as a flavoring for beer since the eighth or ninth century, any number of herbs, such as caraway, or juniper, even salt, pith, soot, chalk, or hard-boiled eggs were used to 'improve' the flavor of beer of to cover up off-flavors" (Dornbusch 39). Unsurprisingly, the lower quality of beer led to less beer consumption which made profits declines for the aristocrat class.
The loss of quality and revenue eventual led to the first secular beer regulation in Germany. In 1155, Emperor Fredrick I authored the regulation for the city of Augsburg that prohibited the production of bad beer, and in 1293, Nürnberg issued an ordinance stating that only barley could be used in the beer brewing process. Finally, in 1447 the city of Munich "issued an ordinance demanding that all brewers use only barley, hops, and water for their beers" (Dornbusch 43). Fifty years later, this would become the Reinheitsgebot.
The Reinheitsgebot started out as the Bavarian beer law of 1516. The 1516 law "stipulated that only barley, hops, and water could be used to brew beer"(van Tongeren 52), and was a means to protect consumers from unreliable and unsafe brewing ingredients, while also providing some measure of price regulation.
When the Weimer Republic was formed in 1919, the Reinheitsgebot became part of German law with the inclusion of the Free State of Bavaria. The Reinheitsgebot was not eliminated until 1987, when "the German Reinheitsgebot had to give way in the interests of free trade within the European Community" (Van Tongeren 54), allowing the import of beers that contained ingredients other than barley, hops and water.
Despite this, beers that are brewed in Germany must still follow strict production standards that are very similar to the Reinheitgebot; top-fermented beers (ales) have slightly more ingredient freedom than top-fermented beers (ales), but no chemicals or processed compounds are permitted to be part of the brewing process.
In addition to adhering to the Reinheitsegebot, Bavarian brewers were prohibited from brewing beer in the summer.
Beer brewed brewed in the colder months of the year "yielded a purer beer with better keeping qualities" (Dornbusch 47).
Ale yeast in top fermenting, and likes a warm environment of 59-77 °F (15-25 °C)
Lager yeast is bottom fermenting, and prefers a cold environment of 39-48 °F (4-9 °C)
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The combination of these two edicts had a huge effect on Bavarian beer brewing, and caused a split in what had been common beer culture. "They created a north-south schism between a 'new' lager culture and the 'old' ale culture" (Dornbusch 48).
This split in beer culture remains evident in current beer production, despite changes in the law.
A crown cap, reading "500 years of Reinheitsgebot in Munich"
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