The beer flood in 18 14 killed eight people. How was Rhine Haitz Gelber born? Horst Dornbusch, an award-winning brewer, beer judge and writer and a German expatriate, said that the 500-year history of this regulation is quite surprising. "In the heyday of the Renaissance, in an obscure manifesto, this short 365,438+0-word text later gained an almost mythical status in Germany." It is regarded as an indispensable guardian of beer quality in this country, "he pointed out in an email.
This may be the oldest existing consumer protection law in the world, long before the birth of today's unified Germany. William IV, Duke of Bavaria, was handed down as a substitute in Stadt, Ingall, half a century ago. Even 500 years ago, it was quite old news.
Previous efforts to control the quality and price of German beer can be traced back to at least 1 156, when augsburg passed a similar law under the rule of the holy Roman emperor Frederick "Barbarossa".
William's Bavarian law gradually spread throughout the country, until 1906, under the rule of William II, the imperial decree was passed and became the German compulsory law.
But it was not until World War I that a Bavarian legislator introduced a new word to describe the law in a debate about beer tax. Although this provision was not called the "beer purity" method before, it was quickly accepted and has been enthusiastically used to this day.
Why did it pass?
/kloc-the "brewery" in the 0/6th century has little in common with modern facilities. They have shiny stainless steel water tanks.
Beer cans boiled with an open flame are fermented in wooden barrels lined with asphalt. This process is unsanitary and has little pollution. Breweries often add some problematic ingredients, such as sawdust, tree roots, and even toxic (although hallucinogenic) plants, such as fungi or gastrodia elata. The result is intoxicating, but it may also make smokers sick or worse.
Beer is not only for relaxation in this era, it is the staple food of many people, and the bill aims to ensure a safe and reliable supply. It also helps to determine the price and profit rate to ensure the reasonable price of beer. In fact, most laws involve pricing and punishment, aiming at cracking down on beer in the pocket.
Raine Haitz Gerboth's Baker Protection Act is the same as the Beer Act. It is forbidden to mix wheat into beer, so that bakers can buy it cheaply, while brewers use lower-priced barley. This law ensures that people have enough bread to wash with beer.
The original law restricted brewers from using three kinds of raw materials; "You can't make beer with anything except barley, hops and water," it said. But it has been adjusted many times.
Yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation, which helps to determine the flavor of beer, and is not included, because this law predates its discovery.
In the old-fashioned open-air brewing process (still used by some brewers), there is enough yeast in the air, especially near the bakery where beer is often brewed. After Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's microscope first appeared in 1676, scientists gradually discovered the role of yeast in the fermentation process and revised the law to include it. Another noteworthy addition is malt wheat, which enables winemakers to brew familiar top German fermentation styles, such as Hefeweizen, alt and Kólsch.
What is "beer" after French brewers filed a complaint, the European Court of Justice rejected Reinheitsgebot's protectionist measures with 1987. This ruling opened the shelves in Germany and turned on the tap of foreign beer. Germany can no longer use laws to prohibit the import of beer brewed outside the law.
The Germans themselves insisted on this law, but in 2005, an explanation from the German court further relaxed the control.
Unqualified beer is allowed to brew and sell unqualified beer as long as it is not labeled as "beer". This has led to a large number of "special beers" and "beer mixed drinks", although in terms of fines and/or imprisonment, it is unheard of to actually prosecute criminals with worse time. However, in strict Bavaria, people still know that they will destroy milk and strong beer on the premise of "misleading" consumers.
But the law does have an important practical impact on teeth. This is part of the tax law that * * * gets from the profits of brewers.
It's about traditional beer
Respect, this kind of beer has lost a little luster in this country where modern brewing methods were born. Consumption has been declining. Statistics show that beer consumption in Germany may have dropped by one third since 1970s, although Germans are still one of the most prolific beer drinkers in the world.
The importance among German beer lovers is different, perhaps according to Burgat Teng's survey, but it is a strong support. The German Beer Association, which represents the country's mainstream breweries and strictly defends them, cited a survey conducted by the German Fossa Institute and found that 85% of drinkers are in favor of upholding the law.
For traditional brewers, beer is the guarantee of quality. In order to resist the impact of cheap rice and corn beer, it is more important to have a powerful marketing tool to promote their products.
For those in charge of the law, creativity and innovation are stifled. The German Beer Association retorted that monotony was not a problem. Because the law allows the use of 100 hops, 40 malt and 200 yeast strains, drinkers can enjoy different kinds of beer brewed according to the law every day for 15 years, even if the brewer continues to create more beer,
German brewers have no incentive to make this 500-year-old document fade out of history. "On the contrary," the association said in a statutory anniversary statement,
Is it time to change? "
However, drinkers vote with their wallets and popular beer styles around the world, including traditional products and many rapidly growing handmade beer craze. They usually use fruit, cocoa, coffee and any other natural ingredients to naturally flavor beer, which is forbidden by Reinheitsgebot. This trend has also appeared in Germany, and many craft brewers have ignored Reinheitsgebot. A German brewer who asked not to be named recently told Dornbush, "I just brew what I want, not pass the law." . "I named my beer their style and simply dropped the world's' beer' from the label."
Si Tong Brewery in San Diego opened the first American-owned brewery in Germany. To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Reinheitsgebot, Stone is holding a "Reinheitswerbot" event in Berlin, which will only dump unqualified beer from Stone and Germany in their Berlin factory.
Even in the United States, 95% of the beer in Si Tong meets the requirements of Reinheitsgebot, including all the products of the brewery throughout the year. But they don't take the law as the criterion, and of course they are not afraid to deviate from the use of coffee, fruit, cocoa or other natural ingredients.
"In fact, high-quality beer can be brewed in and out of Heitsburg on the Rhine, and low-cost beer can also be brewed in and out of Heitsburg on the Rhine," Greg Koch, CEO and co-founder of Si Tong Brewing Company, told the German media before the event, adding with a smile that he wanted to know why "some people (will) want their choices to be restricted by a tax law 500 years ago."
Horst Dornbusch suggested that simplifying the law can preserve the tradition and simply explain the beer that Germans obviously don't want.
"No rice, no corn, no chemicals, no enzyme preparation, no genetically modified raw materials." That's the word 14, which is less than half of the word 15 16. Leave the rest to the brewer.