Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2016 6:16:25 GMT 7
This weekend marks 500 years since the Duke of Bavaria introduced the "Reinheitsgebot" or purity law - strict rules controlling what can go into beer.
And beer lovers across Germany will be celebrating at events (read: subsidised drinking opportunities) to mark the anniversary of the famous food law.
As Chancellor Angela Merkel partakes of an obligatory Pils with German brewers in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, the BBC's Claudia Allen takes a look at the Reinheitsgebot, and what it means for German beer today.
Why was the purity law introduced?
The decree known as the Reinheitsgebot, issued in Ingolstadt in 1516, had three aims: to protect drinkers from high prices; to ban the use of wheat in beer so more bread could be made; and to stop unscrupulous brewers from adding dubious toxic and even hallucinogenic ingredients as preservatives or flavourings.
They included herbs and spices such as rosemary and caraway, henbane, thorn-apple, wood shavings, roots, soot or even pitch, according to the German Brewers' Association (DBB).Duke Wilhelm IV's beer purity regulation of 1516, which was preceded by earlier rules on beer production, was gradually implemented in other parts of southern Germany. It eventually became law in the north and thus the whole country in 1906.
The DBB claims that the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest currently valid consumer protection law in the world.
More here, an interesting read: www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36110288
And beer lovers across Germany will be celebrating at events (read: subsidised drinking opportunities) to mark the anniversary of the famous food law.
As Chancellor Angela Merkel partakes of an obligatory Pils with German brewers in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, the BBC's Claudia Allen takes a look at the Reinheitsgebot, and what it means for German beer today.
Why was the purity law introduced?
The decree known as the Reinheitsgebot, issued in Ingolstadt in 1516, had three aims: to protect drinkers from high prices; to ban the use of wheat in beer so more bread could be made; and to stop unscrupulous brewers from adding dubious toxic and even hallucinogenic ingredients as preservatives or flavourings.
They included herbs and spices such as rosemary and caraway, henbane, thorn-apple, wood shavings, roots, soot or even pitch, according to the German Brewers' Association (DBB).Duke Wilhelm IV's beer purity regulation of 1516, which was preceded by earlier rules on beer production, was gradually implemented in other parts of southern Germany. It eventually became law in the north and thus the whole country in 1906.
The DBB claims that the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest currently valid consumer protection law in the world.
More here, an interesting read: www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36110288
