Another interpretation
Despite the myths of the renouned GERMAN Reinheitsgebot
, let me offer a new interpretation, supported with a little history,
especially in relation to Weissbier or Weizenbier.
The original Reinheitsgebot of 1516 was a Bavarian purity
law, and not German law. It allowed for only barley, hops, and
water to be included in the making of beer. Yeast was not at that
time known. According to the "myth," at a later time,
1603, wheat was also admitted by the Elector of Bavaria in order
to consume the overproduction of wheat in his domaine. It should,
however, be noted that wheat had been used many centuries earlier
for the brewing of beer. (See "Wheat for Bread, ....")
Furthermore, the Bavarians (still referring to their land as the
"Free State of Bavaria"), proud of their beer, and its
purity law, refused to join the Federation of German States in
the late 19th century without the inclusion of "their"
Reinheitsgebot. Hence, not originally German but Bavarian!
Although the law did mandate only pure ingredients, the motive
was clearly to protect the privilege of the nobility, and control
the price of beer. And at other times the law was again oriented
not toward purity, but simply toward a new form of taxation. (For
the Purity Law in English translation, see Fred Hardy, http://alpha.rollanet.org/library.ReinHeit.html,
and the original, "Reinheit des Bieres" in Bier aus
Deutschland, http://www.netbeer.co.at/beer)
No one ever mentions the Austrian purity law as found in the Codex
Alimentarius of the Hapsburg period* which pre-dates the Bavarian
Reinheitsgebot. The distinction with this law is that "grain"
in this sense may include "rice" as well as barley and
wheat. It further states, however, that never more than 25% of
the grain may be rice. Hence, here too the Austrian purity law
mandates only pure ingredients with no additives!
With the advent of the European Common Market, even these "laws"
are no longer enforced, although the Germans remain stead-fast
in their domestic production of beer following this Reinheitsgebot,
and the Austrians with theirs.
IS IT PURE? According to Conrad Seidl, the Austrians have
stricter laws than the Germans for all of their Lebensmittel
(food products). Regardless the Germans and the Austrians still
avoid chemicals and other synthetic ingredients in their beers.
Assuming that the grain and the hops are still produced without
contamination, the Austrians, and the Bavarians from the Alps
question the purity of the water, especially in the northern industrial
regions. Seidl, an Austrian, and our source for this information,
condemns the European Common Market as having contaminated the
ground water, saying that it can only be half-way designated as
pure. The Austrians consider this as Schmäh (insulting,
or ridiculous), and a "good trick." Purification processes
in the west suffice for human consumption, but do they produce
"unadultered, pure" water with its natural minerals?
While there is definitely validity in this statement relating
to the ground water, old "east" Germany under communist
rule, welcomed the waste from the west, for a sizeable fee, and
totally contaminated their land, their lakes, and their waterways.
In eastern Germany they are saying that it will take decades to
free the land and water from these contaminants. What has modern
technology done?
The hardness or softness of a water seriously affects the action
of the yeast in the fermentation process. The mineral water as
found in a Kurort or Spa such as in Karlsbad in
the Czech Republic may be ideal for human regeneration, but the
yeast simply does not react well to such a hard water, and the
fermentation process is reduced. Beer brewed with this hard water
needs a special strain of yeast, one that has only recently been
developed, and still can only produce a beer of 3.5 % alcohol
by volume. Although a good tasting beer, it is not particularly
potent. Additionally at least one west German brewery proudly
asserts that it softens its water before the brewing process begins.
Again, Schmäh, ... and so remains the German Purity
Law!
* Hapsburgs: Ruling family of Austria & the Austrian-Hungarian
empire, 1278-1918, & the Holy Roman Empire, 1438-1806.
This information is excerpted primarily from a publication by
Conrad Seidl: NOCH EIN BIER: Reisen zu den Stätten Europäischer
Braukunst. Franz Deutiche Verlag GmbH, Wien, Austria, 2nd. Ed.,
1994.
For a more pointed article on the topic,
Commentary