This 500-year-old document changed beer forever.
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- Опубліковано 21 лют 2023
- This week we head to Bavaria to discover the truth and origins behind the Reinheitsgebot - perhaps the most important beer-related document ever written. This ancient "purity law" prohibits German brewers from calling their drinks "beer" if it has anything but barley, hops and water in. We find an original copy, and a descendent of the people who signed it, in a castle just west of Munich.
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Remember to drink responsibly(ish) and not be that guy... - Навчання та стиль
Want to learn more about this amazing history! Get the book from the beer writer who pointed us towards Kaltenberg. Cheers Mark Dredge! www.beerdredge.com/product-page/a-brief-history-of-lager
Yes! That is a great, easy read on the history of lager.
6:27 Find someone who looks at you with the same fascination as Jonny seeing the original Reinheitsgebot for the first time.
Not every time though, that would imply I keep forgetting who you are or something.
Of course the Reinheitsgebot is outdated and it is basically only a marketing instrument nowadays. But the history of it and that of the brewing tradition in Bavaria is the thing that is really getting across in that interview (or rather monologue) of the Prince. This was so informative even for a person like me who grew up in Bavaria only 50 miles away from Kaltenberg. Kind of weird that two Brits had to do it...thanks a lot guys!
While I don''t agree with the Prince's opinions about what deserves to be named "beer" and what not, he definitely has a point when he criticises the dominance of the macro breweries at the Oktoberfest, of which only Augustiner and Hofbräuhaus are still independent (Hofbräu is run by the state of Bavaria actually), whereas Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Löwenbräu, Franziskaner have all been degraded more or less to brands of InBev and the likes.
More than outdated narrow minded no oats, rye, sorghum or until recently roasted barley. Destroyed beer cultures in the North of Germany
As far as i know the "operational" Reinheitsgebot is updated and still has it meaning when it comes to food safety and product quality. Calling everything a "Beer" is counterproductive like calling a every Object with Wheels attached a Car. "Brews" exist all over the World in many Cultures, yet it does not mean its "Beer". Beer made is cultural evolution from "Brews" in a separate Branch. Otherwise psychedelic "ayahuasca" from the Amazon is also a "Beer". As much as i support Innovation as much i support some kind of a Gold Standard. Especially because big Industry would be the first watering and mixing "Beer" with bs ingredients to increase profits. Think about the many German Food Scandals as far as i know the Beer Industry is almost free of such Issues.
@@sunrae3971 What about Oatmeal, milk stouts and beers using inverted brewers sugars
@@oscarosullivan4513 Don´t know about other Countries than Germany. Allowing alternative sugar sources has consequence in the end. On one side i can understand artisan brewer 100% who want experiment and i am supporting it. Just call it "brew". On the other side we should not be naive and believe big industry would never start using the cheapest sugar substitutes if everything would be allowed to be labeled as "Beer". And the permit in Germany is regional with many exceptions, south germans are the harshest as far as i understand. Under given condition the brewer union said 1 Million Recipes are possible. I am for a kind of "established recipes" rule. If you can proof the recipe uses only natural resources and has some regional tradition or cultural meaning there should no hurdles to call it "Beer".
This should win awards.
What a wonderful gentleman. Humble and proud all wrapped in a passion for something that is a national treasure. Brilliant video and an insight we would never get if it wasn't for this show. Very grateful to him and yourselves for bringing it to us. My little beer bar in Gypsy Hill the Bull & Finch has a great selection of German beers. I'll view them with a lot more respect now I have seen this.
Boring beers
@@oscarosullivan4513grow up
While I think the Reinheitsgebot can certainly be restrictive and we've all brewed beers that are contrary to it, there's a lot to be said for the discipline of it if only to reset things now and again. As much as I love the diversity we enjoy of our favourite beverage I do tire of the fickle fashions of craft beer. Today I brewed a clone of Tim Taylor Landlord and I have a Bohemian Pilsner conditioning nicely in the bottle. Neither of these are victims of what's hot and what's not and are beautiful in their natural simplicity. Another excellent and insightful episode guys. Great stuff.
What I had my first , hefewise I didn't know about the reinheitsgebot, thought was cool , but now that I'm 53 I really appreciate the lineage Thanks for you Guys.
I had my first hefe-weisse at 17
I love craft beer and the creativity and diversity that goes with it, but the Purity Law is a testament that good beer can be made from three simple ingredients and here we are still drinking it centuries later.
Testimony that you can be condescending to other brewing cultures
@@oscarosullivan4513grow up Oscar
@@oscarosullivan4513 craft beer is so much worse than the og so its warranted
Again I Agree 💯 With This Man! I worked 12yrs Commercial Construction and my Supervisor Bought Us Beer Everyday After Work! Hard Physical, Mental and Dangerous Work 👍😎❤️
I never miss a video, but this one surprised and delighted me. Always a pleasure to learn the rich histories, but the opportunity to sit down and talk with essentially a docent of family and cultural heritage was special.
I'm allergic to sweetcorn so Reinheitsgebot is always comforting because I know they haven't put sweetcorn in it. I think it should be a legal requirement to list every ingredient on the packaging of a product intended for human consumption. No euphemisms either: if it's corn syrup, write it as such, not "fructose-glucose syrup" if it contains anything else apart from fructose or glucose.
Watching while enjoying a bottle of Ayinger Helles, which made it even more tasty for this vlog
Best video yet! So awesome. This is definitely a must see on my ever growing list of things to see when I visit Europe!
This was amazing! Thank you for sharing your experience!
I would love to go one day to Munich to explore their rich beer history.
Awesome video - what a great opportunity for you guys, and thank you so much for sharing it with us!
This is one of the many things about your channel I enjoy - beer history. While I am familiar with König Ludwig beer I was not familiar with its history. Thanks for bringing it directly to me here in the U.S.!
Another fantastic video. I love all the different places this journey takes you. The beer world is such an exciting one.
It sure is! We've been doing this for nearly a decade so we're glad new ideas keep coming!
therefore
I would have taken my hat off, if I had sat at the table with history
Amazing. Thank you for putting this together.
Fantastic video. Such history, insight and passion. I wish I visited here when I was last in Bavaria
Kaltenberg has a fantastic winter market and knights games in the summer. Great beer too. We brewed an Aventinus clone, turned out really good. Hope you enjoyed Munich and the food didnt give you a heart attack.
Absolutely amazing show. Thankyou
Fascinating conversation, well done gents perfect infotainment.
Incredibly informative and confirmed my trip to Munich
Fantastic video. I loved the historical aspects from the Prince and did not know that all but two of the Oktoberfest breweries are owned by the likes of InBev. The Prince shows his true love and passion for the historical, social and economic fabric that beer truly is. Well done, gentlemen. Cheers! Prost!
Anther first-class show, fellas! Thanks for doing what you do.
Really enjoyed that, cheers.
Great discussion ... very illuminating!
What a great video. Thank you!
The best video you have made. I love Bavaria, Bamberg is the best. Great, Thanks
Thanks so much!
Fascinating stuff. So much I didn't know and which probably would require a lot of dedicated studies to learn on your own.
Fantastic video. I need to get back to Bavaria soon. Cheers
I live only a few kilometers from Burghausen and did not know this is where the son kept all his profits from wheat beer 🙈. The castle at Burghausen is just over 1 km long and is the longest in the world. A must visit for your next trip to Bavaria 👍🏻👍🏻. Great vid look forward to part 2.
What a wonderful video.
This information is believable and honest! I agree 💯 with this Gentleman! Thanks for sharing this Historic Story With Us 🙏✌️❤️
What a sensational video! Thanks a lot for the history lesson... Love German beers! 🍻
Excellent
Another great video! Thanks guys. I'll just add that German brewers can brew non-Reinheitsgebot beers, they just can't sell them in Germany. Brewers from outside of Germany are also not held to the Reinheitsgebot when importing their beers into Germany.
Indeed. I mean German brewers can sell non-reinheitsgebot beer in Germany, they just can't CALL them beer.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Oh, I totally got that, I just wanted to add a little bit more info for everyone reading the comments. Once again, another great one. Cheers!
Not true some are going against this they are frowned upon but nothing can actually be done @@TheCraftBeerChannel
Not true there are breweries making beer with other ingredients in and calling it beer
Fabulous.
The auto captions in minute 12 are gold 😂
So many amazing mashup translations of reinheitsgebot throughout, Brad's in the outro my highlight. Superb vid gents!
Really good video, great spirit, showing the historically fascinating story of this tiny law, BUT:
he is also only trying to market himself and his brewery. Obviously he has the connections to the roots of the Reinheitsgebot. He wants the city of Munich to change based on historic reasons - on the first Octoberfest, the actual wedding of his relative, they served beer from Vienna. But he doesn’t acknowledge or opens up to the term of beer which has been historically way more diverse than only the purity law. But he knows about the marketing power of it.
He is trying to depict his brewery as small brewing operation, that sadly can not participate in the Oktoberfest. Yet he runs 4 breweries and most of his beers are brewed and sold under license in foreign markets.
And his own brewing operation is a 50/50 joint venture with Warsteiner, one of Germanys 10 biggest breweries.
Always look both ways ;)
Agreed
You're right on all this - though I must make it clear we edited out the bit where he explains the global nature of the brewery and the size of it. He was very open about everything, but we didn't have time in the video to go into it all (it was about 10 minutes of explaining all the contract brewing and branding). He also talked about the Vienna lager too, but that was off camera when we were getting a tour.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel All I got off it was the sense of boringness about German Beer
Shakin’ Stevens would describe this video as “Lovely stuff!”
Really enjoyed that. But, god, i want to me there right now.
Need to put his picture on my wall
Excellent video and what a great host you had, I would shovel his snow any day.
Is there a known UK supplier where I can purchase some of those Konig beers??
Some comes in every now and then via niche German importers. The weissbier is available here: www.beershophq.uk/products/konig-ludwig-hefe-weisse-1?variant=39408592617533
as someone who has lived in Bayern since 99, what it was and what it is are miles apart, breweries have been putting things in for filtering like Kieselgur but as they say it doesnt make it into the final product it was deemed ok.
I get the feeling in Bayern especially it is used as a means to protect the big breweries. You cannot sell beer with anything in it for example a fruit sour has to be called Biermischgetränk (mixed beer drink like a cola beer mix). There is a movement I cant remember the name natur something but they are trying to have this expanded to allow any product of nature so fruits would be fine but in Bayern they have no chance.
As you are out west I would have said go visit Frau Grüber they are in Augsburg and make amazing beer but as there is snow in the Sbahn ride you must have filmed a few weeks ago so too late
Very good point, Frau Gruber's NEIPAS are excellent stuff and now they're even dipping their toes in quality barrel aged stouts.
Or anything with oats,rye, sorghum
Wow really interesting video abour the history of German brewing, BTW you should take your hat off when the Prince was was speaking to yourselves
I don't believe these things are still observed.
So cool, fellas! Great episode! TIL, Germany has royalty???
They do! Though of course they have no power anymore and are essentially rich people with an even richer history
Like the Bible but more useful
Less smiting though. Not as dramatic.
@@TheCraftBeerChannelSmiting over beer would be terribly barbaric!
By the by, the KL-Weißbier is great. Maybe a comprehensive review of German Hefeweizen and comparison to world wheat beers would be a great video(s).
@@TheCraftBeerChannel 500 years of boring beer and wiped out Northern German beer cultures
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Have you thought about going to a pub called the four provinces on the Ternure facing side of Kimmage
Hahahah
Long live the Prince.
Any recommendations for good books on the history or beer/brewing in Germany?
See the pinned post! Mark Dredge's Brief History of Lager is amazing. www.beerdredge.com/product-page/a-brief-history-of-lager
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Thanks!
What he said about the social value of beer is true, perhaps anywhere, certainly here in the states.
It is! Though I think it is particularly acute in Bavaria - because good beer is so cheap it really doesn't have huge monetary value.
Poisonous plants to get a psychoactive effect, including 'shrooms. Interesting. So people could trip on medieval beer.
"you can only call it beer if it's barley, hops and water" - the guy who calls his _wheat_ beer "beer" 🙄
What he describes with not calling it beer has real consequences on the sales and marketability of the products at hand. "Beer with chocolate" will sell much better than "alchoholic malt beverage with choclate". German consumers aren't led astray by the former, but seemingly intimated by the latter.
If al royals were as grounded as this prince, looking at you Britain wink wink :)
I wish this guy was my dad (jk). Seriously though, a very wise soul.
Is that the same guy Michael Jackson interviewed?
All the paintings look disappointed with the portrait on the right. He looks embarrassed too.
hahahaha did not clock that!
I think the Prince very much overvalues what my snow-shoveling services are worth. I'd take your arm off for 50 EUR - although mind you the 'driveway' of his house is probably quite large.
Didn't know what yeast was but knew hops were antiseptic. Sure, that checks out........
They knew that adding hops slowed down how quickly the beer went sour. They didn't know exactly the reasons, or that it was bacteria (not yeast) they were impeding.
A little side note: original Bavaria was a land of wine drinker. So Maximilian increased the taxes for wine and Bavaria became a land of beer dinkers.
True! Though I think this was to deal with imports. Most of its local wine production died with a climate shift in the 1300s I think
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Maximilian owned the Weißbiermonopol and now he had to get people to drink beer. So wine was taxed. Wine was not imported, the opposite was the case: beer was imported. That is why the Wittelsbach family founded the first brewery in Munich in the Hofbräuhaus, originally to brew cheap beer for their servants.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Wine was grown in the Isar valley in Munich and even the monks of Weihenstephan grew wine. I'm from Munich and I only learned that when I accompanied guests on a city tour through Munich. There are really great city guides about this time, about the influence of the Wittelsbach family, the plague, executions, the former red-light district opposite the Hofbräuhaus and how beer came to Munich.
@@TheAndlix the Prince and the books I'm reading have given a different impression of the wines in Bavaria. I'll have to keep researching. I'm actually writing a book with a long chapter on this so keen to get it right.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Have you ever contacted Jan Brücklmeier? He can certainly recommend a lot of literature on this.
Surprised the prince even talked to you, he’s not exactly talking about craft beer and brewing in high regards. His opinions shared in German interviews is pretty different from what he said there, basically calling anything that isn’t German beer sewage..
Haha perhaps he tailored his message for the audience. He was very complimentary about modern brewing, and of course made his 9% barrel aged bock!
Germans can not accept that they are increasingly no longer being seen as the number one brewing nation losing out to Belgium a country created as a buffer state which has the most beer styles
@@oscarosullivan4513 Agreed. Probably the best macro (lager) beer, but that’s about it. They’re super hesitant to innovate and go with the times. Relying on the consumer to never change or want something different may ultimately be a bad strategy, only time will tell..
@@dralois Agreed
lmao you guys are mental if you think a craft beer or cherryfuckmedeadpissbeer from belgium can even compete with a bavarian beer, just shows you never experienced the real deal, its like hating on champagne while downing cheap prosecco haha
Cracker video. Beer marketing 101 from a guy who's family have been doing it for centuries.
People did drink water back then and didn't die a lot of that is a fallacy and a lot of the other reasons for the laws on beer it's the same with distilling myths.
It had more to do with where the people were living at the time. Rural people had better access to clean water than town or city people and it had less human and animal feces in it...
Indeed. This idea of the water being dangerous has been simplified - it varied by season, location and also how it was stored. Beer circumvented all that by being safe and easier to store for when the water was not safe (or indeed in drought or frozen). Not all of it was dangerous, but huge amounts of it was - and still is in certain parts of the world. Over 500,000 people still die every year from drinking unsafe water. What's underplayed is that water was 100% a risk, but beer had the added benefit of being nutritional - full of calories, vitamins and minerals. Hence why it is called variations of "liquid bread" and even "water of life" in cultures around the world.
Martyn Cornell has a post about that myth
Stick to your guns when you know you’re right, and by jove were the Germans right.
Belgians are better than the Irish,English,Welsh and Scottish
Some breweries have been brewing beers in Bavaria with other ingredients in and calling it beer I seem to remember drinking a summer fruit beer at Camba Bavaria brewery the purity law is rubbish are you trying to say Belgian beer with fruit ECT is not beer the best beer I ever had was in Prague at Pivorvar U Dobrenskych which had mint and lemon grass in it incredible beer the purity law was introduced because of adding rubbish just to bulk it out about time it was updated
We aren't trying to say any of that! We think it should be scrapped but kept as a marker of traditional brewing for those who abide by it.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel obviously you weren’t trying to say that but the fact is some brewers are breaking this purity law and nobody can actually do anything about it
Belgian beers wouldn’t be allowed to be sold as beer in Germany. The Germans once proposed for the European single market their beer purity law as standard which thankfully didn’t happen otherwise oatmeal stouts and Dubbels would have gone the way of Berlin Braunbier
The Reinheitsgebot is a farce and a marketing gag.
Camba Bavaria is brewing fruit beers and calling them beer I’ve been there and yes you’re right
I read somewhere that the law was also introduced because they wanted to prevent breweries from using wheat to keep enough wheat available for baking bread. Barley is not the best grain for baking. I don't know if that is true.
@@janpcst is and because the King wanted the Weizenbier to be something for the rich and barley for the peasants
Ok some inaccuracies here.
Alan and MD - many breweries have indeed called their non-reinheitsgebot brews beer but it is in technical breach of the law. As far as I know, no action has been taken in the last century - however, we believe the Reinheitsgebot has a function due to the fact that so many fast fermented corn/rice lagers are being called Pilsners. Which we think is misleading.
Jan - We mention the wheat thing in this video, and indeed in our video about Weissbier, but it was more about controlling price than availability.
MD - wheat beer was weaker, harder to make and less popular than "braunbier" which was what most breweries made - so the King (actually a Duke) would have had no interest in wheat beer when the Reinheitsgebot came in. In fact, he's quoted saying it is a "useless" drink. The Bavarian Royalty mostly drank bockbier from Einbeck in Northern Germany - until Protestantism started, which was at odds to the Bavarian catholicism. Then they went back to Braunbier. Of course, 100 years later they got interested in Weissbier as the Prince says - but again it was a drink for the masses, not royalty.
Adjuncts can be good Mercers Meat Stout or Belgian Dubbel