Thursday 28 April 2016

Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!

The 500th Anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law, has left me uncharacteristically indecisive. Most beer geeks have used the occasion to put the boot into it, and it has been eloquently argued that it is, in fact, a load of old bollocks.

But whereas I know I can speak infallibly on the superiority of cask beer to other forms, I can't quite bring myself to condemn the Reinheitsgebot. I wouldn't want to brew under its regulations, and a lot of German brewing practice seems designed to keep to the letter of the law whilst riding roughshod over the spirit of it. Yet brewing with only water, malt, hops and yeast still seems a worthy aim to me, and there is an infinite variety of wonderful beers that can be made from those ingredients.

Many of the "innovative" ingredients of the craftily inclined are things I would actively avoid in beer rather than seek out. And despite their claims of non-conformity there is something samey about craft beer bars: the same selection of beer types, and often from a list of usual suspects.

That Germany has a distinct brewing heritage and a rich beer culture seems to me something that should be defended and I do wonder if those that rail against the Reinhetsgebot risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Despite my opposition to state imposed restrictions, and indeed states, I'd far rather get to Franconia and try the traditional beer there than the latest offerings from the cutting edge of craft.


9 comments:

  1. False dilemma innit? We can enjoy trad beer and yer craft.

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    1. As indeed I do but I still feel a sense of disquiet after reading some of the rants against the Reinheitsgebot.

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    2. Reinheitsgebot zealots would be fine if you could be sure they were "campaigning for [something], not against [something else]" You know the kind of thing?

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  2. 10 foot sign on Oxford street

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    1. Haven't been to Oxford street in years. Somewhere between Junctions eight and 10 on the M25 would work better for me.

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  3. "Germany has a distinct brewing heritage and a rich beer culture" - if you're talking Reinheitsgebot, then you really need to replace "Germany" in that sentence with "Bavaria".

    That's not to say Bavarian beer isn't great - it is! But *German* beer culture pre the 1906 imposition of Reinheitsgebot nationwide was a rather different thing.

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    1. I know, I know, but as you say it does have over a century of history in the rest of Germany so certainly is part of their beer culture. I would love to see some pre-Reinheitsgebot beers revived though.

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  4. So are you Nemesis the Warlock or Torquemada?

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    1. As I'm dithering a bit on this one I really should have had a question mark at the end but I've been dying to use it as a post title for ages and didn't want to change it when I had the opportunity.

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