Beer Purity facts
While investigating facts about Beer Purity, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Carlsberg beer used to have a Swastika (as a symbol of purity) in its logo. They removed it in 1940 after the Nazi's appropriated it.
There is a 500-year-old Beer Purity Law still in effect today in Germany. It was decreed on April 23, 1516, by Munich's Duke Wilhelm, protecting the country’s beer drinkers from contaminants, chemicals and any other additives that unsavory merchants might have thought of adding.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 11 of the best facts about Beer Purity I managed to collect.
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The "German Beer Purity Law" first adopted in Bavaria in 1517 has lead to both foreign beers and craft beers in modern Germany being largely unavailable as until the 1990s imported beer was not allowed to be sold.
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The first ever consumer protection law introduced was The Reinheitsgebot (Purity Law) in 1516. It was related to beer and aimed to protect drinkers from high prices and prevent wheat from being too expensive for bakers to produce bread.
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In 1516, the ruling family of Bavaria created the "Beer Purity Law," stating that beer in Germany can only be brewed with barley, hops and water. Yeast was only added once it was discovered it helped during fermentation.
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Pilsen where Pilsner comes from was originally named for "Bilsenkraut", or henbane. Henbane is a highly toxic plant related to tomatoes, and its seeds were added to Bavarian beer for centuries until it was banned by the world's first alcohol legislation, the Bavarian Beer Purity Act of 1516
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There is a 'beer purity law' in Germany known as The Reinheitsgebot, that regulates the ingredients German brewers can use in their beers.
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500 years ago today, Bavaria enacted the "Reinheitsgebot" (Beer Purity Law), which limited the ingredients allowed in beer to "barely, hops, and water." The law was updated over time, but is still followed in Bavaria today, making it the oldest, continually food legislation in the world.
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Reinheitsgebot (the German Beer Purity Law) will be 500 years old later this month
