Happy Reinheitsgebot anniversary everybody! Unless, you speak German, you may be wondering what I may be talking about. Literally, Reinheitsgebot means ‘purity order’ in German. And today is the anniversary of that law, also known as the Bavarian Purity Law. On April 23, 1516, the city of Ingolstadt put forward a law regarding what could be put into beer during production. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used (and still have the drink be considered “beer”) were: water, barley and hops. The wise would note that rice is not on this list. Violators were subject to having their brews confiscated without compensation. Presumably, this made some health inspectors very happy, and very drunk.
The law has since been replaced by the Provisional German Beer Law which now allows a few more ingredients, such as wheat malt and cane sugar, but disallows unmalted barley. Back then, it wasn’t known that yeast played a role (and such a crucial role it is!) in the production of beer, so it was not originally included on the list.
Interestingly, the Reinheitsgebot was mostly an attempt to prevent price competition with bakers. It may also have been an attempt at trade protectionism; excluding foreign brews from being allowed into the country.
Check out the Wikipedia article for more information.