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Stein Collectors International, Inc. |
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by Kurt Sommerich, SCI Master Steinologist, Nurnberg native, and humorist (from Prosit, December 1981) |
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Relax, dear Reader, this is just a
vignette about
beer. The raison d'etre for beer steins is, of course, beer.
So
let's talk a little about our favorite beverage. We shall set back the
time
clock a mere than 465 years and fly to Ingolstadt. {Ed. note: Of
course, by the
year 2000 this has increased to 484 years.]
The Bavarian city of Ingolstadt is located about halfway between
Nuremberg
and Munich. We find it right on the "Bierstrasse" on the banks
of the beautiful blue (?) Danube.
Duke William IV is the ruler of all Bavaria. Today. on April 23, 1516,
he is
in a determined mood. He has just signed a decree in Ingolstadt which
will
benefit all sons and daughters of his domain: For some time his loyal
subjects
have been complaining about the poor quality of many of the local
brews. Foaming
with rage, they claimed that most beer tasted as if it had been drunk
before.
One cannot do this to Bavarians! The monumental challenge of finding
good beer
is very close to their hearts (and stomachs). So you can see that thing
were fermenting
in Bavaria and trouble was brewing throughout the land.
In fact, only 18 months later, on October 31, 1517, other event would
come
to a head, which next to the beer question would permanently
stir up the
composition of the Western World. But back to Duke William IV and beer.
The Duke's decree of 1516 is known as the Purity Law and
governs the
brewing of beer.
Das
Reinheitsgebote, or
Purity Law, of 1516
The basic ingredients are limited to barley-malt (wheat-malt for pale
beers), hops, yeast and water. Additional chemicals, whether "natural"
or "artificial", are an absolute no-no. This law was to be rigorously
obeyed. Violators were subject to severe penalties! (There seems to be
a
question about the "legality" of adding yeast: The Saarbruecker
Zeitung recently reported the list of ingredients as noted above;
however, a
German brewmaster, Joachim Kortuem, who is also an SCI member and a
member of
the "Happy Steinhunters of Wisconsin", says that yeast was definitely
not used as a brewing ingredient at the time of the German Reinheitsgebotes
(Purity Law). So for the time being you have your choice: Yeast or no
yeast. But
we shall research the question further.)
The Weimar Republic took over the Purity Law lock, stock and - barrel.
Indeed, the Free State of Bavaria had made it clear that they would
join the
Weimar Republic as a member state only if the Purity Law were
retained.
This proves without a doubt that even in the field of high
statesmanship the
brew-orities have the pri-orities.
German brewers are very proud of the excellent reputation of their
product. They
vigorously oppose any efforts on the part of non-German brewers to have
them
lower their standards in the interests of European coordination.
As a result of the Purity Law,
Bavarian beer
enjoyed immense popularity, even beyond the borders of Bavaria.
Eventually other
German states also adopted the Purity Law, so that by 1906 this law
became
uniformly accepted throughout the whole German Empire.
And just a smattering of statistics: While Germany trails the United
States
in annual beer production, they did produce 92.7 million hectoliters in
1976,
against the U.S.'s 179.6 hectoliters. But no German brewery was
represented in
the "Top Ten" largest brewers in the world (Anheuser-Busch led all the
rest). On the other hand, the German drinker still outdrinks everyone
else with
a cool per-capita consumption of 147 liters of beer per year for every
citizen
of West Germany! The USA comes in 13th with only 82 liters per year per
person.
[Ed. note: In "The New World Guide to Beer", 1988, Michael Jackson
reports that US production of beer had grown to a whopping 230.5
hectoliters,
about 23 percent of total world production, while the second-place West
German
total barely budged to 94.1 hectoliters.]
Let us hope that Purity will triumph all over the World.