Reinheitsgebot (beer purity law)
Reinheitsgebot (ley de pureza de la cerveza)
- Date
- 1516 · confidence high
- Place
- Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany
- Credited to
- Dukes William IV and Louis X of Bavaria
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A Bavarian ordinance limiting beer ingredients to barley, hops and water (yeast was not yet understood). It is one of the oldest food regulations still invoked.
Preceded by local ordinances (Augsburg 1156, Nuremberg 1293, Munich 1487). Its purpose included reserving wheat and rye for bread.
What it led to
- later food-quality regulations and appellations of origin
- standardisation of German beer
- purity marketing in modern beer