Bavarian Purity Law

The purity law is the result of a development in Germany that lasted several centuries in order to improve the quality of the main food of the Germans - the beer. In Munich, this development started in 1363 when 12 members of the town council were put in charge of supervising the beer by the population of Munich. In 1447, they requested from the farmers to use only barley, hops and water for the brewing of beer. Duke Albrecht IV. confirmed the request of the council of Munich later, because he got to know that the guilds in the North of Germany ensured that only good beer was brewed.

In 1493, Duke Georg the Rich issued a regulation for Bavaria as well. For the brewing of beer, only hops, malt and water were allowed to be used. The observance of this regulation was checked again by supervisors which resulted in better quality of the beer.

On April 23rd, 1516, the Bavarian purity law for all Bavarian brewers was finally issued by duke Wilhelm IV. in Ingolstadt. From then on, the quality of the Bavarian beer caught up with that of Northern Germany and became even better.

The purity law was adopted in the Bavarian law after the foundation of the German Reich in 1871. Other parts of the country followed, and in 1916, it was applicable throughout the country. In the beer-tax law (Biersteuergesetz), it is specified that beer may only be brewed with malt, hops, water and yeast.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the purity law is still included in the beer-tax law, which means that until now, beer must contain only malt, hops, water and yeast. Although there have been a a few revisions of the purity law since then, the contents were not changed.