The Reinheitsgebot as a purity law is being challenged

Historically.... It has always been challenged. The one from 1516 was only in effect a few years.
 
Understood, there is a gaggle of information in the video that challenges the validity of it as ever being a purity law. This man suggests it was a law predicated on taxation.
 
They generally were. Same reason you end up with Black Patent malt. Some tax they were trying to get around.
 
Much like American markets, government regulates industry to compel a desired result. If we place a tariff on import cars, we will buy more of our own from a reduced financial incentive. By fixing German beer prices and regulating what could be called beer, the public would drink domestic at the suggestion of the impurity of the import.
 
Well I'm not sure a lot of the taxes were that well thought out back then. Generally some king needed quick cash and putting a tax on X was an easy way to make a bunch of money. Then the people the tax affected figured out a way around the tax, goto 10, etc..
 
Understood, there is a gaggle of information in the video that challenges the validity of it as ever being a purity law. This man suggests it was a law predicated on taxation.
I'm violently agreeing with you.
 
HAHAHHA Violence? Don't shoot the messenger, the author is responsible.
 
The other tax law that's strangely become a 'tradition' is the turbid mashing in Belgium. Turbid mashing was developed to reduce tax as they were taxed on mash tun size. There are plenty of people that think it's fundamental the beer style, not a work around to reduce tax. But then they've brewed the style far more than me.
 
The other tax law that's strangely become a 'tradition' is the turbid mashing in Belgium. Turbid mashing was developed to reduce tax as they were taxed on mash tun size. There are plenty of people that think it's fundamental the beer style, not a work around to reduce tax. But then they've brewed the style far more than me.
Amazing how that works! From the histories of brewing I've read, taxation as much as the available ingredients led to development of what we call beer styles.
 
It's kind of wild to look into the histories of these things. A lot of "This is how it's done!" is because someone was trying to save a couple shillings per keg 400 years ago.
 

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