A Tilmans Biere Facebook post from Tuesday, April 26, 2016 reads:
“BREAKING NEWS
The Bavarian state government, represented by the food control, are after us!
Whoever wants to try our 3BREW EXTRA REIN (Extra Pure) should do so soon! They can pull the plug on us namely at any time.
Such a brewing specialty with a few pure herbs is really crass.”
The above is a Facebook post by one of Munich’s young brewers who is opposed to the rigidity of the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot Beer Purity Law (Commandment). We had introduced Tilman Ludwig in our “Munich’s Breweries” series.
Tilman has also been interviewed and shown brewing his EXTRA REIN brew in which he added ginger and herbs (rebellious as he is) by Bavarian State Television last week. He also earned himself a interview for Bloomberg.com entitled “Craft Brewers Won't Play By Germany's 500-Year-Old Rules” in which he shared his view on the Reinheitsgebot. The 31-year-old trained brewer said:
“There is a chance authorities will ban the sale, but that’s a risk I’m happy to take to make a statement. The Reinheitsgebot is not my enemy; I’m just in favor of more diversity and openness. I want the consumer to decide if a beer is good or bad, and not some public authority.”
The Reinheitsgebot has been changed a few times during the 500 years of its existance and chances are that there are going to be some more soon, or at least the beer legislation will change and allow for some more creativity in Bavarian beer brewing.
This is also what Bavaria’s best craft beer brewer Sebastian Priller-Riegele from Augsburg’s Riegele Brewery is calling for in the interview for the Bavarian TV (BR Bayerischer Rundfunk). The Riegele Brewery itself is over 100 years older than the Reinheitsgebot.
The Bavarian Beer Purity Law’s 500th anniversary will be celebrated with a three-day festival in Munich this July.
