Monday, June 04, 2018

Purity Law of 1516

Reminder: the Reinheitsgebot, or Purity Law for brewing beer promulgated by two German Dukes in 1516, was long before the germ theory was dreamed of. That kind of purity was the all-natural kind, of no chemicals or modern experiments, beloved even today and derived from Germanic paganism. The Germans have a bit more fascination with purity than average, leading to the development of heroin by getting all the harmful impurities out of morphine, and er, tribal favoritism leading to The Holocaust.

Maybe those are better beers, but I wouldn't expect magic, y'know? Purity has several meanings.

1 comment:

  1. A German woman of my acquaintance swore to me that, if you only drank German beer brewed in accordance with the ancient purity law, you'd never be hungover. I have to agree that it works, although I suspect it's because the beer tends to come in around the four percent range ABV. If I'm drinking 95% water alongside every bit of alcohol, I'll dilute the poison a ton; and it'll take a while to drink much alcohol, given how full my stomach will be of water.

    Stuff's not bad, though, all the same.

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