Quaff quote
"The best known and most famous brewing law is the Reinheitsgebot. The "Purity Law" is the oldest food regulation in the world and still exists today unchanged from the original. It was ordered by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in the year 1516. It said that beer should only be brewed from barley, hops and water. Thanks to the regulation, Bavarian beers then became leaders among their peers. Thus other lands of Germany also enforced the regulation."
From http://www.oldworld.ws/okbeerhist.html
Beer and sausage bump
Beer is STILL regulated
Malt. Der Reinheitsgebot von 1516 - Barley, MALT, hops, water...
One of my colonial American ancestors was dragged before the magistrate in 1653 for charging too much for a mug of her beer. But, the court ruled in her favor, as she put extra malt in her brew, justifying the higher price.
I remember reading about a process used to test the quality of beer back then...
The beer was poured onto a bench, the brewer, wearing leather lederhosen sat down for some period of time, when he stood up, if the bench stuck to his pants the beer was considered pure.
Sounds good to me.