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The baking of bread and the brewing of beer was the province of women in the first centuries after the birth of Christ. This began to change shortly before the end of the first millennium, when the
Monastery Breweries turned their attention
to beer brewing. The reason the monks were so intensively concerned with making
beer was because they wanted a pleasant tasting, nutritious drink to serve with
their meals, which were frugal at best, especially during the fasting periods.
As the consumption of liquids was not considered to break the fast, beer was
always permitted. The consumption of beer in the monasteries reached astounding
levels: Historians report that each monk was allowed to imbibe 5 liters of beer
per day.
We can see in many paintings that the monks enjoyed their beer, nonetheless,
after a short time they began to brew more than for their own consumption. Upon
payment of a fee, the monks received the right to sell beer and with this many
monasteries developed into well managed commercial enterprises. The beer was
purveyed in monastery pubs. Because the monasteries actively promoted beer
brewing, their beer was of high quality and popular. The people in the
burgeoning towns also wanted their beer with the result that the art of brewing
developed and became a respected trade. The local sovereigns
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introduced beer taxes which rapidly began to fill their coffers. As the
monastery pubs did not have to pay these taxes because of their older,
privileged brewery status, they adversely affected this new source of income and
many were quickly closed by the dukes and princes. Emperor Sigismund (1368-1437)
was the first emperor to issue such a decree. Even though many monastery
breweries were closed by the sovereigns, we owe much to the monks for being the
first to scientifically develop the brewers' art. For example, hops are said to
have first been used to flavor beer in Brabant monasteries in what is now
Belgium. This explains the legend falsely attributing the creation of beer to
the Brabant king
("Grutrecht"
in old German). Grut was a mixture of all sorts of herbs used to flavor beer.
The flavoring license was similar to a patent, allowing a brewery to produce its
own flavoring mixture and became the legal basis for every brewery and
ensured a monopoly position for the respective brewmaster. With the advent of
hops as a flavoring, Grut was no longer necessary and therefore the monopoly
position of the breweries endangered. For this reason, the use of hops was often
simply and forcibly forbidden. Among other things, juniper berries, sweet gale ,
blackthorn, oak bark, wormwood, caraway seed, aniseed, bay leaves, yarrow, thorn
apple, gentian, rosemary, tansy, Saint-John's-wort, spruce chips, pine roots -
and above all henbane found their way into these Grut mixtures. Some of these
herbs were downright poisonous, others induced hallucinations. As we know today,
the hallucinogen Alkaloid, for example, is produced from henbane during the
brewing process. This could well be the reason that superstition played an
important role around the brewing kettle. The main victims of this superstition
were the
Because
things often went wrong with the beer brewing which nobody could explain with
the body of beer brewing knowledge available in early times, the guilty parties
were often sought in the mystical realm. Many wondrous herbs and cult
objects still surrounded brewing kettles into the late middle ages. Superstition
went so far that brewing failures were blamed on "brew witches" or
"beer witches". The last known burning of a "brew witch"
took place in 1591. This practice can be referred to as the "darkest"
chapter of beer brewing history. The end of this superstitious era came when the
use of hops caught on. Even though often forbidden at first, this practice
prevailed in the long run. For one thing, the beer became less perishable and
the brewing process more stabile. Things didn't go wrong as often and fewer
witches had to be hunted. With the use of hops the beer revealed its "clear
character". Beer began to closely resemble the modern product range, both
in taste and appearance. In order to guarantee a high level of reliability,
quality and consistency, the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm IV, proclaimed the
in
1516. This decree established for the first time that only barley (later malted
barley), hops and pure water could be used to brew beer. The use of yeast was
not yet known at that time. The success of the fermentation process was
left to chance, as the brewers unknowingly relied on yeast particles in the air.
Today this Beer Purity Law is the oldest still valid food law in the world. In
the eyes of the European Union, however, this law was inhibitive to competition.
Now, as a result of the EU ruling, beer may be imported into Germany which was
not brewed in accordance with the Beer Purity Law, as long as this fact is
clearly stated. The German brewers still abide by their centuries-old tradition.
Of course the Beer Purity Law had its predecessors. A regulation promulgated in
1493 by the Duke of Bayers-Landshut, for example, stated that:
As
time passed, export took on an ever increasing role. Regular brewing centers
developed. In the 14th century Bremen was the primary beer supplier for
the Netherlands, England and the Nordic countries. Due to international
beer export by the Hansa, Hamburg also developed into one of these brewing
centers. In 1500 there were 600 breweries in Hamburg alone. The Hansa even
exported beer to far away India. In the small middle German and Maerkish
(Brandenburg) communities of this period, breweries were the most important
financial contributors to the local economy. Other German beer centers were
Brunswick and Einbeck. Bock beer was first created in Einbeck and became such a
favorite of a Bavarian duke, that he soon hired away the Einbeck master brewer.
There is, of course, also a long-standing brewing tradition in Berlin, residence
of the Soldier King,
Under his rule beer
became socially acceptable and presentable at court. His legendary "Tobacco
Council" was, in principle, nothing more than the first collection of
drinking buddies. His son, later known as Friedrich the Great, learned the
brewing trade as a young man. Industrial developments did not simply pass over
the beer brewers but started to take their effect at the beginning of the 19th
century. Two extremely important inventions revolutionized beer brewing. The
first was James Watt's steam engine and the second invention was artificial
cooling by Carl von Linde. At that time it had already been scientifically
proven that the making of good beer required certain temperatures. Some of these
temperatures occurred naturally only in winter. From the time of von Linde's
invention on, brewing could take place in summer too.
