There's a reason that German Oktoberfest's are superior to many of the offerings found here in the USA. German beers are only allowed to include a few ingredients because of a law called the Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law. The Reinheitsgebot was enacted in 1516 by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and is one of the oldest food safety laws in the world. It states that only four ingredients can be used to make beer: water, barley malt, hops, and yeast. #grownostr #beerstr
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That is what a German friend explained to me when I was traveling in Ecuador with him. It's fantastic. 🍻
So that being the case, shouldn’t all German beer be identical in flavor?
No, based on different malts, different hops, and different yeast used as well as the amounts.
I’ll drink to that!
The original law in 1516 was just mentioning three ingredients, barley, hops and water. Back then they didn't know of yeast. The beer was often fermenting by accident and the yeast in the air, that's the reason why many breweries were located near bakeries.
Second very interesting fact is, that the brewing regulations were a response to numerous complaints about bad beer. The official beer price fixings themselves were a major reason for beer counterfeiting. In order to secure their profits despite rising raw material prices and different regional conditions, many brewers responded with poorer quality.
So what do we learn from this?
Say no to price fixation?
Good ole wild yeast. I enjoy a nice funky beer from time to time.
At the time people were using all kinds of other bittering ingredients other than hops, and some of them turned out to be poisonous.
I think it is sad everybody was forced into using just hops. What about marsh rosemary? yarrow? mugwort? research: 'gruit'
No one is forbidden to use other ingredients, but if you use them, you are not allowed to call it "beer". Call it something else and it is total legal.
My daughter was in Munich to kick off the Oktoberfest - she had a ball 💜♾️ 
🍺 so good! 🍻
Now all we needed is some #German beer and #Bitcoin purification..🙂
The Vorläufiges Biergesetz is the law these days. It also allows fining agents and stabilisation agents; and sugars for top-fermented beer.
"Superior" is quite the claim - but if your claim is that all German beer tastes really quite similar to each other and quite boring, then that's definitely a claim that I can stand by.
I'm in Munich in October, but thankfully, missing the awful beer tourists.
So #Bitcoin maximalism is a kind of Cryptoreinheitsgebot 😜