Passion for Beer
Reinheitsgebot
The world’s oldest food regulation
You’d be surprised what four ingredients can do: the Reinheitsgebot.
The Reinheitsgebot is the oldest food regulation in the world — and it’s the foundation of everything we do.
Since 1516, German beer is brewed with only four ingredients: hops, malt, water, and yeast. The Reinheitsgebot from that year decrees that these are the only ingredients that may be used for brewing. We take this seriously: no additives, no mixing in other ingredients after the brewing process - we produce beer of utmost quality and taste.
Hops is the key ingredient of every beer. With its bitter and tangy flavor, hops serves as the flavoring agent. Due to the bittern, hops also serves as a stability agent for the beer. And because there are so many different types of hops, our brewmasters pay close attention to the type of hops they use for each beer.
Hops are the flowers of the hop plant. Worldwide, there are over 100 varieties of hops, and it’s the innovative combination of different hops that leads to the creation of new beers. Hops are considered the soul of every beer.
Malt provides beer with "body". In unison with the hops, it is also fundamental for the taste of the brew.
Depending on the type of malt, it can provide exciting flavors and aromas that complement the aroma of the hops, rounding out the perfect beer flavor. More importantly, malt is the source of the sugars needed for the fermentation.
Malt consists of germinated cereal grains that have been ‘malted’: soaked in water, the grains germinate until, at a very specific point, they are dried with hot air and the germination is stopped.
No yeast, no beer. Yeast is absolutely essential to the brewing process. And yeast is more than you think:
it’s a single-cell organism, a living creature, metabolizing, reproducing, and living off the other ingredients of the beer. While it’s also a flavor component, the yeast’s main function is to convert sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide in the fermentation stage.
Our brewmasters are very particular about the fourth ingredient: water. When it comes to choosing which water to brew with, they take their sweet time. Not just any water will do; in fact, most waters won’t! Since the precious liquid has such a decisive influence on the quality of the beer, our breweries set extremely high standards for their brewing water.
