Franconian Beer Message Board
'mit schuss' is a Political Statement |
| Posted by Fred Waltman on 2002-08-05 17:34:27 |
| I believe that German brewers are still bound by the Beer Tax Laws (Biersteuergesetz) for beers brewed for domestic consumption. They are not allowed to keep foreign beers out that don't meet the rules. (This was the change a few years back). The Biersteuergesetz lays out in detail what can and can't be done. There is a big difference between top fermented beers ("ales") and bottom fermented beers ("lagers"). Just about anything goes with ales -- even some portion of sugar is allowed. With bottom fermented beers only barley malt, yeast, hops and water are allowed -- not even wheat malt. This has caused some interesting problems. Many wheat beers are filtered and then a lager yeast added for the bottle fermentation (lager yeast is more stable I'm told). The wort the lager yeast is grown in must be 100% barley. But when that is added to the filtered beer it must not reduce that percentage of wheat below 50% or it can't be a wheat beer! |