| Beer is made with large amounts of sugar, particularly | | | | allowing brewers to use other ingredients to make |
| found in malt. To manage the overwhelming | | | | beer, essentially stating in a different law (Biergesetz) |
| sweetness, beer is commonly brewed with hops. | | | | that if the ingredient was allowed in foods, it was |
| Hops are small green flower that grow on vines that | | | | allowed in beer. |
| reach sixteen feet tall. Farmers support the vines | | | | Malt is very sugary and additives like herbs and |
| through trellising the vines on wires held up by | | | | flowers have been used to bring in a bitter quality to |
| telephone poles. After harvesting, they are dried and | | | | balance out malt's sweetness. Mostly herbs, these |
| kept in sealed, light-proof storage areas to protect | | | | ingredients imparted characteristics that made beers |
| their freshness. | | | | characteristic. Some herbs historically used are sweet |
| Hops, however, have not always been used as the | | | | gale, sage, common yarrow and pine resin. In the |
| main bittering agent. Hops were first found in the | | | | research that I have uncovered over the years, |
| Czechoslovakia area around 1000 A.D. Later, in the | | | | wormwood is commonly spoken about as a bittering |
| 13th century hops made it to Germany and Holland. | | | | agent. Wormwood is curious in that it is a source of |
| By the 14th century, hops were more popular. And | | | | thujone, which is considered a narcotic poison by the |
| like all fads, this changed in the 15th century. Villages | | | | FDA. Thujone by itself will guarantee a sick stomach. |
| regulated their brewing and brewers, including price | | | | Yarrow also has this quality, only in much smaller |
| controls. Local control allowed governments to tax | | | | ways and lends itself well to bringing quality to lighter |
| easily and brand their areas to tastes and flavors. | | | | colored beers and is also an antibacterial and |
| In the 15th century, the German Purity Law was | | | | antimicrobial agent. |
| enacted to standardize brewing. Due to unscrupulous | | | | When brewing beer in the past, I have experimented |
| activity amongst brewers, this became one of the | | | | with a few herbs and have not been disappointed. |
| earliest food and drug type enactments by big | | | | Though I like to experiment, I tend to use a recipe. |
| governments. Brewers commonly used herbs and | | | | If I had been brewing beer for a long time, I may be |
| flowers to make their beers, but some would use | | | | more amiable to mixing up a strange recipe or two. |
| items like eggs and animal parts. As you can guess, | | | | For now, I am taking good advice from master |
| this led to awful, foul beers. The German Purity Law | | | | brewers, using hops, and looking for a good strange |
| (Reinheitsgebot) was to make beer safer and | | | | brew to ferment. |
| consistent. In 1987, these regulations were lifted, | | | | |
