Bavaria, Germany
The Bavarian purity ordinance
A Bavarian ordinance restricting beer to barley, hops and water, fixing prices and reserving wheat and rye for bread.
1516-04-23 · also called Reinheitsgebot, German beer purity law
The version you have probably heard
“An unbroken 500-year German law guaranteeing beer purity and quality, showing that German brewing has always held the highest standards.”
It was Bavarian rather than German; its motives were substantially fiscal and agricultural; yeast is absent because its role was not yet understood rather than because it was banned; it has been rewritten repeatedly; a 1987 European Court of Justice ruling established it could not be used to exclude imported beer; and the word "Reinheitsgebot" itself does not appear until the twentieth century.
The text issued at Ingolstadt set permitted ingredients and maximum prices. Its purposes were economic and public-order as much as anything to do with quality: wheat and rye were needed for bread, and price control was a recurring concern of the period.
It applied to Bavaria, not to Germany, which did not exist. It was extended across the new empire only in the late nineteenth century, as a condition Bavaria attached to its participation, and the modern rules are those of the 1993 Provisional German Beer Law rather than the 1516 text.
Why it matters
Shaped Bavarian and later German brewing for centuries, and became the most successful piece of marketing in the industry’s history.
How well this is established
| Certainty | Documented. Supported by contemporary records that survive and are agreed on. |
|---|---|
| When | 1516-04-23. |
| Where | Bavaria, Germany |
Traditions
- Bavarian lager brewing — Cold fermentation and extended cold storage, developed in Bavarian cellars long before refrigeration and later exported worldwide.
Either side of this
← 1100: Hopped beer spreads across northern Europe · 1553: Bavaria restricts brewing to the cooler months →
See the whole sequence on the beer history timeline.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.