One of the many things the German people are known for is beer. Beer is an essential part of their legacy and heritage, with more than 1300 various breweries spanning the land. As far as per capita beer consumption, the Germans are only below the Czechs and the Irish. The history of Germanic brew goes back to the origin of the nation when monks began to experiment with brewing about one-thousand A.D. Eventually, brewing started to become really lucrative for the monks and the country's monarchy started to legislate the manufacturing of the brew. The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or purity standard, was written in fifteen-sixteen and is still the most famous and influential factor to effect Germanic brewing.

To help ensure that Bavarian beers were only the best quality the Duke Wilhelm IV commanded the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot. The standard says that beers should only consist of barley, hops, and water. Unchanged after nearly 500 years, the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest legislation placed on food in the world. Yeast is the only inclusion to the list of crucial ingredients in the act. Brewers in the past before that had just used the yeast found naturally in the air. Because of the stringent standard of quality followed by the purity standard, Bavarian manufacturers were soon considered the superior makers of beer. Other manufacturers started to follow the act as the reputation of the Bavarian breweries continued to grow.

As a result of the Reinheitsgebot, Germanic beers have a long-standing notoriety of making quality beers made out of the purest ingredients. Many locations became famous brewing locations as time passed and Germany started to export beer. By fifteen-hundred, Scandinavia, Holland, England, and as far as India basically recieved their beer from one of the 600 breweries in the town of Bremen. A couple of other famous brewing cities were Einbeck and Braunschweig. In modern Germany, most of the country's beer-drinking people still prefer fabbier, or draught beer, over bottle beer because of it's hardy taste and right amount of foam. In an attempt to curtail further breakouts of the black plague German beer steins came into use around the time the purity requirement came about and are still used today.

Germany began a lot of regulations to prevent its people from getting ill during the era of the bubonic plague. Large amounts of diseased flies would land in people's food and spread the infection. This led to the German beer stein, a drink vessel with a hinged top that is operated with the thumb so a person could prevent disease and still be able to drink with one hand. As people began to realize the plague spread in unclean conditions with stale water, beer drinking rose exponentially. Originally made of stoneware with pewter lids, German beer steins grew in popularity. Steins started to be made completely of pewter for nearly 300 years as the pewter guild grew. Eventually, porcelain and silver German beer steins were introduced and continue to be made in the present.

Nowadays there are over 1350 breweries within Germany's borders that manufacture more than five-thousand kinds of beer. The Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan, which has been manufacturing beer since 1040, is considered the oldest brewery on the earth. The most concentrated area in Germany for beer makers is the Franconia region of Bavaria by the city Bamberg. German beer makers make a wide range of flavors and brands of beer with the majority of them able to be placed under ales or lagers. Some types of beer can have an alcoholic content as high as 12%, making them stronger than many wines even though most beers have an alcoholic content ranging from 4.7% to 5.4%.

About the Author

Michael Usry is a long-time beer lover and contributing author for "Beer Maniac" fanzine in Austin, Tx. He is also a top affiliate at {a href= http://www.beertaps.com}beertaps.com, a website for household draft beer accessories.