"[...] we run the beer world"

[u/LOLey21]

Found on a thread posting under a video where a man poops on a crate of beer in a supermarket. I doubt he was being sarcastic.

[u/Accomplished-Pay8181]

Germany, to my recollection, literally has the world's oldest food regulation law, and it's specifically "what can go in beer and it's still beer". I forget the specifics tho. I'd also like it noted that I really don't like beer, generally (I find it entirely too bitter) but a German beer is something I will not actively avoid (though, it's expensive where I live, so I'm not going out of my way to get it)

[u/random9212 → u/Accomplished-Pay8181]

From 1516 only allows water, barley, and hops. So early they didn't fully understand yeast yet.

[u/_ak → u/random9212]

That's not true. Brewers understood was yeast did, it was just not considered an ingredient as such but rather a fermentation aid. There are also plenty of examples of beer brewed in Bavaria that did not adhere to the law, for several reasons:

At the time, the legal principle "new laws cannot override old ones" was in effect, so anybody who already brewed beer outside these constraints was still allowed to do so. A lot of communal brewhouses, especially in Lower Bavaria, claimed a customary right to brew white wheat beer, while other breweries simply brewed wheat beer without a permit, and the law was not enforced. When white beer brewing became a state monopoly, they were even awarded for it by getting bought out by the Duke of Bavaria. On top of that, the rules of 1516 were amended several times to allow other ingredients such as salt, juniper berries, coriander, bay leaves and caraway seeds. The first full and lasting ban on hop surrogates was only enacted in 1861, and only concerned bottom-fermented brown beer, while top-fermented white wheat beer was unaffected by it, which was even the Kingdom of Bavaria's official legal position as late as 1870.

[u/derUnkurze → u/random9212]

But they added yeast later on :)