The German people are famous for a lot of things; one of them is brewing. Beer is an essential part of their tradition and civilization, with over 1300 varied breweries spanning the land. The Czechs and the Irish are the only ones who outdo the Germans with beer consumption per person. The monks started to experiment with brewing about 1000 A.D. at the origin of the Germanic history Eventually, brewing started to become really lucrative for the monks and the nation's monarchy began to legislate the manufacturing of the brew. The most well-known and significant component to effect German brewing came in fifteen-sixteen with the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or the purity requirement.



To ensure that Bavarian beers were only the best quality the Duke Wilhelm IV ordered the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot. The standard states that beers must only consist of water, hops, and barley. Unchanged after nearly 500 years, the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest legislation placed on drinks on the earth. Yeast is the only extension to the list of essential ingredients in the act. Brewers before had just used the yeast found naturally in the air. Bavarian breweries were soon known as the best makers of beer because of the strict code of quality following by the purity requirement. More and more breweries started to adhere to the proclamation as the reputation of the Bavarian breweries continued to grow.

As a result of the Reinheitsgebot, Germanic brews have a long-standing reputation of producing quality beers made out of the purest ingredients. A lot of towns became famous brewing locations as time passed and Germany started to ship out beer. By fifteen-hundred, Scandinavia, Holland, England, and as far as India principally got their beer from one of the 600 breweries in the town of Bremen. Two more famous brewing towns were Einbeck and Braunschweig. Because of it's hardy flavor and perfect amount of head foam the majority of modern-day Germans still choose fabbier, or draft beer, over bottled beer. Used still today, German beer steins became popular around the time the purity requirement came about in an effort to stop further breakouts of the black plague.

During the time of the black plague, Germany began a lot of laws to prevent its citizens from getting ill. Massive amounts of diseased flies would land in people's food and spread the disease. This led to the stein, a drink vessel with a closed top that is operated with the thumb so somebody could prevent infection and still be able to drink with one hand. Beer consumption rose exponentially as people began to realize the disease spread in dirty conditions with brackish water. Steins were originally made of stoneware with pewter tops. Steins started to be crafted completely of pewter for almost three-hundred years as the pewter guild grew. Eventually, porcelain and silver steins were introduced and continue to be produced in the present.

More than five-thousand types of beer are manufactured today from more than thirteen-hundred and fifty breweries within Germany's borders. The oldest brewery in the world still in operation in the present is the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan, that has been making beer since one-thousand and forty. The Franconia region of Bavaria by the city Bamberg is the most concentrated region for beer makers in Germany. German breweries make a wide variety of flavors and types of beer with the majority of them able to be placed under ales or lagers. Most beers have an alcoholic content from 4.7% to 5.4% but some brands can be as high as 12%, making them more potent than most wines.