OnTap Magazine

MARCEL HARPER IMPURE A GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME BREWING I t might have been that saint of craft beer, Sam Calagione, who rst coined the phrase “extreme brewing.” Extreme brewing is to making beer as ying down a canyon in your wingsuit is to taking a casual stroll in the park. Or pretty close, anyway. So in this issue, we’re removing all training wheels, safety nets and other comforts and looking at how you can take your brewing to extremes. REINHEITSGEBOT SCHMEINHEITSGEBOT Around 1516 the Duke of Bavaria issued a decree which would become the now-famous purity law/marketing tool known as the Reinheitsgebot . If you’ve had beer from a certain commercial brewery that calls that sandy place north of Orange/Gariep River home, you would have heard of this decree, which is often proudly stated as a sign of purity, good brewing, and possibly, a noble and moral upbringing. What most people don’t know is that the original gebot was not really instituted because of purity or health reasons (not mostly, anyway). It was, surprise, surprise, an attempt by the good Duke to regulate the trade and supply of grains as well as to make sure that prices of bread and other grain- based goods remained stable. at’s why the Reinheitsgebot is speci c about beer only being allowed to contain hops, water, and barley grains. at’s to allow bakers (those nefarious folk) exclusive access to wheat and other grains, like rye, which was, prior to the gebot , also used for brewing beer. So the history of this famous rule is more an episode of House of Cards: 1516 , than a noble attempt at “purifying” beer. And the funny thing is, if you’re a brewer living in present- day Germany, you still have to follow the Reinheitsgebot . So why all this talk about historical German food laws, apart from the inherent historical nerdiness of it all? Well, it turns out that once you realise that the gebot is just so much medieval trade xing, rather than the Truth About Beer, interesting possibilities arise. For instance, you can glance across the border from Germany to neighbouring Belgium, and see how much they care about the gebot (spoiler alert: not too much). Yet Belgian beers are some of most exquisite, avorful brews known to humanity (full disclosure: I have a bit of a thing for Belgian beers). Belgian brewers add just about anything that’s not nailed down to their beers – sugars, spices, herbs, fruits – and their beer culture is all the richer for it. Beer styles are seen more as suggestions than straightjackets THOUGHTS HOMEBRU 64 | Summer 2018 | ontapmag.co.za