Comments by "Evan" (@MrEvanfriend) on "Reinheitsgebot: Bavarian Beer Laws" video.

  1. Craft beers do not necessarily have flavors or adjuncts added. I'm a craft brewer by trade, and while I have made beers with fruit, spices, and sugar sources besides malted grain, those beers are in the minority. Most of the beers I've made at three different breweries were Reinheitsgebot complient - including the beers I've made in several German styles. That being said, German beer is inferior in virtually every way to the beers of neighboring Belgium, which has never had any laws determining what ingredients can be used in beer production. With Belgian beers, brewers can (and do) use all manner of of unmalted grains, of fruits, spices, pure beet sugar (either caramelized or not, which bumps up the alcohol percentage of the final product, dries the beer out, and, if caramelized, adds color and flavor as well), and various other ingredients. Traditional English brewing also frequently involves ingredients like unmalted roasted barley and lactose sugar for stouts. Reinheitsgebot compliance has zero effect on the quality of the finished beer. To make a good beer requires a knowledge of the ingredients and the process, and attention to detail at every level. I've had (and made) wonderful beers that included all manner of ingredients that are banned by silly German purity laws, and many uninspired and boring beers that follow those laws to a t.
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  2. Pretty much every brewery uses chemical clarifiers. I'm a brewer, I have only worked at smallish breweries (about 15bbl systems), and every place I've worked, as well as every place people I know have worked, uses Biofine or similar products to clarify their beer (when appropriate for style).
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  3. Indeed it does.
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