An exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Beer Purity Law.
From staple food to export hit: it is impossible to imagine Germany without beer. From the Feierabendbier to the Oktoberfest-Maß to the expression "Hopfen und Malz verloren"— the barley juice has shaped German culture.
The foundation stone for the success story of German beer was laid on April 23, 1516: On that day, the Bavarian dukes William IV and Louis X published a binding instruction "on how beer should be served and brewed in the countryside in summer and winter." The decree was incorporated into a legal text for the reorganization of the state of Bavaria and forms the basis for what is today called the Purity Law.
This 500th anniversary on April 23, 2016, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt and the Binding Brewery are taking the opportunity to open a week-long exhibition focusing on the history of beer consumption. In one room of the Historische Villa Metzler, the museum is presenting ornate beer steins and tankards from its collections and supplementing them with two loans relating to the themes of barley juice and drinking culture: a guild seal and an early copy of the original document of the Purity Law from the mid-16th century.
Alongside the exhibition in the villa, the Binding brewery will demonstrate in the rooms of the "Emma Metzler" restaurant in the museum building how and with what beer is brewed, provide taste samples for visitors and tell of the company's traditional art of brewing beer.
While today beer is primarily considered a luxury food, in the Middle Ages it was of existential importance, being consumed as a daily food. The brewers of the time before industrialization did not always have unlimited access to all raw materials. Bad harvests, inflation and supply bottlenecks also meant that they used rye, spelt and oats in addition to barley malt. Especially for preservation they often used substitutes instead of the demanding hops which were harmful to health. Many princely and noble houses therefore issued regulations on beer production which restricted the circle of brewers. In doing so, they wanted to strengthen the guilds, protect the health of the citizens and also increase tax revenues.
So the Bavarian dukes were not the first to enact a purity law for beer, but they were the first to make it valid for the then territory of the state of Bavaria. This was the beginning of a development that later had an influence on the whole of Germany and still shapes the beer culture in Germany today.  
Dates:
<link http: www.museumangewandtekunst.de de museum ausstellungen _blank>
www.museumangewandtekunst.de/de/museum/ausstellungen/1516-500-jahre-deutsche-bierbraukunst.html
Text from: http://www.museumangewandtekunst.de/
