beer – Reinhard von Hennigs website

What Does German Purity Laws Dictate Beer Should Consist of?

What's in a beer? Hello, this is Reinhard von Hennigs. Based on the Bavarian purity law from the year 1487, which was then later adopted in the year 1516, the beer named in the kingdom of Bavaria should only consist of water, barley and hops. So this purity law did not talk about yeast. Probably because the yeast was all over in existence, but nobody even knew said yeast was there.

So therefore we can surely add yeast to the equation, but beer is vegan by definition. I recall a couple of years ago a discussion that certain breweries would add substances from animals to avoid the foaming process and the food watcher knew as the Food Babe, put out a big story that certain animal parts were used in beer and I believe this matter was solved by now.

So the good story is beer is just vegan beer by default. Whether or not you follow the Bavarian rules or not is a different story. In Germany, for example, you cannot use anything else inside and still call it beer. When I was in China, I was full of excitement to taste the beer brewed by a local brewery, which was made after the German rules only to realize that they do both German purity law, as well as a rice-based beer. Interesting taste, I would say, not as bad as expected, but in the end, beer is a vegan product. Why I'm Musing about this today is because I seem to have heard something on the TV the other day, that there's a discussion about vegan beer and whether we can be as rather unusual or not usual, but from my European beer, understanding from the German understanding of the be a purity law, beer should be vegan. And that is the case. Cheers.

#396, April 2021, beer, Germany, Bavaria, China.

Shortage of CO2

Did you know that there is a shortage of CO2? No, this is not about global warming, this is about the fizz in the glass. Because we are driving less, because there is less ethanol production, because so many things are changing because of COVID, there is also a reduction in the production of CO2. I didn’t know until recently that companies who are reselling the Carbon Dioxide byproduct, are selling less ethanol or other products that produce CO2, therefore, CO2 is in short supply and high demand. Brewers are now paying up to 25% more than they used to pay for CO2 a year ago.

The sudden increase in prices for CO2 products and the decrease of CO2 also means that cans of carbonated drinks like soda could become more scarce. You may not be shopping as much, I know I’m not shopping as much, but I heard reports that the variety of flavors from carbonated drinks are also limited. So, what are my takeaways from this CO2 shortage? If you are operating your product from a byproduct, make sure that the byproduct is still available if the main product is no longer being produced. In other words, what could a company have done better to secure their supply? My second takeaway is that if you are operating with a byproduct, what could an alternate business model be for you to stay successful. Both are the initial questions that come to mind when I realize that my very own water bubbling machine at home is becoming harder and harder to be refilled.

#326, January 2021, CO2, beer, soda, carbonation, byproduct.