[AdamCalifornia]

In accordance with with what law is American beer produced?
Does some kind of the American Beer Purity Law exist?

[size=large]German Beer Purity Law, 1516[/size]

This is an old label of Czech Budveiser

 

[Zarathustra19]

Reinheitsgebot is a four letter word in American brewing these days. As far as I'm aware, there is no "purity law" per se, but there are laws state to state which limit the alcohol content and ingredients which can be used (excluding things like buffalo grass and wormwood, as they do from liquor because of supposed hallucinogenic properties). This is probably the best thing about the American beer scene at the moment: everyone is willing to try new ingredients and take beer to another level. A buddy of mine, for example, brews for Appalachian Brewing Company here in PA, and he's experimenting right now with a Russian Imperial Stout, adding cocoa nibs and raspberries to make a chocolate raspberry imperial stout, which is something I've never tried before.

One limit on home brewing, however, that the federal government (I think) implemented is that you are not allowed, as a private citizen to brew more than something like 200 gallons per year for personal consumption, and you cannot sell your beer without the proper permits from the state.

Hope this wasn't too long winded.

Cheers!

 

[mark2410]

op have you ever tasted american beer?

 

[Fido2]

lol...we don't even hardly inspect our beef anymore ... I doubt anyone cares what they put in our beer...

 

[Zarathustra19]

Mark, have you had the opportunity to try any of the newer American microbrews to come out in the past fifteen to twenty years? Much better than the swill we're still exporting to other parts of the world, I can assure you. The history of our brewing is nothing to be extremely proud of, but it seems to be happening all over the world to good beers bought up by big companies. In any case, give our beer culture another try!

Cheers!

 

[Uncle Erik]

mark2410, if you ever come over here, I'll be happy to introduce yu to the American microbrew world. Our micros stand alongside anything the world has to offer and our micros push the envelope and take more risks than a lot of the staid European breweries.

I did this to a group of German relatives of my neighbor some years back. They didn't think much of American beer. I gave them a half dozen varieties of our best. They went wide-eyed, went silent, and ultimately, were overjoyed that good beer exists here.

When I lived in Oregon, it was common to find Europeans hanging around the local brewpubs. I did not hear any of them complaining.

As for the OP, beer is regulated by the FDA and state health inspectors. Quality - in the sense of health, cleanliness and purity of ingredients - is very good. I've visited the Bud plant in St. Louis and it's a top notch facility.

That being said, the major American breweries are almost exactly like Bose.

They have the equipment, marketing prowess, distributorship, and engineers. However, they produce crap. If they wanted to, they could produce the finest beer in the world, ship it everywhere, and seriously compete on price. Shame they choose not to, bt the typical swill is what the market wants.

A number of factors contributed to this. Prohibition killed all the local breweries, many of which made a variety of traditional European beers. World War II, with its rationing, forced the breweries to produce what we have today. It proved popular, and they got huge after the War.

But in the late 1970s (IIRC) Anchor Steam in San Francisco became popular. That led to others starting up, and the microbrew culture got underway in the late 1980s. I'm not too familiar with the east coast, but Portland turned into beer heaven in the 1990s, San Diego has followed suit, and there are now strong local breweries all along the west coast.

At the moment, I am enjoying a Sierra Nevada at my favorite bar. It is brewed in northern California and is quite popular. I'd put it up against anything from Europe. That is not a knock against European brews (I love them, too). Mark, if you can make it over for CanJam 2010, we'll be happy to give you some of the best the United States has to offer. You will not be disappointed.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif mark2410, if you ever come over here, I'll be happy to introduce yu to the American microbrew world. Our micros stand alongside anything the world has to offer and our micros push the envelope and take more risks than a lot of the staid European breweries. I did this to a group of German relatives of my neighbor some years back. They didn't think much of American beer. I gave them a half dozen varieties of our best. They went wide-eyed, went silent, and ultimately, were overjoyed that good beer exists here. When I lived in Oregon, it was common to find Europeans hanging around the local brewpubs. I did not hear any of them complaining. As for the OP, beer is regulated by the FDA and state health inspectors. Quality - in the sense of health, cleanliness and purity of ingredients - is very good. I've visited the Bud plant in St. Louis and it's a top notch facility. That being said, the major American breweries are almost exactly like Bose. They have the equipment, marketing prowess, distributorship, and engineers. However, they produce crap. If they wanted to, they could produce the finest beer in the world, ship it everywhere, and seriously compete on price. Shame they choose not to, bt the typical swill is what the market wants. A number of factors contributed to this. Prohibition killed all the local breweries, many of which made a variety of traditional European beers. World War II, with its rationing, forced the breweries to produce what we have today. It proved popular, and they got huge after the War. But in the late 1970s (IIRC) Anchor Steam in San Francisco became popular. That led to others starting up, and the microbrew culture got underway in the late 1980s. I'm not too familiar with the east coast, but Portland turned into beer heaven in the 1990s, San Diego has followed suit, and there are now strong local breweries all along the west coast. At the moment, I am enjoying a Sierra Nevada at my favorite bar. It is brewed in northern California and is quite popular. I'd put it up against anything from Europe. That is not a knock against European brews (I love them, too).

Thanx, and I like your post. I like this fragment of your post:


Quote:

That being said, the major American breweries are almost exactly like Bose. They have the equipment, marketing prowess, distributorship, and engineers. However, they produce crap.

Yeah, there are some state or federal PURITY laws!?

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarathustra19 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mark, have you had the opportunity to try any of the newer American microbrews to come out in the past fifteen to twenty years? Much better than the swill we're still exporting to other parts of the world, I can assure you. The history of our brewing is nothing to be extremely proud of, but it seems to be happening all over the world to good beers bought up by big companies. In any case, give our beer culture another try! Cheers!

and to uncle eric (yours was a bit big for quoting)

yes im sure you can get good beers from all the micro breweries springing up over he last few years but since im not in the states never going to taste them. since the op was asking about laws was really pointing out that with the mass marketing crap places like Anheuser-Busch produce there really cant be laws about it.


still yes i should have acknowledged not all US beer tastes better on the way out than it does on the way in

 

[TopPop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif still yes i should have acknowledged not all US beer tastes better on the way out than it does on the way in

Reminds me of a joke...

There was a well-known US domestic brewery who sent a sample of one of their best selling lagers to the World Beer Cup to be judged against other lagers.

A couple weeks later, a letter arrived at the brewery headquarters from the preliminary judges at the World Beer Cup. The CEO of the company was very excited to see how their beer, which had become so popular among American consumers, had fared with the international judges.

Inside, there was a letter with only one line written on it:

"Dear sirs, we regret to inform you that your horse has diabetes and will need to be put down immediately."

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Once upon a time during a private party George said something like that:

Quote:

Apropos American Beer Purity Law ....

and Tony burst into a fit of laughter ...
To me and many other Head-fi'ers, it's obvious what Tony meant!

Quote:

By the way, can American beer state laws be compared to the German Beer Purity Law? Does such a comparison make any sense at all?

 

[beerguy0]

Much of what has been said already by several posters is right on the money. The American brewing scene is where things are really happening. Some styles, like IPA, are no longer made in their original form in their country of origin. Only in the US can you find an IPA as it existed back then.

On ingredients in brewing, rice and corn had a legitimate use in brewing the early beers styles in America. American barley was usually six-row, which has a higher protein content than traditional two-row. The excess protein tends to produce cloudy beers, with poor stability. Rice and corn were used to dilute the protein content and make a better beer. However, corn and rice also have the virtue of being cheaper and easier to use than barley. You can see where this led. Pumpkin is another American brewing ingredient. Pumpkin beers have a long tradition in American brewing.

There is no purity laws as such in America. The patchwork of state laws is probably a defacto set of standards, but anything not prohibited has likely been tried at least once, probably by a homebrewer.

As a beer judge, I've been on the receiving end of many such experiments, with results ranging from wonderful to swill. Sometimes it's a good concept poorly executed, but more often it's just a wrong concept.

 

[Moontan13]

An Aussie visiting Colorado took a tour of the Coors brewery. After tasting some Coors beer, he was asked what he thought of it. "Like making love in a canoe" was the Aussie's response. "Making love in a canoe?", asked the tour guide. "Yeah, it's screwing near water".

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif and to uncle eric (yours was a bit big for quoting) yes im sure you can get good beers from all the micro breweries springing up over he last few years but since im not in the states never going to taste them. since the op was asking about laws was really pointing out that with the mass marketing crap places like Anheuser-Busch produce there really cant be laws about it.

Anheuser-Busch is, of course, a European company.

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anheuser-Busch is, of course, a European company.

having been owned by a belgian company for a year hardly makes it a belgian company. its hq is in the US so its a US company

 

[DanielCox]

I've heard lots of things about American microbrewing but I'm not a beer fan in the least. Would I be pushing the envelope to suggest that there might be a decent cider community in America?
I'm virtually living in the world capital of cider at the moment so I can't imagine things would be as good.