E-Malt.com News article: 2887

Germany: For the past decade, in his out-of-the-way red-brick brewery in sleepy Neuzelle near the border with Poland, Fritsche has been unrepentantly committing what some in Germany's conservative beer culture consider an unspeakable crime: He's been adding sugar syrup to his brew -- a violation of Germany's five-century-old beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, according to The Associated Press on July 6.

Now the law is after him, threatening a 20,000-euro ($25,000) fine for daring to label his brew "beer." But he's not going quietly. It's time, he says, for Germany's hidebound brewing traditions to loosen up. "It's infringing on the creativity of small brewers," the 67-year-old said in an interview in his office in the Klosterbrauerei Neuzelle, next to the small town's soaring baroque cathedral and its placid pond with lily pads and paddling ducks. "It's like taking a cup of tea, or coffee, and adding milk or sugar to it," Fritsche argued with emphatic hand gestures. "Some people drink it black, and some people take it white -- it's a small difference in taste."

Fritsche's battle with what he calls Germany's "beerocracy" goes back to 1993, shortly after he bought the formerly state-run brewery from the government agency disposing of the assets of communist East Germany after reunification in 1990. The brewery, which traces its origins to monastic brewing in Neuzelle in the 16th century, had been making a dark beer with added sugar syrup -- allowed under East Germany's more permissive brewing laws.

But Fritsche now faced reunified Germany's beer laws, which permit only malted grain, hops, yeast and water. The modern laws incorporate the original Reinheitsgebot, first set down in Bavaria in 1516. Adding anything else -- such as fruit, corn or rice -- to save money or tinker with a beer's color or taste, is verboten.

The law allows exceptions for "special beers," however, so Fritsche applied to the local authorities in the state of Brandenburg, arguing he was continuing a regional brewing tradition. He was turned down repeatedly, and eventually took it to court. His suit is now before the country's top administrative court but there's no word on when a decision might come.

In the meantime, Fritsche finessed the labeling on his dark brown Schwarzer Abt, or Black Abbot, brew, which he calls a Schwarzbier -- a German term for a variety of low-alcohol dark beer. The original label didn't exactly call it beer, reading "A Specialty Made From Schwarzbier, With Invert Sugar Syrup Added Afterward."

Last year, he went a little farther -- and changed the labels to read simply, "Schwarzbier." That led to a cease-and-desist order last month from food safety officials in Beeskow, the local government center. The order, which deemed Fritsche's labels a "concrete danger for public safety," tells him to change them or face a fine. Fritsche notes ruefully that, if his brewery was located 5 kilometers east across the Oder River in Poland, he could throw anything in his kettles and label it however he wanted for consumption in Germany.

That's thanks to a European Union decision forcing Germany to suspend its purity law for imports as part of free-trade provisions.

While Fritsche says being able to use the word "beer" without harassment would help market his product, he also concedes that media coverage of the dispute has helped his small operation stand out among the country's 1,200 breweries.

Still, the German Brewers' Association stands behind the purity provisions. Spokeswoman Birte Kleppien, while declining to comment specifically on Fritsche, said the law ensures a quality product and enjoys wide public support among brewers and drinkers.

"We have 5,000 to 6,000 brands in the German beer industry," Kleppien said, estimating one could sample a different beer every day for more than 13 years without repeating. "So I don't think it limits brewers' creativity."

Thanks to the law, beer drinkers "know what's in their glass," she said.

Actually, the original Reinheitsgebot has been tinkered with throughout history. The 1516 original allows only malted barley, hops and water, but omits the crucial yeast because the microorganisms remained unseen until the invention of the microscope. It was allowed later, as was wheat, the raw ingredient for Germany's extremely popular wheat beers, and other grain types such as rye and spelt for some beer types.

Fritsche's brewmaster, Christian Pohl, points out that Schwarzer Abt is brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot until the very last step. The sugar syrup isn't a replacement for the basic ingredients, but is added only after fermentation to balance the bitterness from the darker variety of barley malt the brewery uses to give the beer its unique taste. He described the flavor as "a little in the direction of coffee."

Pohl said German beer consumption has been falling for years, leading many brewers to experiment with mixes such as beer and lemonade and beer and cola -- which must be labeled as mixes -- to boost sales. It's time to let people experiment with the beer itself, he said: "If you don't offer people something new, this will continue."

Brewers in Belgium, for instance, can add sugar or fruit such as raspberries or peaches to flavor their beers -- which are considered among the world's best. "In Belgium, you can do anything," he said wistfully.


07 July, 2004