Reinheitsgebot – The beer quality law imposed by the church.

Reinheitsgebot literally means  “purity order” and is commonly referred to as the “German Beer Purity Law” or the “Bavarian Purity Law”. This is a regulation about the production of beer in the Holy Roman Empire and its successor state, Germany. The original text states the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer are water, barley and hops.DownloadedFile

The law originated on 30 November 1487, when Albert IV the Duke of Bavaria promulgated it, specifying three ingredients – water, malt and hops – for the brewing of beer.

On 23 April 1516 in the city of Ingolstadt located in the duchy of Bavaria, two other dukes endorsed the law as one to be followed in their duchies and added standards for the sale of beer.

The earliest documented mention of beer by a German nobleman is the granting of a brewing license by Emperor Otto II to the church at Liege (now Belgium), awarded in 974.

The world’s oldest continuously operating brewery is the Weihenstephan Brewery in Bavaria.

The Weihenstephan Brewery can trace its roots at the abbey to 768, as a document from that year refers to a hop garden in the area paying a tithe to the monastery. A brewery was licensed by the City of Freising in 1040, and that is the founding date claimed by the modern brewery. The brewery thus has a credible claim to being the oldest working brewery in the world.  (Weltenburg Abbey, also in Bavaria, has had a brewery in operation since 1050, also known as “Corn Beer” claims to be the oldest brewery in the world.) In 1803, the monastery and brewery became possessions of the State of Bavaria.

R.I.P. my beloved Mr. Coffee maker

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I have owned a Mr. Coffee coffee maker for the last 10 years and have formed somewhat of a bond with it. This basic machine got my day started right.

Every morning it patiently waits on the counter for me to decide if I will be making coffee or not.

Well much to my dismay, earlier this week my Mr. Coffee coffee maker just decided to quit working. It was easy to clean, worked quick, was efficient and made good, hot coffee.

So this week, I have been getting to know my new, replacement coffee maker, the Toastmaster. it looks pretty similar to the old Mr. Coffee. Same color and about the same size. Easy change right?

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Well now I have been using a Toastmaster, I have to say that I am not all that impressed. I know you are thinking that how can a coffee maker be that different, but they are, and this one bugs me a little.

The new cone shaped filter is the first change I am dealing with.

It seems the the fine folks at Toastmaster want to use cone shaped filters, so I am adapting my old filters to work since I have so many round ones.

The second thing I immediately noticed was when I poured the coffee out, the fluid hits the lip of the pitcher top and gets diverted onto the countertop. This I fixed by taking the top off and cutting it back on my band saw.

The next thing I noticed was that the heating element is not as hearty as the Mr. Coffee maker and now my cups of morning java are not quite hot enough after I add a little milk.

Personally, the Dude of Food recommends the Mr. Coffee brewer as it performs better all around and can’t wait to buy another Mr. Coffee maker and return to quality. Enjoy.