How lager saved the American drinker

By Michael J. Casey

Established in 1516, the Reinheitsgebot was the Bavarian decree that beer could only be made with barley, hops and water. When yeast was discovered 150 years later, it became the fourth ingredient. Dubbed “the German purity law,” the Reinheitsgebot might be the first set of governmental food safety regulations and one that was dearly needed.

Before the Reinheitsgebot, brewers made beer with anything they could find, even if the ingredients were harmful, as long as they were cheap. After the decree, Bavarian drinkers were assured that when they ordered a beer, no funny business was in the glass.

Few beer styles took to the Reinheitsgebot like lager. And when Bavarians immigrated to the U.S in the mid-1800s, they brought lagers with them, revolutionizing the American drinking scene, which was littered with poorly made ales and rotgut whiskey.

Lager is clean, crisp, and transparent. And with a low ABV, workers could drink it throughout the day without falling down drunk halfway through. When the country began the march toward Prohibition, many brewers tried to position their lagers as healthy substitutes to demon gin and whiskey. Ban the spirits, but don’t ban the beer.

It didn’t work. Prohibition became federal law in 1920 (1907 in Boulder), but that’s another story entirely.