Augustiner Brewery Munich

The Augustiner Brauerei was founded in 1328 and is the oldest of all the breweries in Munich. For almost 700 years, the famous Augustiner beer has been brewed in the Bavarian capital. The Munich Purity Decree from 1487, which was a precursor of the well known German Purity Decree from 1516, guarantees the superb quality of all Augustiner beers. The German Purity Decree was issued on April 23rd, 1516 in Ingolstadt by the common regents of Bavaria, the dukes Wilhelm IV. and Ludwig X.

This historic consumer protection law is still valid today. It only permits water, hops and malt as beer ingredients. The order also requires that beers not exclusively using barley-malts such as wheat beer must be top-fermented.

Yeast as an ingredient was not part of the law in 1516, because the brewers didn’t know that it was responsible for the fermentation of the beer and therefore was its fourth major ingredient. By that time, yeast bacteria and spores came accidentally from the air into the brewing copper kettle.