Utrecht Prohibits Selling Kuit as Hamburg Beer

On August 17, 1397, Utrecht prohibited tavernkeepers from selling kuit as Hamburg beer. The ordinance also barred anyone serving kuit from serving Hamburg beer, with a penalty for each violation. The rule distinguished the two products in the city's beer market and provides a dated medieval record of kuit. Kuit developed as a pale, hopped beer in the Low Countries around the end of the fourteenth century. Brewers imitated pale Hamburg beer while retaining a substantial share of less expensive oats in their grain mixtures. Later Utrecht brewing regulations from 1433 specified oats, barley, and wheat for kuit. The 1397 ordinance captures an early encounter between an established imported beer and a competing regional product.