The German Brewing Tax Law Standardizes Brewing Rules

On June 3, 1906, the German Empire enacted a new Brewing Tax Law, or Brausteuergesetz. For the territory of the North German Brewing Tax Community, it combined beer taxation with detailed production rules. Bottom-fermented beer could be made only from barley malt, hops, yeast, and water. Top-fermented beer remained subject to broader rules that also permitted other malts and specified forms of sugar and coloring derived from sugar. The law was an important step toward nationally coordinated German brewing regulation, but it did not simply impose the Bavarian ordinance of 1516 unchanged throughout the empire. Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden retained separate taxation and production regimes, while the distinction between bottom- and top-fermented beer preserved greater flexibility for many northern brewing traditions. The 1906 law nevertheless became central to the later transformation of diverse regional regulations into the modern idea of a single German Reinheitsgebot.