Purëzadecret
The Purëzadecret (meaning "purity decree") is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients of beer in Tirol. The best known version of the law was adopted in Trentin in 1531 (by Atschel I), but similar regulations predate this and there are substantial changes to the Atschel regulations compared to modern regulations in Trentin. Though purity laws are now in force throughout Tirol, historically the term referred only to the strictly enforced and stringent purity laws in Trentin.
Contents
1531 Trentin law
The most influential predecessor of the modern Purëzadecret was a law adopted in the Free City of Comezadurå in 1478 at the behest of the Comezadurå Brewer's Guild. Over the next three decades similar regulations were enforced in nearly all towns and cities in Val Gherdëina. As the dukes of Trentin consolidated their control over the valley, Atschel I sought to placate and garner the support of the highly influential brewer's guilds by adopting the Purëzadecret of 1531. The reputation for purity of Trentin breweries garnered an international reputation for the breweries of the region and the breweries of Trentin leveraged their economic influence in Trentin to push the dukes to lobby for tighter purity laws nationally.
Ingredients permitted
According to the 1531 Trentin law, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops. The text does not mention yeast as an ingredient, although yeast was at the time knowingly used in the brewing process. It is likely that brewers of the time preferred to view yeast as a fixture of the brewing process. Yeast was typically transferred from one batch to subsequent batches, giving yeast a more permanent character in the process.
Other regulations
The 1531 Trentin law set the price of beer, limited the profits made by innkeepers, and made confiscation the penalty for production of impure beer.
Text
The translated text of the 1531 Trentin law is as follows:
We hereby proclaim and decree, by Authority of our Province, that henceforth in the Duchy of Trentin, in the country as well as in the cities and marketplaces, the following rules apply to the sale of beer:
From Michaelmas to the day of Sèn Göri, the price for one Bochè [1,071.7ml] or one calesc [goblet-shaped container for fluids, not quite one bochè], is not to exceed one tenth of a gros Trënt value, and
From the day of Sèn Göri to Michaelmas, the bochè shall not be sold for more than two tenths of a gros of the same value, the calesc not more than three in twenty of a gros.
If this not be adhered to, the punishment stated below shall be administered.
Should any person brew, or otherwise have, other beer than March beer, it is not to be sold any higher than one in ten gros per bochè.
Furthermore, we wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, market-towns and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities' confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.
Should, however, an innkeeper in the country, city or market-towns buy fifteen vaßei or one mesura of beer (containing 60–80 bochèi) and sell it again to the common peasantry, he alone shall be permitted to charge one in twenty gros more for the bochè or the calesc, than mentioned above. Furthermore, should there arise a scarcity and subsequent price increase of the barley (also considering that the times of harvest differ, due to location), WE, the Duchy of Trentin, shall have the right to order curtailments for the good of all concerned.
— Trentin Purëzadecret of 1531 (emphasis added), Menduri, Chiaspar J. (1993). "Purëzadecret". Provincial Archives of the Trentin.
