Nuremberg beer (Middle Ages)

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The Nuremberg beer was brewed and brought to the boil by municipal master brewers in private breweries in Nuremberg . One reason for this was to better monitor beer traders so that they did not violate Council regulations. For example, the composition of the ingredients was checked and the mixing of good and bad beer was prevented. Although the master brewers were not explicitly mentioned in the articles of association, they all swore by the requirement to only use barley for brewing, "(...) the preuwent and mulcent or umbegent with the kettle" . In the 15th century the master brewers were also mentioned literally in the beer regulations : They swore, "that no prewmeister should prewen, he then did his duty" . This also shows that it was possible to be appointed brewmaster of the city. Further passages of the Beer Regulations show that the master brewers had to be present during the entire brewing process so that too much water was not poured in, unlawfully adulterated or no change - a kind of beverage tax - was evaded. Your actually active interventions are documented in a small subordinate clause, in which the master brewer lends a hand while boiling . The master brewers were supported by their servants .

Duties and rights of the Nuremberg Council

One of the main tasks of a medieval government was to provide the people with enough food , the price should be fair, cheap, but still profitable for the producer . The quality of the staple food , which also included beer, shouldn't suffer as a result. The price of the beer was by no means always the same. Apart from the decisions about the quality of the respective product , which was controlled by the beer pebbles , the council also decided on the price range. However, fluctuations were often only observed on a smaller scale. According to Valentin Groebner , the real importance of beer lies in the fact that it was the far cheaper alternative to wine and thus the drink of poor people . The fact that people of higher social origin, especially about the taste of Nuremberg beer, seldom lost words of praise can be traced back more to the judgment associated with the customer group than to the actual taste.

The composition of the beers was recorded by the council in beer samples , later in beer regulations. In the meantime, the council allowed beer dealers to use less barley for a certain amount of beer, because a higher price was being charged for this. The taste and strength of the beer changed, but the bar price remained the same. The beer traders often complained to the council that the beer price was too low. Your costs could hardly be covered by the income; there would be other taxes, such as B. the " Umgeld ". The following entry can be found in the memorial book of the Tucher family , which comes from a request submitted to the council: " Item if one of them makes a hundred aimer piers out of it, which it can't endure, so it turned out to be a hundred twenty-nine (U). Minus 10 hl. Item so you have to have hops for 14 (U); item zu eim prau: holß 7 (U). Ez applies the push 22 (U); item should the preufneht to minst 8 (U); item mulner , putner, bad luck, fur raif 6 (U); how we want to be, slaiffen, stro, gollicht and such flain ding nit archen " Complaints of this kind were often crowned with success , for example in the form of changes in the bar price. But for each new brewing season this was set again by the council. A distinction was made between winter and summer beer, the latter was classified as more expensive. " Since not only serving too expensive, but also serving too cheaply was punishable (...) ", the beer traders either stayed behind on their goods or complained about the cost problem already mentioned.

After the beer was finished, beer testers or beer pebbles checked the products. Their job was - as the name suggests - to taste the beers in order to determine their quality and price. Bad beers were either significantly reduced in price or, in extreme cases, destroyed. The Bierkieser also noted the quality and the price on the so-called "Petschiers", small tablets . If hosts or beer distributors resisted the regulations, the Council ordered that at the expense of civilian bailiffs before the houses post to let the permanently monitored compliance with the rules. Later the penalties were tightened, from fines to the complete destruction of the beer supply to the imposition of prison sentences .

The council also had a duty to provide the citizens with enough beer. At times when there were no preservatives , urban storage of beer was not possible for a long period of time . Since supplying the citizens with bread was more important than with beer in times of food shortages , the city could not decide to store malting barley like bread grain. In 1553 the brewing traders had to store their grain, e.g. B. sell to the bakers , as bad harvests had led to bottlenecks . On the other hand, the council reacted to the feared shortage of beer by advising the beer dealers to buy barley in stock, which was otherwise forbidden, " since, according to the opinion of the time, buying barley only made it more expensive ". In extreme cases, the council bought raw materials for the beer traders from abroad and imposed an export ban on the beverage so that they could supply the population with sufficient beer. The market times and the permitted purchasing volume of the individual beer traders have been regulated by the council. This should ensure a fair distribution of the available raw materials among the beer traders. A trade with each other was forbidden, as the repeated visit of grain markets of a beer distributor on the same day.

literature

  • Werner Schultheiß: Brewing and brewing rights in Nuremberg until the beginning of the 19th century. (= Volume 23 Nuremberg Workpieces on City and State History ) Nuremberg City Archives: Nuremberg 1978
  • Jochen Sprotte: From 1303/1305 to 2005. 700 years of Nuremberg beer. in: Yearbook of the Society for the History and Bibliography of Brewing 2005, Institute for Fermentation Trade: Berlin 2005, pages 87-131.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statute books and statutes of the Imperial City of Nuremberg , Vol. III, p. 154
  2. ↑ Cf. Groebner, Valentine: Economy without a house - on the economy of poor people in Nuremberg at the end of the 15th century , Göttingen 1993, p. 99, ISBN 3-525-35645-5 .
  3. ↑ See Schulheiß, W .: Brewing and brewing rights in Nuremberg until the beginning of the 19th century, Nuremberg 1978, p. 38.
  4. ↑ Ibid., Pp. 38-39.
  5. ↑ Tuchersches Memorialbuch, p. 317, in: The Chronicles of the Franconian Cities , Nuremberg, Leipzig 1872.
  6. ↑ See Schulheiß, W .: Brewing and brewing rights in Nuremberg until the beginning of the 19th century, Nuremberg 1978, p. 51.