Normally, the only ways to visit the Teutonia Mannerchor is to be a member or know a member, because this 162-year-old North Side institution is a private club.
But it is inviting the public to a first-ever event this weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday to mark something even older: The 500th anniversary of what became known as Reinheitsgebot, or the German beer purity law.
The most famous version of the law — enacted on April 23, 1516, in Bavaria -— codified a body of regulations limiting the ingredients (and regulating prices) for beer there. This one said beer can be made only with barley, water and hops. Yeast was added later (early brewers relied on wild yeast and then reused yeast from previous batches even before people knew the microorganism’s role in fermentation). The law came to apply to all of Germany and evolved over centuries until it was struck down by the European Court in 1987. German brewing regulations are looser now.
These days more than ever, brewers, including German ones, use a much wider range of malted grains and other ingredients in their brews. But especially in Germany, Reinheitsgetbot remains a point of pride, and many beers still are voluntarily made and marketed to those strict standards.
That includes the brews of Hacker-Pschorr, which started brewing in Munich in 1417.
For this party, in a big tent in the Teutonia Mannerchor’s lower parking lot just off East Ohio Street, they’ll be pouring that brewery’s Munich Gold, Weisse (or wheat, which was allowed under Reinheitsgebot later in the 1500s) and Dunkel (dark) beers.
Attendees can also buy German food (bratwurst, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, potato salad, pretzels) and other drinks, even German apparel, and enjoy live music.
The celebration opens at 4 p.m. on Friday, and after a parade of flags at 5 p.m., there will be a “Reinheitsgebot 101” lecture that will explore the reasons behind, and repercussions of, the law (it effectively reserved wheat and rye for bread bakers and stabilized the prices of bread as well as beer, and may have protected local brewers from outside competition, in addition to keeping various additives out of beer). DJ and live music starts at 5:30 p.m. and continues until the tents close at 11 p.m.
Saturday’s hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and include a German 101 session covering the purity law, language and history. Sunday’s hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and include a “Cooking With Bier” class with chef Clinton Bliel of SBC Foods and an accordion singalong.
Admission is $10 per day or $25 for a three-day pass. Parking is available along Phineas Street, where the club is located. The singing society started in 1854 and was incorporated in 1887. The timbered, Tudor-style club hall itself was built in 1888. Today the organization is one of the largest ethnic clubs in the region, with about 2,800 members who must be 21, pay a modest initiation fee and annual dues and agree “to further choral singing, German cultural tradition and good fellowship.”
The club’s recording secretary, Ed Graf, notes that the club last invited the public over for its 150th anniversary in 2004, but this event could bring more chances for public interaction. “If everyone enjoys this, we will look to other events in the future.”
Learn more about the club and the festival schedule at teutoniamannerchor.wildapricot.org.
Similar celebrations will be held in Munich (July 22-24) and across Germany, where brewers are releasing commemorative beers, and in other places. On Pittsburgh’s South Side, Hofbrauhaus has been marking the occasion with various specials this week; the person served the 500th liter of beer this Saturday wins a $500 gift basket. Erie’s Lavery Brewing is celebrating on Saturday with four lagers on tap and German wurst sandwiches.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
First Published: April 21, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
