German
Beer is a major part of German culture. There are around 1,300 breweries in Germany, second only to the US which has 1,500. The German beer market is sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers' adherence to the Reinheitsgebot ("purity order") dating from 1516 (and recently updated in the Vorläufiges Biergesetz of 1993), according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are water, hops and barley-malt. This law also requires that beers not using only barley-malt (such as wheat and rye) must be top-fermented.The Germans are behind only the Czechs and the Irish in their per capita consumption of beer.
