While beer consumption is reaching record levels across the world, with Germany considered the centre to which all tankards gravitate, our friends over the Rhine have decided to de-sanctify the hoppy beverage by removing its all-powerful alcoholic essence. Just like Luther during the epic era of the Wars of Religion, a reform of consciousnesses is taking place in the collective sober subconscious of our German cousins. It is written in the Reinheitsgebot (a decree on the “purity of beer”) “And thou shalt subject the one who drinks non-alcoholic beer to the mockery of all.” These days, the new generation of Germans has decided to break with 500 years of near-biblical laws; some passages of the holy canon of the Hop have been struck out in favour of mentions that are more atomkraft nein danke, such as: “And thou shalt drink thy alcohol-free beer without shame.”
https://www.dw.com/en/germans-are-drinking-more-alcohol-free-beer/a-50012362
