Germany: The East German brewer, Brandenburg-based Klosterbrauerei, won a court battle allowing its sugar-infused frothy beverages to retain the name "beer" even if they violate the strict 16th century purity laws governing the industry.

Under Germany's so-called Reinheitsgebot ("purity law") of 1516, only beer made of grains, hops and water without any added ingredients has been allowed to be marketed as such. But Helmut Fritsche, he brewer's managing director, has been committing what many in Germany's strict beer culture consider a mortal sin since taking over the Klosterbrauerei Neuzelle brewery in 1993 - adding sugar syrup to his dark beer just before capping the bottles. Until that point, the beer is brewed according to the purity law.

Threatened with a €20,000 (US$26,500) fine for daring to label his product as beer, he fought local authorities only to have the regional administrative court uphold their argument.

However, the federal administrative court in this eastern city upheld a complaint by the Klosterbrauerei Neuzelle demanding that the state of Brandenburg recognize its product as beer after a 10-year campaign. The court commented that because the sugar syrup is added after the beer was already fully brewed, Fritsche can market the product as a "special beer" - as do breweries that add herbs to their products at the end of the brewing process.

The "Schwarzer Abt" (Black Abbot) black beer has a hint of invert sugar syrup, using a recipe handed down by monks. "It looks like beer, tastes like beer and has alcohol in it," the brewer's managing director Helmut Fritsche insisted, arguing for the right to have the beer designation. The judgment ended a 10-year legal battle by the company to call its product beer.

The state agricultural ministry had withheld the label, a decision Fritsche described as discrimination because foreign brewers that do not meet the purity standards may still call their products "beer". The court's judges agreed, but stipulated that Neuzelle must inform consumers about the syrup additive on its labels.

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