In Bavaria in the 15th century, the world's first regulation concerning the purity of a beverage was made law. This ruling was known as the purity order of Reinheitsgebot. It made it known that any unscrupulous brewer who used cheaper ingredients to bulk out their beer and maximise their profits at the expense of quality would be fined and the beer destroyed. Only pure and essential ingredients were to be used in beer, these ingredients being barley, hops and water. Yeast is, of course, an essential ingredient of beer, but it was not known at this time.
In the 1500s, brewers utilised naturally occuring, airborne yeast or took some sediment from the previous fermentation and added it to the next. It is largely because of this that German beer became world renowned for its quality and consistency. German breweries still adhere to the purity law today although it has been reworded to allow yeast.
There is certainly a lot to be said for a law that protects the consumer from being cheated by unscrupulous brewers and, while in Germany cheap ingredients cannot be used simply to bulk out a beer, there is a downside to the Reinheitsgebot. The disadvantage is lack of diversity; although there are hundreds of brewers in Germany, most of the beers are very similar. The range of styles of beers brewed by the Germans is not as varied as that of Belgium or the United Kingdom.
Ingredients other than barley, hops, water and yeast are known as 'adjunets' and they can be used to enhance and add to the beer's qualities rather than just cut down on cost.
It is useful to know why various ingredients are used for brewing beer.
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