Thursday’s ad is for Brand Bier, which was established in 1430. If you’re going to pick a brand name for your beer, Brand seems like a pretty good way to go. Brand Bier is still a going concern, and is the oldest brewer in the Netherlands. As for this ad, I’m not sure when it is from, though given how generic it is, it could really be from any time. I’m also not sure if the dozen full beer glasses are meant to spell out anything or otherwise represent some shape.
Archives for November 19, 2015
Patent No. 8584665B2: Brewery Plant And Method
Today in 2013, US Patent 8584665 B2 was issued, an invention of Kurt Stippler and Klaus-Karl Wasmuht, assigned to Krones Ag, for his “Brewery Plant and Method.” Here’s the Abstract:
A brewery plant with at least one mash container, a lauter tun, a wort pan and a water housing, wherein at least part of the thermal energy requirement of the brewery is covered with solar collectors, and the solar collectors directly or indirectly heat a fluid. Also, a brewing method where the thermal energy requirement for at least of a part of the brewing process stages is at least partially covered with a fluid heated directly or indirectly by solar collectors.
Home For The Holidays Session
For our 106th Session next month our host will be yours truly, who writes this here Brookston Beer Bulletin. For my topic, I’ve chosen Holiday Beers, by which I mean this.
For seasonal beers, the Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Mithra time of the year is my mostest favorite. This past weekend, we had our fifteenth annual holiday beer tasting for the Celebrator Beer News, and sampled 42 of this year’s Christmas beers. Here’s how I’ve described them in the introduction of the tasting notes for the holiday edition each year:
Holiday beers are by design no one style, but are a chance for individual breweries to let their talent and imagination run wild. At the holidays, when people stop their busy lives and share some precious time with family and friends, the beer they choose should be equally as special as the time they’re sharing. So a holiday beer should be made to impress, to wow its audience, to stand out. That’s the only criteria that should be met by one of these beers. Will it impress? Different breweries, thankfully, do this in many, many different ways. Some use unusual spices or fruits, some use special malts or hops, some use other uncommon ingredients like spruce or rye, and some make a style that itself is unusual. So there’s nothing to tie these beers together apart from their celebration of the season. That makes it both a delight and a challenge to judge. Ultimately, perhaps more than any other tasting, these beers are simply a matter of what you like and our judging is a matter of what we like. So try them and discover for yourself the many flavors of this holiday season.
As I said, I really enjoy the variety of holiday and winter seasonals, and they often seem especially well-suited to colder weather. I don’t really care what they’re Celebrating, be it:
And despite the fact that the rightwing nutjobs insist there’s a war on Christmas because people use “holidays” to be inclusive instead of “Merry Christmas,” a lot of seasonal beer labels from the first half of the 20th century used “holiday” rather than Christmas. And what do you know, civilization didn’t end. And that’s usually the time that conservatives point to as being what we need to return to, when America was a more innocent place, pre-1960s. But they drank holiday beers, what do you know? And as far as I can tell, nobody freaked the fuck out like they do today. After the brouhaha with Starbucks cups, it actually made me want to go to Starbucks — a place I don’t normally frequent — just because of how ridiculous it all was.
So for this Session, write about whatever makes you happy, so long as it involves holiday beers.
- Discuss your favorite holiday beer.
- Review one or more holiday beers.
- Do you like the idea of seasonal beers, or loathe them?
- What’s your idea of the perfect holiday beer?
- Do have a holiday tradition with beer?
- Are holiday beers released too early, or when should they be released?
- Do you like holiday beer festivals?
Those are just a few suggestions, celebrate the holiday beers in your own way. Happy Holidays!
So start your holiday celebration early. It’s never too soon. To participate in the December Session, on or around Friday, December 4, write your post, then leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail or copy me (@Brookston) in your Twitter feed with your link.
Patent No. 2813638A: Palletizer
Today in 1957, US Patent 2813638 A was issued, an invention of Frank H. Miller Jr., assigned to Miller Engineering Corp., for his “Palletizer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to a palletizing device and to the method of operation thereof, and in particular to a palletizing device which is completely automatic in operation.
The Big Brewers: Global Spread
Looking for something else this morning, I found this map created by Reuters from 2013, showing the dominant beer company for each country, effectively showing “the global reach” of each of the four biggest companies at that time. This was created the last time rumors were circulating about an ABI takeover of SABMiller, in October of 2013.
So I took the map and quickly replaced the teal of SABMiller with ABI blue to show what the global reach might look like post-buyout.
And here’s a side-by-side comparison. There will be a lot more blue.
Patent No. 133152A: Improvement In Apparatus For Curing Hops
Today in 1872, US Patent 133152 A was issued, an invention of Nehemiah E. Hinds, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Curing Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to an Improvement in kilns for curing hops; and consists, first, of a series of tubes connected with a steam generator outside of the kiln, arranged within the kiln in such a manner as to discharge the steam beneath the hops and permit it to pass up through the hops, thereby thoroughly saturating them, the object of this part of the invention being to keep the hops thoroughly dampened while undergoing the bleaching process; secondly, of a pair of frames, covered with canvas, arranged within the kiln in such a manner as to be swung down upon and I completely cover the hops, the object of this part of the invention being to partially confine the steam, but more especially the fumes of the brimstone, within the kiln, and only permit them to escape slowly through the canvas—the united objects of the two parts of the invention being to produce a kiln that will cure hops in a manner far superior to the kilns heretofore in use.