Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1940. In this ad, entitled “What Do You Know About Voting?,” in which how different people experience their right to vote, are explained. There are two weeks to go until arguably the most important election in my lifetime. So I thought it might be important to know everything about it. Luckily, Schlitz has all the answers.
Archives for October 25, 2016
Patent No. 4780330A: Method Of Producing Isomerized Hop Preparations
Today in 1988, US Patent 4780330 A was issued, an invention of Derek R. J. Laws, assigned to The Brewing Research Foundation, for his “Method of Producing Isomerized Hop Preparations.” Here’s the Abstract:
A method for the production of isomerized hop preparations comprising admixing whole or powdered hops with a solid or aqueous alkali or alkaline earth metal salt. The invention provides that the resultant admixture is simultaneously subjected to a pressure of at least 2 Kg/cm2 and at a temperature of at least 80° C. in a closed vessel, thereby to form a hop preparation high in iso-α-acids and with substantially undegraded hop oils. The closed vessel is preferably an extrusion cooker.
The Beer Tourism Index
Undoubtedly beer tourism is growing phenomenon, and has been for some time. Fifteen years ago, when I was GM of the Celebrator Beer News, the “Hopspots” sections were the most popular in the brewspaper, as many readers reported that they always kept one in their car when they travelled to help them find a beer spot (remember that was before smartphones and GPS were ubiquitous). I know for at least thirty years I’ve been including beer destinations any time I travel, even before I did so as part of my profession. Having that information at your fingertips through apps, websites and GPS has only helped to increase beer travel, I think, and at least part of the success of beer weeks has to do with the goal of bringing tourism to specific geographic areas; essentially making the week the destination rather than a side trip. So it’s interesting to see that a popular travel website, Travelocity, is not only recognizing how beer people travel, but has created a Beer Tourism Index to rank the Top Beer Destinations, dividing them by large and small metro areas (though I’m surprised they consider Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Lancaster PA and a few others as “large”). Also somewhat curious is the total absence of the San Francisco Bay Area, or even San Francisco or Oakland/East Bay in the listings. What’s especially odd about that is that San Francisco is one of the top tourist destination cities (it’s number two according to EscapeHere and #5 according to TripAdvisor and #3 via Business Insider). At any rate, according to their press release.
By examining the location of all breweries in the U.S. and looking at other factors important to a successful “beercation,” including the availability of rideshare services, accessibility via air, and the average cost of lodging, this index identified the best large and small metro areas to sample some of the nation’s best craft beers.
Here’s the full list below:
And here’s the criteria used to arrive at this list:
*To find the top metropolitan areas for beer tourism, Travelocity scored the over 300 US MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) on four factors:
- Breweries per 1 million residents: Working with the Brewers Association (an organization representing the majority of independent brewers in the US), every MSA was scored by the number of breweries and brewpubs per 1 million residents
- Rideshare availability: To get a full sampling of a region’s beer culture, a beer tourist may need to visit multiple breweries across the area. Rideshare services like Uber or Lyft are invaluable for this, so each MSA was scored on availability of both, either, or neither of these services.
- Nonstop air destinations: If the MSA has an airport with scheduled air service – from how many destinations is nonstop service available?
- Lodging score: Each MSA was scored on the price of an average room night for the 2015 calendar year. The lower the price, the higher the score for the MSA.
The Brewers Association also released a joint press release, adding:
Beer tourism is a big deal. We estimate that in 2014, more than 10 million people toured small and independent craft breweries. That’s a lot of brewery tours. Just search “beercations” and you’ll get a plethora of results on where to tour local breweries.
More than 7 percent of craft sales (by volume) now happen at the source—the brewery. Craft brewers are now a main attraction for travelers. For example, in 2015, the Brewers Association’s three-day Great American Beer Festival generated the equivalent of 2 percent of Denver’s GDP, accounting for $28.6 million. Beer tourism is so strong that travel website Travelocity just published a beer tourism index.
In a Travelocity survey of 1,003 people, more than three-quarters said they would like to go on a trip where they visited craft breweries and sampled local beer. With numerous beer trails flourishing across the U.S. and beer events including festivals and special beer releases racking up millions upon millions of tourism trips and dollars, the modern beercation is a boon to beer.
The Brewers Association commissioned a Nielsen Omnibus panel in June 2016 that asked, “How many, if any, craft breweries have you visited at their site in the past 12 months while traveling?” The answer: on average 2.1 breweries. Impressive.
Patent No. 1646916A: Apparatus For Serving Out Beer
Today in 1927, US Patent 1646916 A was issued, an invention of Camilo Recuero and Gaudencio Lamarque, for their “Apparatus For Serving Out Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
The present invention relates to apparatus for serving out beer and similar beverages and has for its object to provide an improved device of this kind capable of avoiding the disadvantages shown in the methods heretofore used.
As is generally known, in taverns, barrooms, or other places where beer is served out to consumers, this is generally effected from barrels and with the aid of carbonic acid under pressure, thus the conditions of expenditure, as regards satisfaction of the consumer and the amount of liquid wasted depend entirely upon the skill of the barman.
Further, during the hot season, the in crease in the demand for cooled beverages does not allow for sufficient time for serving out the liquid under normal. conditions so that waste is very likely to occur with the consequent losses to the proprietor of the place.
With the aid of the present invention all these disadvantages are avoided, since the improved device provides for an absolute control of discharge of foamless beer, or team alone, just as desired, whereby it is possible to serve out the beer or other liquid at complete satisfaction 0;! even the most exacting consumer and, simultaneously, there are no possibilities for any amount of liquid being wasted. As well, the present device constitutes an important improvement over the devices known in the prior art since it provides for more continuous dispensing.
The device according to the invention is characterized by. the fact that beer is admitted within a container of suitable form, size and material and, through the provision of tubes opening into discharge cocks combined one with the other, the discharge of the liquid, or of the foam formed by the pressure gas, may be exactly controlled so that the discharge is effected entirely at will. In this manner, when serving out’ a can or glass of beer, first-1y liquid beer without foam is discharged until reaching the desired limit, and then a suit able amount of foam is added until filling completely the can or glass used.