Patent No. 3713839A: Fermentation Process

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Today in 1973, US Patent 3713839 A was issued, an invention of Cavit Akin, Jacques J. Delente, Erik Krabbe, and Elmer Lueckerath, for their “Fermentation Process.” Here’s the Abstract:

The process of handling fermenting medium such that the carbon dioxide released during fermentation is applied to the problem of creating an agitation regime for desirable product quality and heat dissipation, and apparatus having depth and bottom shapes that determine the agitation pattern and assist in heat dissipation.

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Patent No. 3366033A: Brewing Of Beer

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Today in 1968, US Patent 3366033 A was issued, an invention of Laurence Robert Bishop, assigned to Watney Combe Reid & Co Ltd, for his “Brewing of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the invention is not so much a new method for the brewing of beer — as the title suggests — but instead is “an apparatus for segregating lupulin from dried hops including a pin mill into which the dried hops are introduced and subjected to disintegration and means for conveying the disintegrated material from the pin mill to a sifting means in which the lupulin is sifted from the discarded plant tissue.”
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Patent No. 692170A: Apparatus For Aerating Wort And Improving The Quality Of Yeast

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Today in 1902, US Patent 692170 A was issued, an invention of Max Wallerstein and Hans H. Freund, for their “Apparatus for Aerating Wort and Improving the Quality of Yeast.” There’s no Abstract, but this is from the description.

Our invention relates to apparatus for aerating Wort during fermentation and improving the quality of yeast, and has for its object to provide an apparatus of this class by the use of which wort is aerated with filtered air in any desired quantity during fermentation and yeast of healthy growth and great purity is obtained.

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Patent No. 2229875A: The Art Of Wort Cooling

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Today in 1941, US Patent 2229875 A was issued, an invention of Robert Schwarz and Fred L.A. Schmidt, for their “Art of Wort Cooling.” There’s no Abstract, but here’s the general idea.

Generally speaking, the invention involves cooling the wort by evaporation in a cycle which includes the passage of clean, filtered air or air 2o rendered germ-free by other methods, along or across the path of a flat expanded stream in which the wort is introduced into a closed chamber. Where the cooling after such operation is inadequate, the wort or some of it is pumped in go one or more repetitions of said cycle until the desired cooling has been effected.

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Patent No. 135245A: Improvement In Brewing Beer And Ale

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Today in 1873, US Patent 135245 A was issued, an invention of Louis Pasteur, for his “Improvement in Brewing Beer and Ale.” There’s no Abstract, but Pasteur explains in the description that this is a “process of brewing without the presence in the wort of atmosphericair, my invention has for its object to produce a better quality and greater quantity of beer from the same quantity and quality of wort, and to afford a beer which shall also embody the quality of greater degree of unalterableness during time and changes of climate, &c., in transportation and use; and to these ends my invention consists in expelling the air from the boiled wort while confined in a closed vessel or closed vessels, and then cooling it by the application of sprays of water to the exterior of such vessel or vessels, as will be hereinafter more fully explained.”

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Patent No. 20110017737A1: Plastic Beer Keg

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Today in 2011, US Patent 20110017737 A1 was issued, an invention of William P. Apps, for his “Plastic Beer Keg.” Here’s the Abstract:

A plastic beer keg includes an outer container and an inner liner. A removable lid is secured over an opening to the container to enclose the liner. The liner includes a neck portion and a body portion. A head contact member transfers axial forces imparted by handling equipment away from the neck portion.

From reading through the description, the idea of this invention is to replace the costlier metal kegs currently in use today. Only time will tell.

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Patent No. 3558326A: Process For Isomerizing And Purifying Hop Extracts

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Today in 1971, US Patent 3558326 A was issued, an invention of William J. Durant, William C. Herwig, and Donald H. Westermann, assigned to Miller Brewing, for their “Process for Isomerizing and Purifying Hop Extracts.” There’s no Abstract, but they describe it as a “hop extract substantially free from waxes, oils, and nonacidic hop components is prepared by treating a waterimmiscible solvent solution of hop extract with an aqueous alkaline solution to isomerize acid hop components in the aqueous phase. The waxes, oils, and nonacidic hop components enter the nonaqueous phase and are removed with the latter. The aqueous phase is acidied, more solvent is added, and the hop acids enter the solvent phase and are recovered therefrom. The extract is used in making beer of improved light stability.”

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Patent No. 3637117A: Keg Tapping Device

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Today in 1972, US Patent 3637117 A was issued, an invention of Mack S. Johnston, assigned to Republic Corp., for his “Keg Tapping Device.” Here’s the Abstract:

The device comprises a keg adapter mounted about a keg opening and a dispenser coupler releasably coupled to the keg adapter having gas inlet and beer dispensing outlet passages terminating in two side-by-side probes depending from the coupler. The liquid probe is movably mounted in the coupler and biased in one direction. An inverted J-shaped tube is carried by the coupler in communication with the liquid probe and displacement of the tube moves the liquid probe in the opposite direction to open the beer valve in the keg adapter. The gas passage is in communication with a hand operated portable plunger-type pump whereby gas is provided through the keg adapter into the keg.

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Patent No. 3231384A: Continuous Boiling And Hopping Of Brewers’ Wort

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Today in 1966, US Patent 3231384 A was issued, an invention of William Ernest Parker and Francis Lloyd Rigby, assigned to Canadian Breweries Ltd., for their “Continuous Boiling and Hopping of Brewers’ Wort.” There’s no Abstract, but partway down in the description is this:

The method of the present invention generally comprises forming a continuously flowing stream of hot brewers wort, causing said stream to flow in a substantially horizontal path, continuously introducing a predetermined mass of hops to said stream, heating said flowing wort, venting said stream of undesirable volatiles above said path of flow and controlling the time flow ratio of said wort and hops as to hop said wort to desired degree, and finally continuously discharging spent and hopped wort from said stream. This may be carried out with the wort and hops flowing counter-current to one another, discharging spent hops at one end of the path and hopped wort at the other. Alternatively, it may be carried out in a co-current flow.

The method may be carried out in particularly simple apparatus which may take the form, for counter-current flow, of a substantially horizontally disposed tubular vessel with provision for introducing wort towards one end thereof and hops in the other end thereof and which includes a perforated auger moving the hops in countercurrent flow to the continuously flowing wort as to cause spent hops to discharge at one end of the apparatus and hopped wort at the other, and which is a preferred type of apparatus proposed although such counter-current flow might be achieved by apparatus of other design. For cocurrent flow, the wort is introduced at one end while the hops are introduced adjacent that end and/or selectively along the length of the vessel.

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Patent No. 1070116A1: Beer Flavor Concentrate

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Today in 2001, US Patent 1070116 A1 was issued, an invention of Matthew L. Tripp, assigned to the Green Bay Beer Company, for his “Beer Flavor Concentrate.” Here’s the short Abstract. “A beer flavor concentrate and a method for making and using the beer flavor concentrate to produce a final beer product through the addition of carbonated water and alcohol.”

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While I’m not sure if this was ever marketed as, or as part of, a product, more recently concentrated beer has become available on the market. For example, Pat’s Backcountry Beverages was made primarily for camping. Over the last couple of years, both Popular Science and Gizmodo have been taken a look at how it works and if the reconstituted beer is any good.

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