Thursday’s holiday ad is for Cain’s Special Ale, from 1908. In this ad, Santa is pulling a beer wagon and holding a beer in his hand.
Archives for December 22, 2016
Patent No. 2917906A: Portable Cooler, Gasser, And Dispenser For Keg Beer
Today in 1959, US Patent 2917906 A was issued, an invention of George Craig Woolley, for his “Portable Cooler, Gasser, and Dispenser for Keg Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
This invention relates to a readily portable device for supporting and completely servicing a keg or small barrel of beer or other beverage which requires for proper draught and taste characteristics, cooling, gassing and controlled dispensing. My present invention is particularly designed and conceived for home rather than commercial use where it is desired to dispense a draught beverage such as beer to a group of people, from a keg.
At the present time the distributors of various malt beverages supply to their customers, cooling and gassing apparatus for small gatherings, usually employing a helical coil to be placed in a box of ice and an air pump or carbon dioxide cylinder of heavy construction. The apparatus is hooked up at the home and in many instances, the keg heats up (since only the discharge through the coil is cooled), the saturation level of the gas is consequently decreased in the beer and more gas is released, resulting in foam when the beverage is dispensed. The coil, if not thoroughly cleaned and sterilized after each use, is unsanitary and gives the next user an off taste beer; Cleaning time of such-coil requires from a half to a full hour and is often disregarded by the dissumption of the entire contents of the keg.
A further object is the provision of a device of the class described wherein a simple, compact wheeled chassis serves the multiple functions of a keg-support, a refrigerating chamber, a mounting for controlled gassing and dispensing mechanism and in addition, a valuable source of advertising for the distributor or manufacturer of the beverage.
Another object is to provide a compact, rugged device of the class described of simple and inexpensive construction affording a high degree of sanitation and provision for sterilizing of the few dispensing parts.
Anchor Christmas Ale 2013
It’s day thirty-nine of my Rudolph’s run to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.
2013 was the thirty-ninth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and from 1987 through the present day, each year Anchor’s Our Special Ale has included spices, a different combination of them every time. Generally the base beer has been a spiced brown ale, although it has been varied from time to time, as well. This thirty-ninth label was was a “California White Fir,” or “Abies concolor var. Lowiana.”
Patent No. 747729A: Automatic Filling Machine
Today in 1902, US Patent 747729 A was issued, an invention of William Koedding, for his “Automatic Filling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
My invention relates to machines for filling bottles and other receptacles with liquid, and has for its principal objects to produce a filling-machine which will operate automatically when the bottle is pressed against it in proper position to be filled, to equalize the pressure in the bottle with the pressure in the supply-pipe before the supply-pipe is opened to permit the liquid to How into the bottle, to provide for automatically stopping the flow of the liquid when the bottle is filled, and to prevent any stale liquid getting into the bottle.