Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Pyramid Closes Walnut Creek Location

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pyramid-breweries
Rumor has it that Pyramid Breweries has closed the last remaining vestige of their foray into California. After closing the Sacramento brewpub a couple of years ago, and the Berkeley brewpub last year, apparently the staff of the Walnut Creek Alehouse learned Sunday that it would be their last day. Yesterday, apparently, the alehouse was locked up and closed up for good.

The website for the Walnut Creek Alehouse simply states the following:

The Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek is now closed.
Thank you so much for your patronage over the years. We also thank our employees for their dedicated service.

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Fehr’s Beer Bear

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My most recent “Beer in Ads” post was for a Bock by the Frank Fehr Brewing Co. of Louisville, Kentucky, which was in business from 1890 to 1964, and even earlier as the Otto Brewery. In researching the brewery, I found some amazing promotional photos for the Frank Fehr Brewing Co. at the University of Louisville Digital Collection. If a brewery tried this today, the prohibitionist groups would go seriously apoplectic. Fehr’s actually used a teddy bear, which they referred to as a “Beer Bear” or Fehr’s Bear” in their marketing.

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This M.R. Kopmeyer Co. photo of Fehr’s bottle of beer is from July of 1959.

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And here’s another one of a Teddy beer with Fehr’s beer bottles from August of 1959.

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“Frank Fehr Brewing Co. Int photos of Jack Schnatter and Fehrs beer at Kroger store at Shelbyville Road Plaza,” taken August 28, 1959.

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And here’s a close-up of Jack Schnatter and the teddy bear at the same visit to Krogers.

I can just imagine the hue and cry today if any beer brand tried using a teddy bear as a part of their marketing. You know they’d be accused of “targeting” children, a frequent charge leveled by modern prohibitionists and yet in what I imagine was a conservative southern town in the late fifties people seemed to take it all in stride. What does that say about the people running prohibitionist organizations in the 21st century that they can’t tell the difference between targeting and having fun, between knowing what appeals to all people and not just children.

I confess Fehr’s was not a beer brand I was familiar with. I suspect it was only available, even in its heyday, in and around the Louisville area. So there it’s probably well known. They certainly had some great slogans, the one I see the most is pretty awesome. It’s always Fehr weather.”

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I guess we know from that how Frank Fehr’s name was pronounced. They used it it a variety of marketing materials, from coasters …

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to crowns …

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to trays.

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Another play on the name was “Be ‘Fehr’ to Yourself” — Drink — Fehr’s Kentucky Beer.”

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It’s certainly popular enough in the Louisville area that some people are trying to bring back the brand, and have a website and Facebook page up, though there was more movement and even some local news coverage two years ago.

Patent No. 2143565A: Beer Stabilizer Coil Control

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Today in 1939, US Patent 2143565 A was issued, an invention of Raymond G. Minea, for his “Beer Stabilizer Coil Control.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to an improvement in regulator valves, particularly adapted for use in dispensing beer, ale, or the like; and to a dispensing apparatus for controlling the flow of the beer or other liquid through the valve.

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You Think We Have A Lot Of Breweries?

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There’s been a fair amount of talk lately about the number of U.S. breweries hitting a milestone number, and that there are now more breweries in America that at anytime in our history. And that’s great and all, but as Jeff Alworth recently suggested, we should Quit Counting Breweries. And although he meant as the only way to measure growth and improvement in the state of beer, it’s a fair point, although it does, I believe, offer some idea of the bigger picture. Plus, I think we’re all just a little bit fascinated with numbers — things we can quantify — so I doubt anyone will ditch the metric of number of breweries anytime soon.

But if you think we have a lot of breweries, Europe is even more on fire. Sure, they had a head start, and didn’t have that pesky prohibition to slow them down (except in a few places). And while they may have been slower to the movement, or whatever it should be called, of new, usually smaller, breweries opening it’s well and truly now a global phenomenon. As of 2015, according to The Brewers of Europe Beer Statistics, there are over 7,000 breweries in Europe.

The comparison to the U.S. number is helped along by the fact that they’re pretty close in area: 3.931 million square miles for Europe and the U.S. with 3.806 million square miles. Though in terms of people, Europe has more than twice the population of America, 742.5 million vs. 318.9 million in the U.S. But here’s the number of breweries in Europe, broken down by country.

Number of Active Breweries (2009-2014)

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Most of the countries have seen big growth, although a few are close to static, meaning they either stayed exactly the same or have shown only modest growth. Very few have dropped below their 2009 number. Really, it’s only Turkey although Poland was rising steadily, only to dip a little in 2014 over 2013.

Last week, Ron Pattinson at Shut Up About Barclay Perkins looked at this data (h/t to him for bringing it to my attention) and noticed a few other patterns.

The one exception? Germany. The number of breweries hasn’t changed significantly in the last few years. Which has left it lagging far behind. For the first time since the 19th century, it doesn’t have the most breweries in Europe. The UK caught up in 2012 and has since powered ahead. If you’d told me 10 years ago that there would be over 1,500 breweries in the UK, I’d have felt your bumps.

The effect has been to drastically reduce Germany’s share of the breweries in Europe. From over a third in 2009 it fell to less than a quarter in 2014. While the UK’s share has risen for just under 20% to almost 25%.

Paricularly striking is the growth in countries that aren’t traditionally beer drinking. In Italy, France and Greece the number of breweries doubled. While in Portugal the increase is fivefold. In Spain almost sevenfold.

Earlier today, Ron posted a new analysis that he put together, assembling another table that showed the changes in the number of European breweries by nation from 1956-2014. He used a dozen sources, plus his own, to compile it. Here’s what he found:

Only four countries had fewer breweries in 2014 than in 1956: Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Luxemburg. For Denmark it’s a tiny difference – just five breweries – and Luxemburg is an odd case, being so small. Which leaves just Belgium and Germany, both of which have about a third of the breweries they did 60 years ago. I have to admit, it makes the situation in Germany look much worse than the 2009 to 2014 figures.

And here’s that list:

Number_of_breweries_in_Europe_1956_2014

I can’t help but come back to the population vs. brewery number ratio. It’s seems that per capita may have to more to do with how many breweries can be supported by a population after all. I’m sure it’s more complicated, of course, with history, culture and other factors playing a role, as well. Looking at the ratios, there’s a European brewery for every 104,710 people whereas in the U.S. there’s a brewery for every 77,171 people. So currently, we’re slightly more concentrated in these terms. Who’s got numbers on the rest of the world?

Patent No. 122592A: Improvement In Apparatus For Cooling Beer

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Today in 1872, US Patent 122592 A was issued, an invention of Morton Andre Foubert, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Cooling Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The cooling-vessel a is made of a vertical cylinder containing double heads and numerous vertical pipes of small size and placed close together, the pipes opening at their ends through the inner heads, so that the cooling water supplied from the tank I) will run, by the pipe 0, through these tubes and pass up by the elevated pipe (I to the vat e, where the warmed water can be reserved for use in other operations. The beer is supplied by the pipe f and runs from the vat 9 into the upper part of the cooler a, passing gradually downward and running away, by the pipe h, to the refrigerator 7c. The pipes c fare provided with cocks that should have divisions or degrees marked upon them so that they can be opened the proper amount in order that the cooling-water may be supplied in the proper proportion to effect the cooling of the beer that runs through the ap paratus to the required temperature, and I remark that all portions of this apparatus that come in contact with the beer should be tinned to prevent any injury to the same from the copper or other metal made use of for the vessels and pipes. Within the refrigerator it there is a vertical group of pipes, 1, opening at their upper and lower ends into the chambers m, the lower one being connected with the pipe h and the upper one with delivery-pipe n, that leads to any suitable receptacle. The refrigerator is may contain water or ice, as required, and a pipe and cook at 8 may be provided to draw off the beer, if it is not desired to pass all of it through the apparatus, or for emptying the vessel a and pipes l. The pipe and cook at t can be used for admitting steam or hot water for cleansing the vessels a lo, and the pipe and cook a serves as a blow-off for the vessel a.

I claim as my invention The cooler a, constructed as specified. and combined with the vertical group of pipes Z in the refrigerator k, the parts being constructed and connected, as and for the purposes set forth.

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Patent No. 8349378B2: Brewing Process And Brewery Installations

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Today in 2013, US Patent 8348086 B2 was issued, an invention of Klaus-Karl Wasmuht and Cornelia Folz, assigned to Krones Ag, for their “Brewing Process and Brewery Installations.” Here’s the Abstract:

A brewing process including taking off a fluid having a starting temperature from a heat store; feeding the fluid to a plurality of heat consumers for releasing heat; and returning to the heat store the fluid which has a final temperature. The brewery installation has a heat store for controlling the flow of the fluid in the installation, and a plurality of heat consumers each of which is connected to the primary circuit for releasing heat. Improved efficiency is achieved in part by the final temperature of the fluid which flows out of the respective heat consumers is measured and the return of the fluid is controlled as a function of the measured final temperature.

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Patent No. 2295931A1: A Method For Identifying A Barley Variety And A Barley Having A Brewing Property

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Today in 1999, US Patent 2295931 A1 was issued, an invention of Makoto Kihara, Takafumi Kaneko, Kensuke Fukuda, and Kazutoshi Ito, assigned to Sapporo Breweries Ltd., for their “A Method For Identifying a Barley Variety and a Barley Having a Brewing Property.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method for identifying barley with good brewing properties using the thermostability of the barley .beta.-amylase as an indicator. The thermostability of the barley .beta.-amylase significantly affects the degree of the apparent attenuation limit. A method for determining the enzyme activity of an extract solution from one barley seed, an indirect method by an isoelectric point, and an indirect identifying method by DNA polymorphisms of the region containing the .beta.-amylase structural gene have been developed as a method for determining the type of thermostability for a barley .beta.-amylase. The selection method is not affected by environmental or climatic conditions.

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Jesse Houck Moving To Maui Brewing

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Maui Brewing has announced that their new Director of Brewery Operations will be Jesse Houck. Houck was most recently at Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles, and prior to that was in the Bay Area with both Drake’s Brewing and 21st Amendment.

From the press release:

“I am beyond stoked to be working with such a strong leader as Garrett and the talented team he has assembled here on Maui,” stated Jesse Houck.

“I’ve known Jesse for most of my career in craft beer and have always been impressed with his brewing talent, and proud to call him a friend. I’m stoked to have him at the helm of our brewing operations and we’re looking forward to some awesome projects coming down the pipe,” added Founder and CEO Garrett Marrero.

I recently visited the new facility that Maui Brewing built and turned loose in that brewhouse, Jesse’s going to do great things. It also really makes me want to go back to Maui again, not that I needed much incentive. It’s an amazing space that Garrett and Melanie Marrero built closer to the center of the island, and not too far from the airport. With two new planned restaurants in their future, adding Jesse was a prudent move. Congratulations to both.

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Jesse (right) with Shaun O’Sullivan at the Toronado Barleywine Festival in 2008.

Patent No. 3117005A: Process For The Manufacture Of Beer

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Today in 1964, US Patent 3117005 A was issued, an invention of Morton William Coutts, for his “Process For the Manufacture of Beer and the Like.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to a process for the manufacture of beer and the like and has for its objects the provision of an improved continuous process for such manufacture which makes use of certain phenomena which occur during the preparation of brewers Wort and the fermentation thereof and which individually cause problems in production but which when combined bring about beneficial results.

For example, when brewers wort is boiled certain heat sensitive material precipitates and coagulate-s. It has been found that these precipitated particles while in a boiling state have adsorptive properties and take up from the wort many objectionable and unwanted flavours. It is normal practice to hold the hot wort before cooling, and during this time these particles coagulate and as they coagulate gradually lose their adsorptive powers, the adsorbed flavours again becoming soluble and so producing objectionable flavours in the finished beer.

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Patent No. 3227557A: Continuous Fermentation Process With Sedimentable Microorganisms

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Today in 1966, US Patent 3227557 A was issued, an invention of Michael Edward Ash, assigned to Guinness Son & Co. Ltd., for his “Continuous Fermentation Process with Sedimentable Microorganisms.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates in general to continuous fermentation systems of the kind in which liquid suspensions comprising a dispersion of said fermentable micro-organisms in a liquid substrate of relatively lower specific gravity, are caused to flow through a fermenting vessel or series of vessels.

More specifically, the invention is concerned with a method and apparatus for controlling the relative degree of concentration of micro-organism in substrate as between any two or all of the stages: inflow, vessel and outflow.

In particular, the invention has been developed for use in connection with the continuous fermentation of Erewers wort in a chemostat system.

The invention is however believed to be applicable to any microbiological process in which a sedimentable micro-organism is operated in a nutrient liquid, and is in the form of a mechanical dispersion in liquid nutrient of relatively lower specific gravity, so that in the absence of turbulence, the micro-organism tends to settle at the bottom of the vessel.

It has already been proposed continuously to ferment Brewers wort or other ferment-able substrate in a plurality of sequentially arranged stirred or unstirred vessels, and to separate the fermenting micro-organism (yeast) from the fermented product (beer) by settlement in a separate vessel or in a part of the final fermentation vessel separated from a stirred region by a baffle.

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