Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 3071469A: Process In The Manufacture Of Beer

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Today in 1963, US Patent 2226813 A was issued, an invention of Erik Krabbe and Kenneth W. Wendt, assigned to Miller Brewing, for his “Process in the Manufacture of Beer and the Like.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention relates to an improved process and apparatus for the manufacture of beer and the like and includes among its objects the provision of improved apparatus for aging and finishing of beer and fermented beverages, and of improved procedures for accomplishing the same.

The present invention contemplates a number of embodiments, including installations for the conversion of existing tank storage facilities to a system of continuous flow aging and without undue modification thereof. Other embodiments provide disclosures of relatively more economical construction for use in new installations, and which provide similar desirable results in the end product.

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Patent No. 2623672A: Beer Jetter

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Today in 1952, US Patent 2623672 A was issued, an invention of James H O’Neil, assigned to the Continental Can Co., for his “Beer Jetter.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The invention relates to new and useful improvements in a method of packaging beer in containers and more particularly in open top cans. The elimination of air from the head space of the container before sealing is recognized as desirable. Many expedients have been proposed and utilized for this purpose, including the directing of a jet of inert gas into the beer beneath the surface thereof through a nozzle submerged in the beer in an open top can for causing foam to ll the head space and force the air therefrom. The wide open mouth of the open top can presents difficulties when attempts are made to direct a jet of inert gas into the beer from a point above the surface of the beer, because the jetted stream entrains surrounding air which is driven into the beer along with the inert gas causing an excessive amount of air to be entrapped in the beer and foam. Also, the velocity of the jet must be controlled to avoid blowing the foam from the surface of the beer thereby causing excessive foaming and Waste of beer.

An object of the invention is to provide a method of directing inert gas into an open top can partially filled with a gas containing beverage which includes the step of first covering the mouth of the can so as to provide a closed head space with a vent opening leading to the atmosphere and then directing a jet of inert gas through the closed head space at a point above the surface of the beer at a velocity sufficient to cause the gas to penetrate the surface of the beer for causing the beer to foam and iill the head space with foam.

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Patent No. 717493A: Wort-Cooler

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Today in 1902, US Patent 717493 A was issued, an invention of Albert Zeiger, for his “Wort-Cooler.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to an apparatus for cooling wort as it comes from the kettles in the brewery; and it embodies certain novel features of construction and arrangement of parts which enables it to be used not only as a wort-cooler, but as a strainer to remove the hops from the wort, thus permitting the wort to be run directly from the cooler into the fermenting-room and dispensing with the necessity of the hopper-jack, which has heretofore been used.

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Patent No. 466310A: Wort And Yeast Aerator For Beer Vats

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Today in 1891, US Patent 466310 A was issued, an invention of Otto Hitter, for his “Wort and Yeast Aerator For Beer Vats.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

I have invented a-certain new and useful Improvement in Wort and Yeast Aerators for Beer Vats, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This apparatus is constructed and arranged consists in features of novelty hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claims. Figure I isa detail view of the aerator and shows the coupling for the air-hose, the air filter, the bulb-casing of which later forms a handle or hold for the operator, by which he directs the instrument. It also shows the inception filtered air-chamber, the supply air tube, and the compound aerating-bulb; and Fig. II is a vertical section of a brewers fermenting vat and shows the yeast and wort aerator in active operation therein.

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Patent No. 3225510A: Article Cartoning Machine

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Today in 1965, US Patent 3225510 A was issued, an invention of Robert J. Weichhand and Wickliffe Jones, for their “Article Cartoning Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to article packaging and more particularly to a machine for packing beer bottles in conventional six-pack or eight-pack cartons.

More specifically, the machine of this invention is intended for packaging beer bottles in cartons which are formed of paperboard material and which are furnished in a fiat collapsed condition. The collapsed cartons are loaded in stacked formation into a magazine, which includes mechanism for withdrawing the collapsed cartons individually from the lower portion of the magazine subsequently to be erected and loaded. In order to obtain the high loading rate, as indicated above, the bottles, which are fed in a continuous stream, are segregated into groups and the groups advanced into the erected carton from opposite ends. After being loaded with the bottles, liquid adhesive is applied to the flaps of the cartons, then the flaps are folded to a closed position and sealed before the loaded cartons are discharged from the machine.

To perfect a cartoning machine which will handle 600 to 1,200 or more bottles per minute and package them in an automatic manner, the bottles must flow in a substantially straight line continuous movement without any stopping or starting. At the rate of movement of this machine, the inertia of stopping the bottle and starting it again or of jerky acceleration and deceleration would break the bottle or at least scar and tear the paper label. It has thus been an object of this invention to provide a bottle cartoning machine which utilizes smooth acceleration and deceleration substantially straight line continuous flow of the bottles to be packaged and which eliminates abrupt impact reciprocating or oscillating elements which might break the bottle or at least scar the labels upon the bottles. It should be understood that while this machine has been described with reference to packaging bottles, it is equally adaptable to packaging other articles. Of course a machine operable to handle fragile glass is capable of handling metal containers such as beer cans.

The machine includes a series of continuous motion conveyor systems for advancing and erecting cartons after they have been withdrawn individually from the magazine. Thus, the first conveyor apparatus receives the carton blank as it is withdrawn from the bottom of the magazine and includes means for handling the flaps which project outwardly from the opposite open ends of the advancing blank. A first stage conveyor apparatus advances the blank toward a main carton transport conveyor and concurrently partially erects the carton. The partially erected carton is then transferred to a main carton conveyor and during transfer is completely erected by con- Patented Dec. 28, 1965 ice tinuously advancing spacer lugs on the main carton transport conveyor. These lugs coact with the first stage conveyor apparatus to completely erect the carton. The spacer lugs of the main carton conveyor confine the carton firmly in its erected condition and advance it toward the bottle loading zone with the several carton flaps extending outwardly to an open position to avoid any interference of the bottles as they are advanced into the open end of the erected carton.

As the erected carton advances to the loading zone, six cans (or eight cans in the case of an eight-pack) are fed laterally from a pair of parallel bottle conveyors into the opposite ends of the carton by stationary converging guide rails. The bottles are segregated into groups of three each (or four in the case of an eight-pack) and fed into the carton. The segregating mechanism consists of restraining fingers which enter in front of every third bottle. These restraining fingers move at a slower rate than the bottle conveyors so that the restraining fingers slow the movement of the bottles. The down stream finger then releases a group of three which move away from the finger or move downstream at a rate determined by the bottle conveyor which is moving faster than the restrained bottles. As soon as the group of three bottles have moved downstream so as to establish a gap between the restrained bottles and the unrestrained ones, spacer fingers enter the gap so as to maintain the spacing between the now grouped bottles. Guide rails then force the group of bottles across a continuously moving bucket conveyor which maintains the spacing of the groups and into the open sides of the cartons. After the bottles are loaded into the carton, liquid adhesive is supplied to the flaps and the flaps are folded to a closed position and sealed as the carton advances toward the discharge end of the machine.

A further objective of the invention has been to provide an improved segregating mechanism for forming articles into groups while advancing the articles toward a packaging zone where the segregated groups are fed transversely into the open end of an advancing carton.

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Patent No. 1013057A: Keg-Rinsing Machine

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Today in 1911, US Patent 1013057 A was issued, an invention of George Denison Prentice, for his “Keg-Rinsing Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention is a machine for rinsing or washing out casks, kegs, or other receptacles, the same being caused to operate automatically by the weight of a cask or keg placed in due position on the ,machine, and requiring no attention or manipulation. Water is discharged into a cask or keg when placed on a depressible support and over a perforated nozzle. When the keg-support is depressed it opens a water-discharge valve and raises a weighted piston in a cylinder or dash-pot, and the time required for descent .of the piston to its original position determines the time of discharge of water into the keg. I thus provide for automatic discharge of water into a keg for rinsing the same and for automatic regulation of the time during which said discharge shall continue.

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Patent No. 531314A: Process Of And Apparatus For Preparing Beer

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Today in 1894, US Patent 531314 A was issued, an invention of A.M. Hofmann, for his “Process of and Apparatus for Preparing Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

It may be stated at the outset that I have primarily designed my improvement for the particular application to beer in barrels or kegs orin bottles, and I therefore, and for the sake of convenience, hereinafter confine the description of my invention in its application to racking, carbonating and bunging beer, though it is also applicable to, and I desire to be understood as intending it for, any and all liquids or beverages requiring similar treatment to prepare them in receptacles for the market.

A known manner of carbonating a beverage to prepare it for the market is to introduce into the holder containing it a liquid (preferably of the same kind) in small quantity proportionately to the quantity contained in the holder, but so highly charged with the gas, for which -,it affords a vehicle and a mixing or incorporating medium, as to supply the contents of the receptacle,and thoroughly impregnate them, with a charge of gas adequate for all requirements in the beverage.

I find that where the carbonating procedure referred to is employed on beer, the diffusion of the gas through the beer in the receptacle, however thoroughly it may be produced, is not lasting where the receptacle is not completely, or at least approximately, filled with the beer to be charged, which it rarely is; since the space left on filled affords, as it were, a pocket, in which the gas tends to accumulate, and whence it quickly escapes on opening or venting the receptacle, leaving the beer, when poured or drawn for consumption, insufficiently carbonated. Incomplete filling of the receptacles is, perhaps, as likely of occurrence where the receptacles are glass bottles as where they are barrels or kegs, notwithstanding that the transparent nature of the former renders the matter of completely filling them readily accomplishable.

My process consists in withdrawing from a .receptacle after filling it with beer (taken by preference directly from the cask) a suitably small proportion of its contents, and replacing the quantity thus withdrawn with an equal, or approximately equal, quantity of liquid highly charged with gas, thereby, practically, withdrawing the desired quantity from the receptacle, then charging it excessively with gas, and returning to the receptacle the same liquid, charged, that was withdrawn from it. Thus, after a receptacle has been completely filled, or substantially so, with the beer to be carbonated, (and complete filling of a barrel or keg is a matter as simple as filling a bottle) by withdrawing ascertain quantity to make room or the charge, and replacing it with an equal or substantially equal quantity of the supercharged carbonating liquid, the desirably full condition of the receptacles is attained.

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Patent No. 664824A: Cold Air Pressure Apparatus For Beer

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Today in 1900, US Patent 664824 A was issued, an invention of Gottlieb Schmidt, for his “Cold Air Pressure Apparatus For Beer or Other Fluids.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to an apparatus involving an air-chamber and a refrigerator adapted more particularly for cooling beer or other fluid, wherein cold air will be directed under pressure to said fluid where it is to be dispensed, the construction and operation of the parts thereof being hereinafter set forth, and the novel features thereof pointed out in the claims.

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And here are the original drawings filed with the application:
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Patent No. 2225996A: Beer Foam Control Device

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Today in 1940, US Patent 2225996 A was issued, an invention of Carl W. Johnson, for his “Beer Foam Control Device.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to devices for controlling the amount of foam on beverages which are maintained in storage containers under gaseous pressure, and is particularly adaptable for use in connection with the dispensing of malt beverages such as beer and ale.

One of the difficulties encountered in the dispensing of malt beverages has been the inability to control the foam or cap which forms on the beer when it is drawn into a glass or other container. It is desirable to maintain beer in a keg under relatively high pressures to prevent the beer from becoming flat, the pressure applied to the liquid serving to retain the natural gases formed in the beer during the fermentation thereof. Heretofore it has been found, however, that beer cannot be placed under very much pressure because it will cause foaming with the result that the person dispensing the beverage must scrape a considerable quantity of foam off the top of the beer in a glass, and that part which is removed is wasted.

It is, therefore, a general object of my invention to provide a device for controlling the amount of foam which is produced in dispensing beverages, such as beer, in. order that the beverage may be maintained under relatively high pressure to prevent it from becoming flat, and at the same time permit it to be dispensed with very little foam or cap thereon.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device which can be easily adjusted to meet different pressure conditions in order that a uniform amount of foam will be produced at all times.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device of this general type which is of extremely simple construction and which can be readily cleaned to maintain the original flavor of the beer.

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Patent No. 2225996A: Stationary Beer Container

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Today in 1985, US Patent 2225996 A was issued, an invention of Hubertus J. Souren, assigned to Grolsche Bierbrouwerij B.V., for his “Stationary Beer Container.” Here’s the Abstract:

A stationary beer container having upper and lower end connections coupled with a flow line coupling and valve assembly adapted to cooperate with a standard beer tap head used with barrels or kegs. The flow line coupling and housing assembly of the invention is connected with a line to the lower end of the beer container and a vertical line to the upper end of the container including a transparent section for determining the beer level in the container. The same type of tap head is used for tapping beer from the container, filing the container, and cleaning the container.

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