Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 3216345A: Continuous Preparation Of Brewers’ Mash

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Today in 1965, US Patent 3216345 A was issued, an invention of William Ernest Parker and Francis Lloyd Rigby, assigned to Canadian Breweries Ltd., for their “Continuous Preparation of Brewers’ Mash.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The apparatus provides means for forming a continuously flowing mash producing stream of grist and water, causing said stream to flow in a substantially horizontal path, heating said mixture to predetermined processing temperature, agitating said stream in a direction normal to its path of flow to maintain solids in suspension, venting said stream of undesirable volatiles above said path of flow, and continuously discharging matured mash. Preferably the apparatus allows the mash to be processed along its path of flow in a plurality of series-connected processing zones linearly adjustable for variation of treatment as to control the production of dextrins, fermentable sugars and protein degradation products, coupled with varied temperature treatment as between the zones if and when required to achieve the product desired.

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Patent No. 3846397A: Process For Utilizing Barley Malt

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Today in 1974, US Patent 3846397 A was issued, an invention of John H. Ernster, for his “Process For Utilizing Barley Malt.” Here’s the Abstract:

Grain residues from mashed barley malt are separated from wort thereby produced and heated in an alkaline solution to solubilize protein. The alkaline solution is separated from the unsolubilized grain residues and acidified to precipitate water soluble protein. Beer is brewed from the wort and the unsolubilized grain residue can be used as animal feed.

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Patent No. 1043683A: Hose-Coupling

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Today in 1912, US Patent 1043683 A was issued, an invention of Jacob A. Fieser, for his “Hose-Coupling.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

I have invented certain new and useful Improvements in hose-couplings; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which its improvements in swiveled couplings for hose pipes forming means whereby the different sections of the pipe may be turned to prevent twisting.

The invention consists further of other details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be hereinafter fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings and then specifically defined in the appended claim.

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Patent No. 8875616B2: Facility For Introducing Hop Into A Tank

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Today in 2014, US Patent 8875616 B2 was issued, an invention of Wolfgang Roth, assigned to Rolec Prozess – Und Brautechnik Gmbh, for his “Facility for Introducing Hop into a Tank.” Here’s the Abstract:

A facility for introducing hop into a tank has a hop receiving tank that can be hermetically sealed and has an outflow and an inert gas supply at its bottom. The facility furthermore has a mixing apparatus that has two inlet pipes on its inflow side and an outlet pipe on the outflow side. This facility is adapted to a method for introducing hop into a tank, in which hop is put into a hop receiving container, air is expelled from the hop receiving container by inert gas and the hop with beer or “young beer” is supplied to the mixing apparatus.

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Patent Nos. 938577A & 938578A: Process Of & Machine For Bottling Beer

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Today in 1909, two patents were issued: US Patent 938577 A for “Process of Bottling Beer” and US Patent 938578 A for “Machine For Bottling Beer.” Both were patented by Rudolf Gull, and the drawings filed with each application are identical, except for the titles. There’s no Abstract for either patent, although in the description it includes this summary:

Patent 938577 A: Process of Bottling Beer

1. The improvement in the method of bottling beer consisting in maintaining in the bottles while they are being filled with beer, and independent of the flow of the beer, a higher gaseous pressure than on the surface of the suplly or column of beer with which the bottles are filled, and changing such hi her pressure at predetermined intervals during the time the beer is entering the bottles, substantially as set forth.

2. The improvement in the method of bottling beer consisting in maintaining successively in the bottles while they are being filled with beer two or more distinctly different gaseous pressures each one of which is successively maintained in a substantially constant proportion to the gaseous pressure on the column of beer, substantially as set forth.

3. The improvement in the method of bottling beer, consisting in maintaining in the bottles while they are being filled a higher gaseous pressure than that on the column of beer from which the bottles are filled, and in maintaining such higher gaseous pressure within the bottles at such a’ proportion to the gaseous pressure on the column of beer that the surplus of pressure in’ the bottle over the gaseous pressure on the column of beer balances the weight of the column of beer above the level of beer in the bottle as soon as the beer in the bottle reaches a predetermined level.

938578 A: Machine For Bottling Beer

Bottling the beer to flow from the tank into the bottles and permitting also the passage of air from the tank, above the beer, to the bottles, so as to have the same air pressure in both tank and bottles at or before the time the valves are opened, thus permitting the beer to flow by gravity from the tank into the bottles the height of the beer column above the end of the filling spout, the width of the filling spout and the size of the air vent through which the air escapes from the bottles when the beer enters regulating the flow of the beer into the bottles.

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Patent No. 132574A: Improvement In The Manufacture Of Beer (a.k.a. “California Pop Beer”)

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Today in 1872, US Patent 132574 A was issued, an invention of Charles C. Haley, for his “Improvement In The Manufacture Of Beer, which in the application he names his improved beverage “California Pop Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although this is such an interesting one that I’m showing the entire application below, which also includes a recipe of sorts.

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I think someone could probably make this beer, assuming homebrewers haven’t already taken up the challenge, even though it appears there is some general instruction, it seems like educated guesses would have to be made to fill in the unknowns.

This invention consists in a compound of the ingredients hereinafter named, used in the manner and in the proportions substantially as described, to form an improved beverage which I have denominated California Pop Beer.

In the manufacture of beer according to my invention, I first prepare the yeast as follows: For one hundred and five gallons of beer, I take of wheat flour three-quarters of a pound and dissolve it in one quart of cold water, and one ounce of hops steeped one hour in two quarts of water, and afterward strained. The dissolved wheat flour and the steeped hops are then mixed together, and the mixture is steeped for half an hour. It is then allowed to cool to the temperature of 88 Fahrenheit, after which three ounces of ground malt and one half an ounce of pure spirits are added, and the mixture allowed to stand for twelve hours.

The essence is next prepared as follows: To five ounces of alcohol I add one-half an ounce of oil of Wintergreen, one-third of an ounce of oil of Sassafras, and one-third of an ounce of oil of spruce, roughly mixed.

The yeast and essence having been thus prepared, the manufacture of the beer is proceeded with as follows: I take one-half a pound of hops, fourteen ounces of chemically prepared cream of tartar, and one-half pound of African ginger-root. These are placed in a suitable tub and steeped with ten gallons of water one hour, after which seventy pounds of granulated sugar are added. The essence prepared as above stated is now added to the mixture in the tub, and the con tents are brought to a heat of about 90; and, at this point, the yeast first prepared is poured in and the mixture allowed to stand for four hours. It is then bottled, and after standing for three days it is ready for use. The beer thus prepared is a superior and harmless beverage.

It also appears that it was sold commercially, and must have been popular enough, since it’s often referred to as “Haley’s Celebrated California Pop Beer.”

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Of course, that could be an early form of advertising puffery. Haley himself was apparently from Troy, New York and so it seems likely his brewery, “C. Haley & Co.” was located there as well, although I’m on the road and don’t have my American Breweries II book for reference and nothing’s coming up online in a cursory search. There are, however, several examples of the name appearing on bottles, generally in the northeast, primarily from New York and New Jersey.

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It seems curious that something not from California was named “California Pop Beer.” Was there some reputation California would have had at that time period that made naming the beer this way make sense?

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Some bottles even include the date that the patent was approved.

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And seems clear that multiple breweries made “California Pop Beer,” as here’s one from Brooklyn. It was brewed by G.B. Selmers, located at “104 & 106 So. 8th St. Brooklyn, ED.”

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So who wants to step up and brew “California Pop Beer?” Maybe it should be someone actually in California this time?

SABInMillerBev, or “A Brief History Of Big Beer”

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Niall, at the Missing Drink, has an interesting post about the possible buyout of SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Entitled A Brief History of Big Beer, he provides some analysis of the deal, but I especially like his helpful chart of the M&A of all the major players, which is below. It’s great to see them laid out to encapsulate the history of those big deals, especially in recent decades.

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Click here to see the chart full size.

Here’s his clever take on what the newly minted entity might be called, and what a new alphabet soup logo might look like. It was genius taking the “AB” from ABI and putting it with the “S” from SAB. It certainly will be interesting to see what new name (and logo) does emerge if the deal ultimately goes through.

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Patent No. EP0138341B1: Beer And Other Beverages And Their Manufacture

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Today in 1988, US Patent EP 0138341 B1 was issued, an invention of Charles William Bamforth and Roy Cope, assigned to the Bass Public Limited Company, for their “Beer and Other Beverages and Their Manufacture.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to beer and other beverages and to their manufacture. In particular the invention is concerned with the incorporation into a beverage of an additive enabling the beverage to have a head formed on it or to improve the quality of the head that can be formed on it.

The invention is primarily applicable to beer, and the term beer is used herein to designate generally any of a variety of alcoholic beverages made by the fermentation of hopped malt wort; it thus includes within its scope ales, lagers and stouts. Beer itself is normally dispensed with a head, but there are also other beer-like beverages that are, like beer, bright and without haze and that are normally dispensed with a head to which the invention is also particularly applicable, these including beverages which include little or no alcohol but otherwise resemble beer quite closely.

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Their claims for the patent are also listed as follows:

1. A method of modifying or improving beer or other beverage, the beverage being bright and without haze, which method comprises the step of incorporating in the beverage concerned an additive enabling the beverage to have a head formed on it or to improve the quality of the head that can be formed on it, the additive comprising protein fragments made by the partial hydrolysis of protein material, and the method being characterised in that the protein material comprises egg albumen and is added in an effective amount to improve or cause head formation without inducing haze formation.

2. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that the additive is formed as an aqueous solution.

3. A method according to claim 2 characterised in that the additive also contains a minor addition of ethyl alcohol.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the additive comprises fragments of protein material separated from any remaining unsevered protein material.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the beverage is made by a process including a fermentation stage and in which the additive is added at a stage later than the fermentation stage.

6. A method according to claim 5 characterised in that the beverage is beer.

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Patent No. 4055202A: In-Case Bottle Filling Apparatus

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Today in 1977, US Patent 4055202 A was issued, an invention of James Albert Greene, for his “In-Case Bottle Filling Apparatus.” Here’s the Abstract:

A bottle filling device which raises in-case bottles to be filled to engagement with a fill valve assembly which controls fluid communication between a fill tube inserted into each bottle and a pressurized fill tank. Cup members, which engage the bottle openings in fill position, communicate with a vacuum line, such that the combination of pressurized fill source and air-evacuated bottles realizes extremely fast filling. The fill tubes are the shafts of respective double acting fluid pressure operated cylinders of simple construction which position a port in the fill tube upper wall extremes within the fill tank confines or within pressure sealing cylinder end bushings to define respective open and closed fill-valve conditions.

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I Know What I Love

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Although I was blissfully ignorant of CAMRA in its earliest days — drinking American beer in Pennsylvania while in junior high and high school — my understanding is that it was not always as popular as it later became. And it certainly wasn’t universally beloved by many breweries, since they were moving toward keg beer which was much cheaper to produce and away from cask-conditioned beer, or real ale. It took a small dedicated group to convince brewers, and many ambivalent consumers, that real ale was worth preserving so British beer didn’t end up tasting like America of the 1970s. But there were critics of CAMRA almost from the get go, as recently detailed in a post by Boak & Bailey entitled A Brief History of CAMRA Bashing.

I didn’t follow all of Boak & Bailey’s thread on Twitter this morning, apart from finding part of a script from what they believed was a “c.1978 anti-‘real ale’ propaganda film starring Bernard Cribbins.” They were fishing to see if anybody might have more information about the movie.

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It turned out the film was from 1973, and a follower (thanks Cliff) found the actual film online, courtesy of the East Anglican Film Archive . The film is titled “I Know What I Love,” which is curiously very close to the title of a song from the Genesis album Selling England By the Pound, also released in 1973. That was “I Know What I Like,” but still, it was my first thought since I was a big fan of the band back then.

It’s a fairly goofy film, but also very interesting the way beer and brewing is presented. Bernard Cribbins, a reasonably well-known British character actor plays all of the major parts, explaining how beer is made. If you watch a lot of British TV or films, you’ve probably seen him. He’s made appearances in “The Avengers,” “Fawlty Towers,” “Doctor Who” and “Coronation Street,” and was in the films “The Railway Children,” “Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River,” the 1967 Bond film “Casino Royale” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy.”

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Here’s the description from the film’s webpage at the EAFA:

Presented by The Brewers’ Society and featuring Bernard Cribbins in multiple roles, the documentary explains the process of brewing beer, from the pasture to the pint.

After ordering a pint at his local and taking a sip, the actor Bernard Cribbins sets out to explain the brewing process, with a little help from some of his ‘relatives’ in the industry, all played by Cribbins himself. One ‘cousin’ explains the malting process, where barley is germinated and malted, whilst another talks about hops, which contribute to the flavour of beer. His ‘uncle’, who works in a traditional brewery, explains the process, from the spurging of barley in mush tuns to the addition of hops, followed by yeast to aid fermentation, before the beer is conditioned and siphoned into casks.

Brewing on an industrial scale is also explained by Cribbins, with the help of one ‘relative’ who grows large amounts of barley, and a ‘distant relative’ who works as a technician at a large brewer. The film concludes with a glimpse at pub life, with a variety of environments catering for a range of tastes, but linked together by one thing: beer. With the process explained, Cribbins heads back to the bar for another pint, which is pulled by the governor, his ‘father’.

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It was created by the Rank Short Films Group and sponsored by the Brewers’ Society. The director was James Allen from a script by Michael Barnes and the only actor credited is Bernard Cribbins. It doesn’t strike me as particularly anti-real ale, but maybe there’s some nuance I’m missing. They certainly try to allay fears that stainless steel, and modern brewing methods didn’t change the beer they produced. The humor seems a little forced, and not particularly witty, more mildly amusing than funny.

Unfortunately, the archive doesn’t allow their films to be embedded but you can go to their website and watch it online, which I highly recommend. It runs around seventeen minutes, and is certainly an interesting look at brewing at a particular time in recent history.

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