Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 20110274785A1: Method And System For Producing A Malt Beverage Having A High Degree Of Fermentation

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Today in 2011, US Patent 20110274785 A1 was issued, an invention of Bert Boyce, C. James Koch, David Grinnell, and Martin Zarnkow, assigned to the Boston Beer Corporation, for their “Method and System for Producing a Malt Beverage Having a High Degree of Fermentation.” Here’s the Abstract:

Exemplary embodiments of a brewing method and system are provided, where a mixture comprising water and milled malt are mixed to produce a primary mash, and wort is produced from the primary mash. A supernatant liquid is obtained comprising active enzymes from a secondary mash, and the supernatant liquid is added from the secondary mash to the wort, and/or the supernatant liquid can be added to fermented wort after yeast is added to the wort.

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Patent No. 169830A: Improvement In Treating Beer

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Today in 1875, US Patent 169830 A was issued, an invention of Friedrich C. Mussgiller and Robert W. Schneider, for their “Improvement In Treating Beer and Other Liquids.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

have invented a new and useful Improvement in Treating Beer and other Liquids, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification:

This invention consists in treating beer and other liquids of a similar nature with lumps of bicarbonate of soda, or other alkali, said lumps being compacted by means of a suitable cement, so that their specific gravity exceeds that of the liquid to be treated, and that, when one or more such lumps are dropped into the liquid, they sink down to the bottom of the vessel containing the liquid, and that the carbonic acid evolved from said lumps is compelled to permeate the body of the liquid, and at the same time, by forming said lumps of suitable sizes, the quantity of alkaline matter introduced into a certain quantity of liquid can be easily controlled. Together with the alkaline lumps, may be used lumps of tartaric or other suitable acid, compacted in the same manner as the alkaline lumps, so that the amount of carbonic acid evolved from said alkaline lumps can be easily kept under control.

It is a common practice with brewers, and others, to use bicarbonate of soda, either alone or together with tartaric acid, in the manufacture of beer, sparkling wines, and other effervescent liquids, for the purpose of increasing the life of such liquids.

The mode of applying such article or articles-by brewers, for instance is to put about one ounce of the bicarbonate of soda to each quarter barrel with a table-spoon, the bicarbonate employed being in the form of a powder.

It is obvious that this way of operating must produce a great many irregularities as to the taste and reaction of the beer on the human body. The addition of too much bicarbonate of soda will impart to the beer an in the following specific alkaline taste; too little will leave it acid.

Furthermore, the alkaline powder, on being thrown into a barrel of beer, will float on the surface of the liquid, and immediately evolve carbonic acid, a large portion of which is lost, together With the beer which is thrown out by the action of the acid, before the barrel can be closed by a bung. Besides this, the operation of filling barrels is carried on in a great hurry, and a large quantity of the soda handled with a spoon is spilled over the barrel and wasted.

If the brewers wish their beer to contain a large quantity of tartaric acid, they throw into each barrel a few crystals of tartaric acid in addition to an increased quantity of bicarbonate of soda. The result of this operation is that each barrel has different properties, there being no precaution taken to control the quantities of soda and of acid.

These disadvantages we have obviated by preparing both the alkali and the acid in solid lumps of greater specific gravity than that of the liquid in which they are to be used, and of different specific sizes. This object We obtain by mixing the powdered alkali or acid with a suitable cement, such as a solution of dextrine, and then compressing the same in molds of suitable size and shape.

The advantage of using the alkali or acid in this shape is perceptible at once. The lumps of alkali or acid being in compact form when dropped into a barrel filled with beer, ale, or other liquid, will sink to the bottom, and the carbonic acid evolved from them is forced to stay in the liquid. The barrel can be easily closed by a bung without losing a. particle of carbonic acid, or of beer, and the alkali and acid can be introduced into the barrel without any waste. Besides this, the weight or size of our lumps is so gaged that each barrel Will receive the exact quantity of alkali and of acid required, and that the liquid in a number of barrels, after having been treated with the alkali and acid, will be of uniform quality.

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Patent No. 249332A: Mixture Or Grist For Brewing Purposes

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Today in 1881, US Patent 249332 A was issued, an invention of Francis J. Geis, for his “Mixture or Grist for Brewing Purposes.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention consists in a mixture or grist for brewing malt-liquors, composed of malt and cereals or grain having the cellulose or integument and germ or heart removed, the cereals or grain constituting from about twenty-five to fifty per centum, by weight, of the said mixture or grist.The cereals or grains thus treated have the oily and other objectionable matter removed, but contain the maximum amount of starch and the necessary albumenoids and gluten.

In carrying out my invention I prefer to remove the cellulose or integument and germ or heart of the cereals or grain by means of mechanism which is another invention of mine, and for which I intend to apply for Letters of Patent.

Before brewing I substitute for preferably from twenty-five to fifty per centum of the weight of malt ordinarily employed to produce a given quantity of the beverage alike weight of the prepared cereals or grain, and mix the two to form a grist. I then subject the combined mass of malt and cereals or grain to treatment by any suitable one of the usual methods employed in the manufacture of lager-beer, beer, ale, porter, or other malt-liquor, according as I desire to produce either of those beverages. I have found that one hundred pounds of the prepared cereals or grain will equal one hundred and thirty-six pounds of malt in extractor wort (the liquor that runs or is produced before fermentation) for the beverage, and as the prepared cereals or grain are much the cheaper,it is obvious that by means of employing this substitute I very materially cheapen the cost of the beverage. A larger and better quality of yeast of a uniform and vigorous character also results from the use of the prepared cereals or grain.

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Session #117: Predicting The Future Of Beer

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The 117th Session, is hosted this month by Csaba Babak, who writes the British beer blog Beer Means Business. For his topic, he’s chosen More, More, More, by which he’s asking us all to “paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.”

Here’s his full description of the topic:

I have always been obsessed with asking what happens next or what is still ahead instead of simply embracing what is in the present. Ever since I heard about Beer Blogging Fridays, I have been toying with the idea of hosting a Session to paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.

This month, Beer Means Business has the honour to host The Session and to make this happen. The final picture of Beer Future will be based on what you think we will see MORE of.

Over the last 10 years, numerous topics have been presented and the bloggers who discussed them expressed a rich diversity of perspectives or specific areas of interest. Therefore, I refrain from giving you further ideas or examples. There are no limits in time, space or nature either. I would like you to let your imagination free, and capture ONE thing you think we will see MORE of with an explanation of the idea.

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So this month’s Session will be short, both by necessity and because I think the answer to this month’s question has a relatively short answer.

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So, looking into my crystal ball, I have two observations.

1. Predictions are a fool’s errand. None of us can really say what the future will hold. Oh, we can make educated guesses, even back them up with charts, history or trend indicators. And I’ll even admit it can be fun to try. But in the end, the future rarely ever looks anything close to what think it will. To wit: where is my flying car that folds into a briefcase? A great quote that illustrates how off predictions can be comes from Joe Owades. Owades, in addition to creating low-calorie diet beer (a.k.a. light beer), helped several early small brewers with their recipes. In April of 1987 he said. “No microbrewer in his right mind should make wheat beer. Five years from now it will be dead (as a commercial product).” Wheat beers of all kinds seem to be doing very nicely, thank you very much. Though not beer-related, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once quipped that “no one will ever need more than 64K RAM.” And these were both smart people who were well-respected members of their industries, knew a lot about their subject matter, yet failed utterly to grasp where the future was heading. I also happen to think (a hunch really) that even most predictions that turned out to be correct were the result of blind luck. So lots of predictions continue to fail, and will continue to fail, and maybe a few will turn out to be correct, but not enough to know who you should listen to and who to ignore. So I think it’s best to ignore them all and follow what you personally like, what speaks to you. At least that way you’ll be happy. There is, however, one thing I believe I can safely predict for the near future, and even the distant future. Then again, maybe I’m wrong.

2. People will still be drinking beer, and with a little luck, more of it will be beer with flavor.

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Patent No. 773573A: Automatic Filling Machine

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Today in 1904, US Patent 773573 A was issued, an invention of William Koedding, assigned to the William J. Lemp Brewing Company, 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 fill bottles from a tank containing liquid undergaseous pressure, to open communication between the bottle and the gas-filled portion of the tank before the liquid is admitted and to continue it after the liquid is cut ofi’, to regulate the admission of gas under pressure to the tank, to fill bottles automatically, and other objects hereinafter appearing.

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Patent No. 635925A: Machine For Preparing Finings

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Today in 1899, US Patent 635925 A was issued, an invention of William J Gindele, for his “Machine For Preparing Finings.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to a machine for preparing that form of gelatin which is known as finings and which is extensively employed for clarifying beer and other beverages; and the object of my invention is to provide a simple, efficient, and inexpensive machine by means of which finings may be prepared by a simple and direct process and without the employment of the heavy manual labor now ordinarily required.

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The Beer Tourism Index

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Undoubtedly beer tourism is growing phenomenon, and has been for some time. Fifteen years ago, when I was GM of the Celebrator Beer News, the “Hopspots” sections were the most popular in the brewspaper, as many readers reported that they always kept one in their car when they travelled to help them find a beer spot (remember that was before smartphones and GPS were ubiquitous). I know for at least thirty years I’ve been including beer destinations any time I travel, even before I did so as part of my profession. Having that information at your fingertips through apps, websites and GPS has only helped to increase beer travel, I think, and at least part of the success of beer weeks has to do with the goal of bringing tourism to specific geographic areas; essentially making the week the destination rather than a side trip. So it’s interesting to see that a popular travel website, Travelocity, is not only recognizing how beer people travel, but has created a Beer Tourism Index to rank the Top Beer Destinations, dividing them by large and small metro areas (though I’m surprised they consider Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Lancaster PA and a few others as “large”). Also somewhat curious is the total absence of the San Francisco Bay Area, or even San Francisco or Oakland/East Bay in the listings. What’s especially odd about that is that San Francisco is one of the top tourist destination cities (it’s number two according to EscapeHere and #5 according to TripAdvisor and #3 via Business Insider). At any rate, according to their press release.

By examining the location of all breweries in the U.S. and looking at other factors important to a successful “beercation,” including the availability of rideshare services, accessibility via air, and the average cost of lodging, this index identified the best large and small metro areas to sample some of the nation’s best craft beers.

Here’s the full list below:

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And here’s the criteria used to arrive at this list:

*To find the top metropolitan areas for beer tourism, Travelocity scored the over 300 US MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) on four factors:

  • Breweries per 1 million residents: Working with the Brewers Association (an organization representing the majority of independent brewers in the US), every MSA was scored by the number of breweries and brewpubs per 1 million residents
  • Rideshare availability: To get a full sampling of a region’s beer culture, a beer tourist may need to visit multiple breweries across the area. Rideshare services like Uber or Lyft are invaluable for this, so each MSA was scored on availability of both, either, or neither of these services.
  • Nonstop air destinations: If the MSA has an airport with scheduled air service – from how many destinations is nonstop service available?
  • Lodging score: Each MSA was scored on the price of an average room night for the 2015 calendar year. The lower the price, the higher the score for the MSA.

The Brewers Association also released a joint press release, adding:

Beer tourism is a big deal. We estimate that in 2014, more than 10 million people toured small and independent craft breweries. That’s a lot of brewery tours. Just search “beercations” and you’ll get a plethora of results on where to tour local breweries.

More than 7 percent of craft sales (by volume) now happen at the source—the brewery. Craft brewers are now a main attraction for travelers. For example, in 2015, the Brewers Association’s three-day Great American Beer Festival generated the equivalent of 2 percent of Denver’s GDP, accounting for $28.6 million. Beer tourism is so strong that travel website Travelocity just published a beer tourism index.

In a Travelocity survey of 1,003 people, more than three-quarters said they would like to go on a trip where they visited craft breweries and sampled local beer. With numerous beer trails flourishing across the U.S. and beer events including festivals and special beer releases racking up millions upon millions of tourism trips and dollars, the modern beercation is a boon to beer.

The Brewers Association commissioned a Nielsen Omnibus panel in June 2016 that asked, “How many, if any, craft breweries have you visited at their site in the past 12 months while traveling?” The answer: on average 2.1 breweries. Impressive.

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Patent No. 1202662A: Condensing Apparatus

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Today in 1916, US Patent 1202662 A was issued, an invention of Thomas Breheny, for his “Condensing Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

This invention relates to an apparatus for preserving the volatile hop essences or aromas coming from the copper or boiler in which the wort is boiled with the hops in order to improve the quality of the beer and like brews.

The method and apparatus comprised in the present invention consists in arranging a specially constructed condenser in communication with the top of a copper whereby the vapor arising from the heated contents of the latter will pass to and be condensed in the former.

The condensed vapor or steam is delivered to a supplementary cooling .coil and thence to a mixing chamber where it is brought into contact with the non-condensable or practically non-condensable odoriferous gases for fumes which pass from the upper end of the condenser and are collected and delivered to the said chamber in a convenient way.

The liquid resulting from the condensation of the steam or vapor given out from the copper absorbs the aroma of the odoriferous gases or fumes in the mixing chamber and as a result is richer in flavor and aroma than the original liquid contents of the said copper. The liquid is conveyed. from the mixing chamber to an open vessel or chamber from which it is delivered to a ferment ing vat.

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Patent No. 3767829A: Method For Warming Carbonated Beverages In Sealed Containers

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Today in 1973, US Patent 3767829 A was issued, an invention of Fred A. Karr, for his “Method for Warming Carbonated Beverages in Sealed Containers.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

A method and apparatus are provided for continuously heating to ambient temperatures the contents of a plurality of sealed containers (e.g. bottles or cans) filled with carbonated beverage (e.g. beer and carbonated soft drinks). The method is useful as applied to containers freshly filled with cold carbonated beverage to avoid the formation of condensation on the containers. The method is also applicable to heating a beverage to pasteurizing temperatures from either cold filling or room temperature.

One embodiment of the apparatus include a conveyor formed of an endless perforate heat-resistive conveyor having upper and lower runs, and an elongated open-bottomed tunnel oven disposed above said upper run having side walls adapted to retain beverage containers carried by said upper run. Elongated stationary, dry-heating means disposed between upper and lower conveyor runs below the oven means are provided to supply a plurality of beverage containers to the upstream end of said upper run for movement through said oven. In this manner, the underside of the beverage containers are preferentially heated. Control means are associated with the heating means capable of adjusting the heat intensity along the container path of travel. One embodiment of the dry heater means includes a plurality of infrared heater elements transverse to the direction of travel of the conveyor with each element including an upper heat radiating surface and air-fuel gas mixture feed. Another embodiment of the dry heating means includes a plurality of spaced apart rows of open-flame natural draft burners capable of impinging upon the underside of the beverage containers.

In another embodiment of the apparatus, the conveyor is of vibratory type. The upstream end of the deck of the vibratory conveyor is disposed proximate and transverse to an infeed conveyor and the discharge end of the deck is proximate and transverse to a discharge conveyor so that the containers are conveyed directly to and from the conveyor deck without the interposition of a deadplate.

According to the process, the sealed containers filled with carbonated beverages are moved on a conveyor of one of the above types over a dry heat source so that the dry heat emitted therefrom impinges upon the underside of the containers to heat the carbonated beverage therein in progression proceeding from the bottom toward the top of the containers so that an elevation of the temperature of the beverage is induced while permitting the head space to remain relatively cool. Heating the beverage before the gaseous head space reduces the danger of superheating the gaseous head space and also eliminates the requirement of transmitting heat through the poorly-conductive gaseous head space in order to warm the beverage. The containers on a vibratory conveyor are vibrated sufficiently to increase heat transfer by convection from the bottom toward the top of the container.

In general, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for warming carbonated beverage in containers of either the glass bottle or metal can type to avoid the formation of condensation on the containers.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus elevating the temperature of beer in a container of the above type to a value at which pasteurization can occur and which also overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.

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Patent No. 3407121A: Fermenter Yeast Cropping And Washing Device

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Today in 1968, US Patent 3407121 A was issued, an invention of Gerald Einar Wilson and Louis A. Le Seelleur, assigned to John Labatt Breweries, for their “Fermenter Yeast Cropping and Washing Device.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

A fermenter vessel containing a yeast cropping and cleaning device consisting of a rotatable header pipe in the upper portion of the vessel with an end of the pipe extending outside the vessel and a series of orifices opening from the header into the vessel. The orifice outlets are offset a substantial distance radially from the axis of rotation of the header pipe either by providing an offset portion in the header pipe itself or by providing a series of branch pipes extending laterally from the header pipe with nozzles on the outer ends thereof. Conduit means connected to the external end of said header pipe by means of a connector and suction means associated with said conduit for cropping the yeast.

This invention relates to a yeast cropping and washing device for closed fermenting vessels used in the brewing industry.

The fermentation of wort is one of the most important steps in the brewing process. Brewers yeast, having the ability to assimilate simple nitrogenous compounds and reproduce and break down sugars to carbon dioxide and alcohol are introduced into the wort, whereupon through a controlled biological fermentation process, the wort is transformed into beer. The fermentation of wort is usually an operation carried out under relatively low pressure (1-3 p.s.i.g.) in large metal fermenting vessels capable of holding thousands of gallons of wort. The modern fermenting vessel is a closed vessel such as that described in applicants co-pending application entitled, Multipurpose Process Vessel for Heat Transfer Operations.

During the fermentation, top fermenting yeast forms on the surface of the liquid in the vessel and this is normally removed by skimming or is allowed to work over the rim of a tank into chutes or troughs. In the closed vessel it is, of course, necessary to use some form of yeast cropping device and according to the present invention a new device has been developed which can be used both for cropping yeast from the surface of the beer in the fermenter and for cleaning the fermenter after the beer has been removed.

The cropping and cleaning device according to this invention consists of a horizontally extending pipe which is rotatable within the fermenter and the rotatable pipe has a series of orifices which are adapted to draw off yeast from the fermenter or to spray cleaning solution into the fermenter. The pipe is arranged such that by rotating it the elevation of the orifices can be varied to permit the yeast to be drawn off to the desired level. One end of the rotatable pipe has a fluid connection to an external pipe through a connector which permits relative rotation between the two pipes while fluid is passing through. Suitable valve means are provided so that cleaning solution can be forced into the vessel or yeast can be drawn out of the vessel through the connector and rotatable pipe.

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