Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. WO2008101298A1: Brewing Apparatus And Method

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Today in 2008, US Patent WO 2008101298 A1 was issued, an invention of Allan K. Wallace, assigned to Coopers Brewery Limited, for his “Brewing Apparatus and Method.” Here’s the Abstract:

The specification discloses brewing apparatus and a method for testing for end of fermentation of a fermenting brew. It has been determined that, once fermentation is complete, the temperature of a brew (such as beer) shows a tendency to stratify in horizontal layers. However, the activity of fermentation disrupts the tendency of the brew to stratify. Accordingly, the brewing apparatus comprises at least two temperature sensors positioned to measure a temperature difference between the temperature at a first height of the brew and the temperature at a second height of the brew. End of fermentation is identified if the temperature difference is greater than a threshold difference.

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Ballantine’s Literary Ads: C. S. Forester

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Between 1951 and 1953, P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company, or simply Ballentine Beer, created a series of ads with at least thirteen different writers. They asked each one “How would you put a glass of Ballantine Ale into words?” Each author wrote a page that included reference to their beer, and in most cases not subtly. One of them was C. S. Forester, who’s best known for his Horatio Hornblower novels.

Today is the birthday of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (August 27, 1899–April 2, 1966), who wrote under the nom de plume Cecil Scott or “C. S.” Forester. He “was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic wars. Two of the Hornblower books, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, were jointly awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1938. His other works include The African Queen (1935) and The General (1936).” His Ballantine ad ran in 1952.

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His piece for Ballantine was done in the form of a letter reminiscing about first beers he’d tried doing his travels, including Ballantine the first time he came to New York City:

There’s always a first time for everything, and I still remember my first Ballantine Ale.

I had ordered my first “kleines hells” in Munich, my first Bock in Paris. As a rather bewildered young man in New York, I did a two-hour sight-seeing tour before being shipped to Hollywood, and in the half-hour before my train was to go, I had my first Ballantine Ale.

So my first recollection of Ballantine is linked with the Port of New York, the Empire State Building, and Grand Central Station. All of them were different from anything that had ever come into my experience — and all of them great.

Even then, I realized that the flavor of Ballantine Ale was unique. I thought it better than any brew I had met in Europe’s most famous beer gardens. I still do.

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Patent No. 2253883A: Beverage Dispensing Display Bar

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Today in 1941, US Patent 2253883 A was issued, an invention of Valentine Beecher, for his “Beverage Dispensing Display Bar.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The main object of the invention is to provide a beer dispensing system in which a transparent, insulated dispensing riser extends directly from a beer keg in a pre-cooling chamber through a bar or counter provided with transparent windows through which the riser and its contents may be seen at all times.

Another object of the invention is to provide a transparent dispensing riser of the character referred to constructed in the manner of the well known Thermos or vacuum bottle to maintain the temperature of the beer’being dispensed during its passage from kegs in the pre-cooling chamber to a dispensing faucet mounted on the bar or counter, and thereby eliminate the cooling coils, air ducts and ice chambers heretofore used for this purpose.

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Patent No. 2253940A: Brew Cooling Equipment

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Today in 1941, US Patent 2253940 A was issued, an invention of Gerald D. Peet, for his “Brew Cooling Equipment.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The present invention is concerned with the art of cooling brew within the original shipping and storage package, by the circulation of cooling fluid through hollow structures in heat conductive relation with the brew contents.

As conducive to a clear understanding of the invention, it is noted that in the practical operation of brew cooling and dispensing systems of a it would be sufficient, however, to keep the contents of the kegs on reserve at ‘a temperature well above dispensing temperature and yet sufficiently cool to prevent deterioration. An arrangement which would impart such lesser degree of refrigeration to the contents of the kegs on reserve would bring about economy in power consumption and in the capacity of the refrigerating installation when it is attempted to direct the cooling fluid through cooling passages of constant area, the desired economy is not readily attainable because it is the magnitude of the cooling conduit area submerged in the brew which primarily determines the temperature to which the brew is cooled, assuming that an adequate supply of refrigeration is available, as it is in practice.

Viewed from the aspect of the keg structure per se, rather than as a system and method of operation, it is noted that the cooling instrumentalities which engage the contents of brew kegs of the internally cooled type require periodic inspection to assure their operative and sanitary condition.

For convenience and economy, it is therefore an important object so to construct and arrange such coolers as to facilitate removal thereof from the keg structures for such inspection and for repair and re-installation or replacement as the case may be, and that without bling or breaking down the kegs.

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Patent No. 20110206487A1: Keg Handling Equipment

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Today in 2011, US Patent 20110206487 A1 was issued, an invention of Terry George Morgan, for his “Keg Handling Equipment.” Here’s the Abstract:

A keg conveying trolley has a pair of wheels, a central post and a slide which carries a hook for grasping the keg rim. The slide is lockable at different keg heights. A foot plate assists in tipping the trolley to an inclined position for wheeling the keg from one place to another. The keg stacking version has a winch worked by hand or a cordless drill. The keg is supported by a rise and fall carriage. The carriage can be modified to be multitask. Variants can lift gas bottles on their side, truck tires for placing on wheel studs and odd shaped loads.

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Patent No. 154367A: Improvement In Faucets

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Today in 1874, US Patent 154367 A was issued, an invention of Lemen J. Birgler, for his “Improvement in Faucets.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to a faucet with vent attachment, for drawing of fermented or other liquors from the barrel or keg without the aid of a vent in the bung or other part of the barrel, the vent working automatically in connection with the opening or closing of the faucet, and forming a very convenient, regularly-acting, and independent attachment for keeping the liquids .fresh and nice for any length of time.

The invention consists of a faucet with guide-tube and sliding vent-tube, which is provided at the inner end with a flexible rubber tube and floating valve, and with a second valve at the outer end, through which air is drawn into the barrel when the faucet is opened.

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Patent No. 932284A: System For Dispensing Beverages

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Today in 1909, US Patent 932284 A was issued, an invention of William Gee, for his “System For Dispensing Beverages.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

This invention relates to dispensing beverages, and particularly to cleaning and dispensing systems wherein the beverage is forced from a keg or a series of kegs through cooled piping to the service bar, and in which means for automatically cleaning the entire system forms a component part. In such systems the beer is carried through long coils of piping in order to expose a large surface of the same to the cooling medium, whereby no matter how rapid the flow the beer dispensed from the faucets is always cooled sufficiently. But because of the necessary employment of long coils of pipe there is always stored therein after tapping the kegs comparatively large quantities of beer, which if not removed when the bar is closed will spoil as a result of flattening and prolonged chemical action between the beer and the piping.

It is the object of my invention to introduce into such a system means operated from a single controller, which also operates the cleaning means of the system; to automatically cut off the flow of beer from the supply source and return such as remains in the pipe coils back into the kegs for proper preservation for future use; and to provide additional automatically operated means whereby said pipe coils, after the beer has been forced therefrom into the kegs or after a keg has been exhausted, may be blown out at will through the medium of compressed air or gas, and thereby cause any particles of beer adhering to the walls of the piping to be removed through the faucets.

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Patent No. 106686A: Improvement In Apparatus For Cooling Beer

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Today in 1870, US Patent 106686 A was issued, an invention of William Gee, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Cooling Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention consists in a cooler made up of a series of spiral pipes, arranged with their coils one within the another, within a spiral trough, down through which latter the beer or liquid to be cooled is allowed to run, while the cooling water passes, in an opposite direction, up or through the pipes that combine strength with a large area of cooling surface, and, being independent of the bottom of the beer-trough, provide for the more perfect cleaning of the latter.

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Inside Guinness August 22, 1953

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In England, the Picture Post was the equivalent of Life magazine here in the U.S. It “was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months.”

On August 22, 1953, one of the photographers for the Picture Post — Bert Hardy — visited Dublin, Ireland, and was permitted inside the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate. I’m not sure how many photos he took, but recently Mashable featured twenty-two of them. Here are a few of them below, it’s a great glimpse into the past, and to see all of them, follow the instructions below.

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Workers drain beer from a mash tun.

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Workers watch as yeast is skimmed off the top of the beer before it is passed to vats for maturing.

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A worker fills casks in the racking shed.

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Workers at the Guinness brewery at St. James’s Gate in Dublin.

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Workers hose down casks.

You can see all 22 of them below, or visit Mashable.

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Patent No. 3685508A: Tank Construction

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Today in 1972, US Patent 3685508 A was issued, an invention of Le Roy W. Heilmann, for his “Tank Construction.” Here’s the Abstract:

A tank bottom having spaced inner and outer members, said inner member being made of relatively thin material having good heat transfer, said spaced inner and outer members forming part of a pressure chamber for heating the contents of said tank, said pressure chamber being subjected to relatively high pressures and temperatures, said inner bottom having strengthening means connected to the outer surface thereof, said strengthening means not being connected to said outer member, said inner member being strong enough to hold the contents of the tank but not strong enough to withstand the cyclical pressures within the pressure chamber over a period of use without said strengthening means.

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