Today in 2010, just five years ago, US Patent 20100000997 A1 was issued, an invention of Erik L. Southers, for a “Double-Ended Openers Beverage Can.” Here’s the Abstract:
The invention relates to a beverage can with an opener at each end allowing the user to drink from the first end while opening the second end which results in the liquid rapidly evacuating the beverage can. The beverage can is particularly useful for chug-a-lugging beer.
On Saturday, January 24, from Noon to 4 PM, the Brewing Network‘s 6th annual Winter Brews Festival will take place at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord. The beer festival will feature over 50 breweries and proceeds will benefit the Coral Reef Alliance. Sandwiched in between the weekends of the final NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl — so you won’t miss a game — the annual event will showcase dozens of award-winning craft breweries, including local favorites, 21st Amendment, Drake’s, Heretic, and Lagunitas, as well as some great new breweries like Calicraft and The Rare Barrel.
Live music from Ralph Woodson and Purple Haze will set the mood for an afternoon of great beer and a worthy cause. Sponsors of the event include The Hop Grenade Taproom & Bottle Shop, the 21st Amendment, Drake’s Brewing Company, Hop Tech Homebrew and White Labs, and proceeds will benefit the local environmental non-profit, the Coral Reef Alliance.
Tickets are now on sale and are $40 pre-sale or $50 at the gate and include unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. Designated Drivers pay only $5, however this is a 21 and over only event. The event, which will, for the first time, take over the entire Todos Santos Plaza, is conveniently located just two blocks away from the Concord BART station, making it easy to get to and from the festival safely. For more information on the event, and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.BNbrewfest.com.
Today in 1970, US Patent D216422 S was issued, an invention of Karl Koch, for an ornamental design for a “Beer Can.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described simply as a “can circular in all cross sections and the side opposite that shown is the same in appearance as the side shown except that the label area is replaced by a continuation of the barrel motif.”
Today in 2011, just four years ago, US Patent 20110000913 A1 was issued, an invention of Todd Allen Bland, for a “Beer Can with Top and Bottom Pull Tabs.” Here’s the Abstract:
The herein invention discloses improvements to the conventional beer, soda or vegetable juice can such as tomato as well as medical or automotive such as oil cans containing fluid. The improvements consisting of one or a plurality of pull tabs on the top and the bottom of the can allowing the liquid to empty out of the cans in a matter of seconds. Prior art only shows one pull tab on the top taking the cans too long to empty for consumers that desire their beverage to flow quicker and to avoid spraying their beverage potentially getting in to the eyes of consumers and destroying property such as clothes and furniture as it is widely known consumers puncture holes toward the bottom of the can to release the liquid quicker endangering themselves and others by spraying beverage and by the sharp objects used to make the holes in the cans. My new invention will improve safety for these types of consumers furthermore if the top tab breaks the bottom pull tab will allow the can to be opened. Additionally, a tomatoe juice can having two pull tabs on the top allows the thick juice to flow more rapidly. This also relieves having a sharp can opener to accomplish this task.
Today in 2012, just three years ago, US Patent 20120000367 A1 was issued, an invention of Rudolf Michel and Ludwig Scheller, for a “Brewery Facility for Producing and Bottling Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:
The invention relates to a brewery plant (12) for producing and bottling beer, comprising a brewhouse facility (01) in which wort is produced from raw materials while employing process energy, and further comprising a bottling facility (02) in which beer produced from the wort is filled into packaging containers, in particular bottles, while employing process energy, wherein in order to supply the brewhouse facility (01) with process energy a first energy supply network (16) is provided, into which process heat having a first temperature level is fed from at least one first energy generation facility (17) and is distributed by a heat transfer means to different energy consumers (14, 15) in the brewhouse facility (01), and wherein in order to supply the bottling facility (02) with process energy a second energy supply network (21) is provided, into which process heat having a second temperature level is fed from at least one second energy generation facility (22) and is distributed by a heat transfer means to different energy consumers (23, 24, 25) in the bottling facility (02), wherein the maximum temperature of the heat transfer means in the first energy supply network is above the maximum temperature of the heat transfer means in the second energy supply network.
If you love this sort of thing, there’s much more about the specifics at the patent application page.
Today in 1916, US Patent 1166599 A was issued, an invention of Andreas R Keller, for a “Mash and Strainer Tank Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description, the overview states the “invention relates to new and useful improvements in mash and .strainer tank machines, and is designed to increase the efficiency of such machines by improving the mixing, percolation, heating or cooking, straining, and drawing-off features, thereby overcoming the predominant and objectionable disadvantages of the machines now in use.”
Today in 1967, US Patent 3295988 A was issued, assigned to Phillips Petroleum, for a “Preparation of Reconstituted Beer.” According to the application the invention “relates to a method of concentrating solutions by crystallization. In another aspect it relates to an improved method of using a crystal purification column for the removal of water from beer. In a further aspect it relates to an improved method of concentrating aqueous solutions, e.g., beer, and reconstituting the resulting concentrate.”
Today in 1961, US Patent 2967107 A was issued to Kenneth H. Geiger and John Compton, assigned to John Labott Ltd, for their “Continuous fermentation process.” According to the application the “invention relates to a novel continuous fermentation process for the production of potable beer.”
Figure 1 is a schematic illustrating a type of fermentation vessel which may be used in carrying out the process of the invention indicating typical fittings and controls.
Continuous fermentation processes have already been utilized in connection with the production of industrial grade alcohols, and the desirability of continuous fermentation in the production of potable beer has long been recognized in the art. The principal obstacle to the adaptation of existing continuous fermentation methods to the production of potable beer has been the inability of such processes to provide adequate control of flavour. As is well recognized, the control of flavour is of paramount importance insofar as the production of potable beer is concerned.
The present invention provides a continuous fermentation process in which the control of flavour is readily achieved, and in which a number of additional advantages are to be found in addition to those important ones which might normally be expected to fiow from the conversion of what has previously been a batch operation into a continuous one.
Figure 2 is a schematic fiowsheet illustrating apparatus used for carrying out the process of the invention with one yeast propagation vessel and two alcohol producing vessels in the product formation stage.
According to the present invention, potable beer is produced by the yeast fermentation of a fermentable carbohydrate which is carried out in stages. A first stage is provided in which aerobic conditions favourable to yeast growth are maintained, and a second stage is provided in which anaerobic conditions favourable to carbohydrate attenuation are maintained. Preferably according to the invention, the yeast concentration in the second stage of the process is maintained substantially constant at a concentration which is in excess of the maximum level normally obtainable or commonly used under batch fermentation conditions. This level of yeast concentration is maintained by separating at least a portion of the yeast from the efliuent of the second stage and recycling it through the second stage.
Operating in this manner, the first stage of the process serves primarily as a continuous yeast propagator under predetermined aerobic conditions while the second stage which may be, and preferably is, carried out in a series of separate series connected vessels serves primarily for ICC attenuation of the fermentable carbohydrates to alcohol under predetermined anaerobic conditions. For convenience hereinafter, we refer to the first stage of the process as the yeast propagation stage and the second stage as the product formation stage.
The inherent advantages of the continuous fermentation process described above are manifold, and of substantial practical importance. For instance, the growth rate of yeast and feed rate of fermentable substrate are equillbrated and controlled under steady state conditions in the first stage, so that the extent or rate of metabolism unconnected with yeast cell growth and/or reproduction is not critical. The maintenance of any predetermined high yeast concentration in the second stage is independent of flow rate, while, provided a relatively high concentration of yeast is present in the second stage, the rate of product formation will be for all practical purposes independent of yeast growth and, provided the substrate is satisfactory, almost entirely dependent on total quantity of yeast present and temperature.
Because the process of the invention makes for more efiicient substrate utilization, less is used for yeast production than in normal batch fermentations.
Furthermore, a very rapid fermentation is possible, with a holdup time appreciably less than in other conventional fermentation systems, batch or continuous, without concommitant adverse eifects on the quality of the product.
Figure 3 is a general schematic fiowsheet illustrating the process of the invention as it would be carried out using four separate vessels in the product formation stage.
Our 95th Session is hosted is Alan McLeod — his third time at the reins — who writes A Good Beer Blog. He’s chosen a very simple topic, but one with as many possibilities as their are books in the Library of Congress. The January topic can be expressed in one simple sentence. “What beer book which has yet to be written would you like to see published?” But for a bit more about what he’s looking for, read through his explanatory I Answer The Call! Again I Host!!!
What is the book you would want to write about good beer? What book would you want to read? Is there a dream team of authors your would want to see gathered to make that “World Encyclopedia of Beer and Brewing”? Or is there one person you would like to see on a life long generous pension to assure that the volumes flow from his or her pen? Let us know.
For me, what’s missing in the world of beer books, are craft beers intruding into fiction. Brands of all kinds help define characters, perhaps more so in fiction than in reality, because they can be a code for the kind of person an author has created that we all understand. It goes back, in my mind, to something that Michael Jackson used to say when explaining why beer deserved more respect. He’d use the analogy that no one goes into a restaurant and asks the waiter to bring him some food the way that people are so often portrayed in books, television and movies as sidling up to a bar and saying “gimme a beer.”
Whenever I saw Michael, one of the topics that inevitably came up was books. One of the first I remember him recommending to me was The Last Fine Time, a novel by Verlyn Klinkenborg published in 1990. It tells the tale of a family in Buffalo, New York who own a bar and how it changes over several generations. It was years ago that I read it, but I recall enjoying it a great deal.
But it reminds me that most books in which beer appears are either older and use old brands or generic beer. I have seen a few book that have beer in them, but not really as much more than an afterthought, unless they’re a memoir. That always seemed strange since beer is so popular and is the most popular adult beverage. You’d think it would figure more highly in literature, and yet it seems curiously absent. To be fair, I don’t read nearly as much fiction as I did when I was younger, so maybe I’m just missing it.
Several times over the years I’ve suggested to various beer magazine publishers that they start including short stories involving beer and have even suggested an annual contest, similar to Playboy’s annual college fiction contest, for the best short story involving beer as a central feature of the tale. Sadly, none have ever agreed, though I don’t know why. It always seemed like a natural to me.
I’ve also thought a Granta-like book/magazine, perhaps annually, that collected beer fiction could work, too, but I’m not sure I’m up to the task of taking on another project. Still, I’d really love to see more beer-fueled fiction. Somebody needs to write the Great American Beer Novel.
But failing fictive folios, what beer books would I like to see? I certainly like Alan’s suggestion for a “World Encyclopedia of Beer and Brewing,” but otherwise I’m at a loss, beyond my own list of book ideas I want to pitch.
I have at least a dozen book ideas in various stages of development, but personally I can’t wait to do my coffee table book featuring all of my photographs of brewery hoses that I’ve taking at breweries around the world for more than ten years. I expect to sell maybe twenty copies, but I still want to do it as a labor of love. I may have to self-publish that one. I’m fairly certain there aren’t a great number of people waiting for that one.
Today in 1974, US Patent 3782609 A was issued, an invention of Homer R. Zucconi, for a “Keg Tapping Assembly.” Here’s the Abstract:
A keg tapping assembly comprising a tavern unit having two prongs which are sleeve-like with tapered ends to unseat the two spring closed valves of a permanently attached keg unit detachably connected to the top central hole of a keg, upon insertion into the keg unit. The invention embodies an attachment having two bores through which said prongs are detachably fitted and having serrated terminal connections onto which hoses may be slip-fitted for attachment, respectively, to a tap rod insertable in the top center opening and to a valved outlet connection at the bottom of the keg. By simply unplugging the tavern unit from the keg unit and plugging it into said attachment it is selectively usable on either a conventional single connection tap or on the older double connection tap.
