Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. WO1999007820A2: Lipid Removal

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Today in 1999, US Patent WO 1999007820 A2 was issued, an invention of Charles Bamforth, Dickie Kamini, and Robert Muller, for their “Lipid Removal.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method for removing lipids material from beer or other beverages. The beer is contacted with immobilized lipid binding protein which binds any lipid present in the beer or other beverage. After the lipid removal stage is complete there are no lipid binding additives remaining in the beverage.

This patent is particularly notable because one of the inventors is UC Davis brewing professor Charles Bamforth. And while he holds a few British patents, this is the only American one that turns up on Google’s patent search.
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Patent No. 879604A: Beer-Tap

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Today in 1908, US Patent 879604 A was issued, an invention of John Wawrzinski, for his “Beer-Tap.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described as an “invention as for its object [is] to provide a beer tap with a back pressure valve of novel construction which Will effectively prevent the pressure from the beer keg entering `the communication leading to the beer-tap from the air pressure reservoir.”
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Patent No. 2416007A: Method Of Clarifying And Stabilizing Beer

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Today in 1947, US Patent 2416007 A was issued, an invention of Hans Joachim, for his “Method of Clarifying and Stabilizing Beer and Like Beverages.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described as an “invention relates to a process for treating beer or similar beverages, whereby the beverage is improved in clarity, stability and qualities of brilliance and sparkle, and which preserves and enhances taste and bouquet of the product.”
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Patent No. 3867551A: Preparation Of Beer

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Today in 1975, US Patent 3867551 A was issued, an invention of Yves Germain Jaegle, for his “Preparation of Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

Beer is prepared by a process wherein groups of batches of wort are turned serially at temperatures increasing from 10 DEG to 14.5 DEG C into a cylindrical, vertically disposed vat having a conical bottom. Convection currents are instituted to homogenize the contents of the vat and fermentation is carried out until a beer of the desired degree of fermentation is formed. The resultant beer is mellowed by a warm keep phase, cooled and subjected to a cold keep phase.

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Patent No. 20110036840A1: Ring Pull Can Cap

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Today in 2011, US Patent 20110036840 A1 was issued, an invention of Tal Zakai, for his “Ring Pull Can Cap.” Here’s the Abstract:

The present innovation is a dual purpose “ring-pull/can cap”, which performs as both a sealing cap for metal beverage cans in addition to its traditional usage as a can opener. The design is a modification of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,752 “easy open wall”, which is the current opening mechanism on most consumer beverage cans, also known in the industry as an “easy open end”. The “ring-pull/can cap” is an improvement of the well known ring-pull design found on most metal cans today, but also allows consumers to close and seal off the can when not in use.

There are two popular opening methods that have been used for opening metal cans to date: The “full open” mechanism and the more recent “half open” mechanism, as described below. The present invention deals with the improvement of the popular “half open” method, which currently does not allow the beverage can to be resealed after opening.

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Patent No. 5718161A: Beer Brewing System And Method

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Today in 1998, US Patent 5718161 A was issued, an invention of Leigh P. Beadle, for his “Beer Brewing System And Method.” Here’s the Abstract:

There is provided a system for brewing beer particularly suited for a brew pub setting. The invention utilizes a cooker to heat water and a pre-blend syrup of ingredients. Once the beer mixture is boiled for a sufficient length of time in the cooker, the mixture is transferred to a brewing vessel. A spiral spray nozzle is used to add water to the brewing vessel in a conical spray pattern which causes the water to be oxygenated once it passes through the spiral spray end of the nozzle. Yeast is added to the brew mixture and oxygenated water in the brewing vessel. The beer mixture is permitted to ferment in the brewing vessel for a sufficient length of time. The fermented beer mixture is transferred to a plurality of kegs, each of which contains a mixture of sugar and gelatin. The sugar and gelatin allow the beer mixture and age and clarify. Once the beer mixture has aged a sufficient time, the beer mixture is dispensed from the kegs. The system of the invention includes a keg cleaning device for simultaneously depressurizing the keg while hooking up the device to the keg.

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Patent No. 1526945A: Hop Picker

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Today in 1925, US Patent 1526945 A was issued, an invention of Daniel E. Williamson, for his “Hop Picker.” There’s no Abstract, and the application is a little hard to read because of the mistakes the character reader made, which was in higher numbers than usual. But essentially it appears to be a comb to pick hops, roughly described as follows.

The combs are both vented to create a new and useful Hop Picker, with hands being used to comb the hops from the which the following is a specification, pulling vines into the basket. It will be understood this invention relates more particularly that where the device is used on both hands to devices for picking hops, it is preferably made right and left.

It looks simply like a stylized comb used to manually pick the hops, possibly the stragglers that a machine missed or for smaller acreage where a machine was too big or inefficient.
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Patent No. 2925237A: Can & Bottle Opener

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Today in 1960, US Patent 2925237 A was issued, an invention of John L. Fox, for his “Can and Bottle Opener.” There’s no Abstract, but the application states that his ” invention relates to a can and bottle opener, and more particularly to a can and bottle opener which can be moved to an out-of-the-way position when it is not being used.

An object of the invention is to provide a can and bottle opener which includes a novel mounting means so that for example with the opener mounted beneath a kitchen cabinet or shelf, the device can be kept in an out-of-the-way position until it is being used, and wherein when the device is being used it can be readily moved to an operative position, and wherein the opener of the present invention is provided with a magnetic means.

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Patent No. 3563424A: Beer Tap

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Today in 1971, US Patent 3563424 A was issued, an invention of Mack S. Johnston, for his “Beer Tap.” There’s no Abstract, but the application states that his “invention relates to a beer-tapping device and especially to an improved adapter for attachment in the beer outlet of a standard keg. It comprises a metallically enclosed, readily assembled unit, insertable from outside the keg with a laterally offset liquid passageway through the adapter. The offset passage takes optimum advantage of the limited space available while, at the same time, the unit is compatible with existing systems. Also disclosed is a novel metallic locking unit for separating the beer and gas passageways in the adapter as well as a novel flexible resilient check valve for the gas passage through the adapter.”
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Patent No. 2108096A: Merchandise Display Apparatus

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Today in 1938, US Patent 2108096 A was issued, an invention of James E. Barsi, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for his “Merchandise Display Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, but the application states that “this invention relates to apparatus of the kind that are used for advertising and displaying merchandise and has for its main object to provide an advertising and/or display apparatus that is of attractive appearance and of such construction that, in addition to holding a plurality of samples of the advertised product in such a way that said samples may be easily handled and inspected by the public, it will also display in an attractive manner other articles or packages containing material that is particularly adapted for use in connection with the advertised product. For example, if the apparatus is intended to be used primarily to advertise a certain brand of beer, it will be equipped with a tray or equivalent part for holding a plurality of bottles or cans of beer and it will also be equipped with a shelf or equivalent part for sustaining packages of various kinds of food that are frequently served With beer, such for example, as pickles, olives, cheese, sausage, crackers, etc.”
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