Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 503168A: Brewing Process

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Today in 1893, US Patent 503168 A was issued, an invention of Gustav Hermann Schneider (a.k.a. G.H. Schneider), of Hamburg, Germany, for his “Brewing Process.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention has relation to the art of brewing beer from the wort, and it has for its object the provision of means whereby a product is obtained whose nutritive properties are materially increased, that is not as liable to secondary fermentation and that will keep in good condition for a longer time than beer brewed in the usual way.

One of the advantages of my invention lies in the fact that the fermentation may be interrupted at any time, thereby enabling the brewer to vary the percentage of alcohol in the beer, according to requirements, and consequently preserve to the beer a larger percentage of extracts than has been possible heretofore.

A further advantage of my invention consists in obviating the cellar storage otherwise necessary, and in cheapening considerably the production of beer, notwithstanding that a product is obtained of a taste far more cess.

I attain these objects by adding hops to the wort, boiling the same by means of steam under pressure, cooling the boiled wort, filtering, and subjecting the filtered wort to a yeast fermentation, pasteurizing the fermented liquid by means of heat, cooling it down, and aerating it by means of ozonized air,and finally charging the sterilized liquid with carbonic acid, when the beer will be ready for storage, these operations, and the storage being successively carried out under exclusion of ambient atmospheric air, the liquid being forced through the various apparatuses, and finally to the receiver, by means of sterilized air. But that my invention may be fully understood, l will describe the same in detail, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figures 1 and l show in side elevation a plant by means of which my invention may be carried out, and Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of my improved pasteurizing and aerating apparatus.

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And here’s the original drawings filed with the patent application:

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Patent No. 8240155B2: Method Of Presenting Beer

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Today in 2012, US Patent 8240155 B2 was issued, an invention of Kevin Dale, for his “Method of Presenting Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method for serving beer from a font includes the steps of first chilling a glass for the beer to a temperature of below, at least, −5° C. and then filling the glass with beer from the font, so that crystals of frozen beer are present in the drink below the head of foam on the beer that is created when the beer is poured.

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Patent No. 7255003B2: Device For Measuring And Displaying The Amount Of Beer In A Keg

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Today in 2007, US Patent 7255003 B2 was issued, an invention of Calvin R. Schneiter, for his “Device For Measuring and Displaying the Amount of Beer in a Keg.” Here’s the Abstract:

A scale for determining a quantity of material in a container such as a keg. The scale may include a support member configured to be placed under a portion of the container, a display to indicate the quantity of material in the container, and a weight sensor positioned underneath the support member to determine the quantity of material in the container and to provide a signal to the display.

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Bass Vs. Cooke Brewing Co.

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It seems many people think that trademark disputes are a new phenomenon, because in the age of social media and the twenty-four news cycle, everything is news, but they’re actually nothing new. Trademark disputes have been going on as long as the very concept of a trademark existed, it’s just that they used to happen mostly out of the glare of the public, and instead quietly wound their way through court documents and appearances before special tribunals created to adjudicate these specific types of disputes.

I, myself, was involved in one as the beer buyer for Beverages & more, when an East coast brewery objected to one of our private label beers. Few people know about it, because even as recently as the late 1990s, when this took place, such disputes were mostly private matters. Personally, I think that’s how it should be, because trademark is a highly technical, arcane subject, which I think is better left to experts in the field. I also think trademark law could use some updating to better reflect the real world we find ourselves in today, but that’s an argument for another day.

My point here is only that trademark disputes are old hat. A few days ago, I stumbled on one from around 1893, when the makers Bass Ale sued a Chicago brewery — the Cooke Brewing Co. — for trademark infringement. I couldn’t find out very much information about the Cooke brewery, but “One Hundred Years of Brewing” (originally published in 1903, and reprinted in 1974) includes this summary:

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Apparently, in 1893, when the World’s Columbian Exposition (a.k.a. The Chicago World’s Far) took place in Chicago from May to October of that year, “Cooke Brewing Company created a display to advertise its beer. The bottles, however, were labeled with remarkable similarity to those used by Bass.” Not surprisingly, Bass sued for relief in the US Circuit Court Northern District of Illinois. While many trademark disputes are open to debate in which reasonable people may have a difference of opinion, I don’t think this is one of those cases. I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone not employed by the Cooke Brewing Co. who didn’t believe this was one of the most clear cut examples of trademark infringement in the annals of history.

Online records, as far as I can tell, don’t go back far enough to see how this case started and progressed. The only reason the final ruling is out there, is because someone at the National Archives in Chicago came across this and decided to share it on their website and Facebook page. But take a look below at the two beer labels and see for yourself. It’s hard to believe it got this far, and Bass had to file a lawsuit at all to stop the Chicago brewers. I guess they really thought they could get away with using a red triangle on their label.

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Patent No. 3100707A: Addition Of Dry Hectorite To Beer

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Today in 1961, US Patent 3100707 A was issued, an invention of Raymond L. Mcadam, Richard G. Shaler Jr., and Richard G. Shaler, assigned to the American Tansul Company, for his “Addition of Dry Hectorite to Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to an improvement in the process for treating beer or similar beverages such as wines and fruit juices whereby the beverages are improved in clarity, stability, and qualities or brilliance, sparkle, and taste. The invention relates to an improvement in the treatment of beer with a swelling gelling clay, preferably a montmorillonite clay such as hectoritc.

Specifically, the invention relates to a new method of “chill-proofing” beer or other beverages by the use of a dry swelling gelling clay of the montmorillonite group and preferably hectorite. When heretofore the clay has been first placed in an aqueous suspension prior to introduction into the beer, the present invention contemplates direct addition of the clay to the beer in dry pulverant form. The results show a surprising increase in yield of beer and excellent product stability.

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Patent No. 2252235A: Bottle Carrier

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Today in 1941, US Patent 2252235 A was issued, an invention of Nicholas Snelling, assigned to the Zimba Beverage Co. Inc., for his “Bottle Carrier.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to devices for carrying Orr-supporting bottles of various kinds and classes, and particularly bottles having removable closure caps; and the object of the invention is to provide a supporting device of the character described made from heavy `paper or light cardboard which is die cut, printed, lithographed, or otherwise characterized, and then folded to form a means for carrying, handling, or assembling bottled goods either individually or collectively so as to facilitate the handling and packaging as well as delivery thereof; a further object being to provide a device of the character described having an apertured portion from which or by means of which the device including the bottle or bottles thereon may be suspended or carried; a further object’ being to provide’a device of the character described wherein a number of bottles may be collectively packed in a carton or shipping case with the carrying lor suspending device attached thereto or to a number of bottles in a compact and collapsed manner and whereby the group of bottles may be simultaneously removed from the carton or shipping casein the removal of the supporting device therefrom thereby simplifying the handling of merchandise of this kind by the merchant and also facilitating the packing and carrying thereof a still further object being to provide an improved method of constructing a device of the character described `so as to adapt the same for use in a’ continuous assemblage upon a multiplicity of bottles moved relatively thereto so as to` expedite the assemblage of the device to groups of bottles, and further to incorporating a device of this character upon bottled goods in the operation of capping or sealing the same; and with these and other objects in view, the invention consists in a device of the class and for the purpose specified which is simple and economical in construction, and which may be produced and used in accordance with the method more fully hereinafter described and claimed.

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Patent No. 8802421B2: Method Of Propagating And Delivering Yeast

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Today in 2014, US Patent 8802421 B2 was issued, an invention of Chris White, assigned to White Labs, for his “Method of Propagating and Delivering Yeast.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method of propagating, concentrating and delivering yeast is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of producing and inoculating a bag, propagating yeast within the bag, and concentrating the yeast in a section of the bag that is the removed from the remainder of the bag while not exposing any portion of the yeast therein to an external environment. In order to remove the bag, which contains the most concentrated slurry of yeast, a smaller bag is heat-sealed off of the larger bag, thereby creating a separate bag for the living sediment, which is still the bag in which the sediment was propagated. In a preferred embodiment, the method is specific to the alcoholic beverage industry. The method is also applicable to other industries that grow and transport yeast, bacteria, molds and other microorganisms.

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When Chris spoke at my SSU Beer Appreciation class last semester, he talked about his new innovation, which was patented today a year ago, and which they’re calling the “FlexCell Process” and marketing it as “Pure Pitch.” It’s a pretty cool idea.

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And here’s a short video about the “FlexCell Process” from the White Labs website.

Patent No. 2847309A: Brewing Process

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Today in 1958, US Patent 2847309 A was issued, an invention of Harold Howard Rohrbeck, assigned to the Olympia Brewing Company, for his “Brewing Process.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Heretofore, in the conventional brewing process, it has taken considerable time toV filter the wort through the lautering bed provided by the grain in the lauter tub and also to sparge the bed. I believe the reason for this is that the lines, which are microscopic glutinous protein matter, have collected in the interstices of the filtering bed and have restricted and even completely closed them thus slowing down the filtering step.

It is a main object of the present invention to provide a brewing process overcoming the above disadvantage.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a process in which all or part of the fines are removed from the mash prior to the mash entering the lauter tub whereby to speed up the filtering operation.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus by which the method of the present invention may be carried out.

The process -of the present invention is characterized by the steps of separating the fines from at least a part of the mash prior to the mash being conducted to the lauter tub so that the filter bed is not nearly as congested or restricted by the presence of the fines as heretofore has been the case and thus the filtering action of the bed is much more rapid than heretofore.

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Patent No. 1149256A: Bottle-Filling Device

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Today in 1954, US Patent 1149256 A was issued, an invention of Joseph H. Godfrey, for his “Bottle-Filling Device.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to devices for filling bottles and similar receptacles with liquid, and has reference more particularly to that type of filling mechanism wherein a valve controlling the flow of liquid to the bottle is opened through the agency of an electromagnet when the empty bottle has been suitably positioned relatively to the filling device to receive the liquid, and is subsequently closed by the automatic de-energizing of the magnet to cut off the flow of liquid to the bottle when the latter has been filled to the proper or desired height.

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Patent No. 2685966A: Apparatus For Separating Picked Hops From Leaves And Stems

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Today in 1954, US Patent 2685966 A was issued, an invention of Florian F. Dauenhauer of Santa Rosa, California, for his “Apparatus for Separating Picked Hops From Leaves and Stems.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

An object of this invention, is, to provide. a conveyor, which is inclined laterally, or sidewise. The hops, leaves and stems to be separated are discharged upon the conveyor near the higher section thereof. The clean hops will roll to the lower section of the conveyor, while unclean hops, leaves and stems, will be moved along the higher section of the conveyor. The clean, hops are conveyed to a sacking device, While the unclean hops are moved from one conveyor to another until all of the leaves and other refuse are separated from the hops.

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