Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 739595A: Cooling Apparatus For Liquids

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Today in 1903, US Patent 739595 A was issued, an invention of Hugo Fluegge, for his “Cooling Apparatus For Liquids.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to cooling apparatus for liquids; and the object of my invention is to provide an apparatus by means of which the carbonic-acid gas used in an apparatus for supplying beer or other similar liquids under gaseous pressure can at the same time be also used for the purpose of cooling `the liquid to be served out, this device therefore doing away with the necessity of cooling the liquid by means of ice, as hitherto was usually the case.

The principal feature of my cooling apparatus is the arrangement of a spiral pipe, which is securely fixed within a chamber containing water or other similar fluid. The carbonic-acid gas which flows through this spiral pipe cools the water surrounding the pipe to such an extent that it begins to freeze. Consequently the liquid to be served out, which is contained in air-tight glass cylinders and which are surrounded by the freezing water, can be cooled in this manner to any required degree.

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Patent No. 568133A: Apparatus For Barreling And Bunging Beer

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Today in 1896, US Patent 568133 A was issued, an invention of Alfred E. Feroe, for his “Apparatus For Barreling and Bunging Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to an apparatus for barreling and bunging fermented liquors, and the object and purpose of my invention is to produce a means whereby carbonated liquors may be barreled and confined by any kind of bung without the loss of liquor or gas during the operation.

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Beer In Ads #2040: Fountain Of Health

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Wenesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from around 1910. In this ad, it’s a gusher, with a ginormous bottle of Miller High Life providing a fountain of beer. Some people are swimming in it, and others are bringing buckets to fill with the beer. It looks like a popular spot. The artwork is a stylized cartoon, similar to some popular comic strips from that time period.

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Patent No. 3607298A: Hop Concentrates

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Today in 1971, US Patent 3607298 A was issued, an invention of Robert O. V. Lloyd and William Mitchell Hatfield, assigned to Bush Boake Allen Ltd., for his “Hop Concentrates.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The present invention relates to hop extracts, including isomerized hop extracts and to processes for their production.

Hops contain, among other things: soft and hard resins including such weakly acidic compounds as humulones (e.g. humulone, cohumulone and adhumulone) and lupulones; essential oils which are those relatively volatile oils which contribute to the characteristic odor of hops; fixed oils, which are contained in the hop seeds and are not readily distilled or extracted by hot water; and water-soluble material such as tannins and proteins.

In the traditional brewing process hops are boiled with wort, which is an aqueous solution of malt sugars. As a consequence of the boiling, a variety of resins and oils pass into the wort. Of these the most important are the humulones, which on boiling are partially isomerized to form water-soluble isohumulones. It is believed that the isohumulones are the principle bittering agent present in the finished beer, but a very large number of other compounds of widely differing chemical nature are also present in traditional beer and contribute to its properties. in the traditional process only a small proportion of the humulones present in the hops are isomerized and taken into solution. Further disadvantages of the traditional method are the need to store a large bulk of hops, which are liable to deteriorate, and the variability of flavor between batches.

The extraction of hops by solvents to give hop extracts which can be used to replace or augment hops in the brewing of beers and ales has received considerable attention for many years. This problem has attracted increased attention during the last l years because of the development in the chemistry of hop constituents and because the brewing industry has become rather less conservative in its attitude toward changes in materials and methods.

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Beer In Ads #2039: The Man In Black Shoots Pool

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Tuesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s playing pool, excuse me, billiards, while wearing a tuxedo. He’s eyeing his next shot, and holding a beer in his hand. This is the last one of this series of ads I was able to find. There may be others, but these are the only ones I found. I also discovered that they were all created by an Australian illustrator named John McCormick at Kling Studios in Chicago. McCormick created the ads using a technique known as scratchboard, which is “both a medium, and an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for etching into a thin layer of white China clay that is coated with black India ink.” Uncle Ron was an intern at the studio in 1954 and met McCormick while he was there, and tells the story in his Uncle Ron’s Blog. Unfortunately it’s the only information I could find at all about McCormick’s amazing art.

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And while I couldn’t find an image of the entire ad larger then the one above, I did find a larger detail of part of the ad centering on the man in black.

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Patent No. 1391561A: Food Product Obtained From Brewers’ Yeast

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Today in 1918, US Patent 1391561 A was issued, an invention of John C. Miller, for his “Food Product Obtained From Brewers’ Yeast.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

Brewers waste yeast when dried has for some years been utilized for a force feed for animals. When analyzed, the dried brewers yeast contains, on an average, about fifty-four per cent crude protein, twenty-five per cent nitrogen free extract, two per cent crude fat and ten per cent ash and fiber.

I have discovered that when properly prepared, a flour can be obtained from the brewers waste yeast which can be effectively and properly used when mixed with wheat flour, or when used by itself, as a food product for human consumption.

In the processes heretofore employed in drying brewers yeast, the material has been dried on steam heated rollers and scraped therefrom from by scraping knives, which renders the material coarse and gritty. The older dried products have never been suitable for either as a substitute for or when mixed with wheat flour for human consumption.

In preparing my product, the wet material in the preferred apparatus is delivered into the rapidly rotation cylinder from which it is discharged by centrifugal force at the delivery end of the cylinder in the form of a very fine annular spray and is there subjected to a current of heated air, which is blown annularly across the centrifugally discharged material, so that the moisture is very rapidly taken up and the material can be readily collected in the form of a dry powder free from grit and in the condition of a flour.

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Beer In Ads #2038: The Man In Black Listens

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Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, his activity seems a lot more passive, as he’s sitting on the floor in his smoking jacket, beer in hand of course, listening to his newfangled Hi-Fi stereo. He’s even left one of the records lying directly on the carpet, which is never a good idea. That’s how you get scratches.

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And here’s another version with a little more definition and color, but it’s a lot smaller.

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Beer Birthday: Ken Kelley

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Today is the 56th birthday of Ken Kelley, head brewer at North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg. Ken is the guy you see at the majority of beer festivals that North Coast participates in, as well as even some of the ones that they don’t. He’s a terrific ambassador for the brewery, and for craft beer more generally, as well as a great person to hang out with. Join me in wishing Ken a very happy birthday.

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Then-Triple Rock GM Rachaal with Ken at the Firkin Fest in 2008.

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Ken and a colleague, both sporting pink hair, at the Breastfest in 2007.

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Ken, who was responsible for the Old Rasputin X Imperial Stout, which was aged in old bourbon barrels for at least nine months, showing off a bottle along with Ruby and Tom Dalldorf at the Boonville Beer Festival 2007.

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Visiting the brewery a couple of years ago, Ken with North Coast founder Mark Ruedrich.

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Sean Paxton and Brian Hunt with Ken during a SF Beer Week Gala a few years ago. (Photo by Mike Condie.)

Patent No. 264457A: Beer Faucet And Tap

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Today in 1882, US Patent 264457 A was issued, an invention of George Hirschman, for his “Beer Faucet and Tap.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to devices for tapping barrels and casks; and it consists in a sleeve adapted to be screwed or otherwise attached to a metal bushing surrounding the plug or bung, and a shouldered faucet arranged to move a limited distance longitudinally within the sleeve, so that if forced back by the pressure of the liquid it can move only such limited distance, but is held in position to be driven to its place.

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Patent No. 633341A: Siphon For Beer

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Today in 1899, US Patent 633341 A was issued, an invention of Johann Dreckmann, for his “Siphon For Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

This invention consists of an improved construction of fountain or siphon for drawing beer and carbonated or aerated drinks.

The herein-described fountain or siphon comprising two vessels, one a liquid-receptacle and the other a gas-receptacle with a reducing-valve connecting the two and a check-valve opening from the liquid-receptacle into the gas-receptacle, whereby a substantially constant pressure is maintained in the liquid-receptacle while dispensing therefrom, substantially as described.

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