Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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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.

Guinness 1953

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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Beer In Ads #2009: The Royal Beer

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Sunday’s ad is for Carlsberg, a.k.a. “The Royal Beer,” from who knows when. This one features quite a dandy, dressed to the nines — maybe tens with that ridiculous medal below his bow tie. Although curiously, his servant is wearing almost the same outfit, so maybe he’s just the maître d’ taking a break, and not so royal after all.

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Patent No. 4165388A: Torrefied Barley For Brewer’s Mashes

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Today in 1979, US Patent 4165388 A was issued, an invention of Robert D. Bryce, for his “Torrefied Barley For Brewer’s Mashes.” Here’s the Abstract:

Torrefied, expanded barley for use as a partial replacement for malt in brewer’s mashes is prepared by heating unmalted barley having a protein content of at least about 12% to a temperature sufficient to expand the barley to a degree that a given volume of barley before heating weights about 1.4 to about 1.75 times the weight of the same volume of barley after heating. Before heating, the unmalted barley preferably has a moisture content of about 12% to 20% by weight.

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Patent No. 29666A: Attachment Of Covers To Glass Vessels

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Today in 1860, US Patent 29666 A was issued, an invention of Robert D. Bryce, for his “Attachment of Covers to Glass Vessels,” or “Pitcher Cover.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

I have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Mode of Attaching Metallic Covers to Mugs, &o.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being’ had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication, in which Figure l is a perspective representation of a glass mug, with a metallic cover attached thereto on my improved plan. Fig. 2 is a side view of the metallic cover, detached from the mug showing a vertical section of the hinge piece, and the handle of the mug in the same plane. Fig. 3 is a View of the cover and part of t-he handle of a mug similar to Fig. 2, showing a slight modification of the mode of attachment.

In the several figures, like letters of reference denote similar parts.

There are several articles of domestic use, which it is convenient to furnish with metallic covers, to open readily with a hinge, such as lager-beer mugs, cream-pitchers, molasses-pitchers, and other vessels. These metallic covers are made with a. hinge usually placed near the handle, the hinge piece being in two pieces, united by a pin or pivot, the upper hinge piece being united to, and forming part of the cover, and the lower hinge piece being attached to the vessel and thereby securing the cover to the vessel. It has been found difficult, however, to limit the lower hinge piece of the cover to the vessel, so as to form a neat and workmanlike job, without casting it on to the handle of the mug, pitcher, but this is expensive in itself, and is very apt to break the vessel, if it be made of glassware.

My improvement consists in attaching the upper hinge piece of the cover immediately to the handle, or to a projection on or near the rim of the vessel, so as to dispense with the lower hinge piece of metal.

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Patent No. 656418A: Device For Drawing Steam Beer

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Today in 1900, US Patent 656418 A was issued, an invention of James O’Connor, for his “Device For Drawing Steam Beer, Etc.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

My invention relates to an apparatus which is designed for drawing liquids under pressure; but it is especially useful when connected with casks containing what is known as steam-beer or beer in which carbonic acid gas is contained to produce a high pressure and head within the cask.

It consists of connections between one or more casks and a distributing-chamber and connections between said chamber and a cylinder containing a piston which is reciprocable within the cylinder, so that when beer is admitted into the cylinder the piston will be moved toward the opposite end until the de sired amount of beer has been admitted, which is shown by a suitable recording device. The beer is drawn from the cylinder through a discharge-cock, and the gas in the beer is so diffused and caused to escape from the beer that little or no foam results when it is drawn from the cylinder. A second cylinder in line with the first contains a piston, the piston-rod connecting the pistons in both cylinders, so that they move in unison. A four-way cock is interposed between the cylinders, and water under pressure is brought through this cock and allowed to enter the second cylinder while the beer is entering the first and the cock is turned so as to allow the water to escape from this cylinder and to enter the first cylinder to return the piston therein to its normal position after the boot has been drawn.

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Patent No. 3397871A: Beer Carbonator

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Today in 1968, US Patent 3397871 A was issued, an invention of William J. Hasselberg, for his beer “Carbonator.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The carbonating of beverages generally is effected by the pressed flow of carbon-dioxide (CO into the beverage as it is conveyed into sealed receptacles, subject to later draft therefrom for consumption. Beer is one of the principal beverages of this kind. When the beverage is drawn from the storage receptacle for transfer to containers for marketing the beverage, there has to be a charging of the beverage with carbon-dioxide. With beer this re-carbonization has to be done with considerable care in order to get the desired quality thereof when it is to be drawn from containers for consumption. The desire is to so carbonate the beer that when poured from a marketing container into a container for drinking, the beer displays the quality expected of good beer. Carbonating means, heretofore and currently in use, have fallen far short of such attainment. Further, there is a great need for larger capacity carbonating devices.

The main objects of this invention are: to provide an improved structuring of a carbonator for charging a beverage before, or as, it is packaged for consumption; to provide an improved structuring of a carbonator of this kind especially adapted for charging beer that has been held in storage receptacles for a considerable period before being packaged for consumption; to provide a carbonator of this kind structured to inject into, and mix with the beverage flow from the storage receptacle, the carbon-dioxide (CO in a mist-like form so that when the beverage is poured from the marketing container into a drinking container the beverage displays a quality closely simulating that of champagne; to provide a device of the class which will force rapid binding of the CO gas with the beer flow; to provide means to split up the beer flowing through a conduit into two chambers, and injecting precisely controlled CO gas into the beer flowing therethrough and, by continuing flow the charged beer returns to a conduit for packaging or storage; and to provide an improved carbonator of this kind of such simple construction as to make very economical the manufacture thereof, and exceedingly gratifying the beverage resulting from the use thereof.

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Patent No. 681056A: Refrigerating And Tapping Box

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Today in 1901, US Patent 681056 A was issued, an invention of Joseph Irr Jr., for his “Refrigerating and Tapping Box.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The primary object of this invention is to provide a very simple, efficient, and compact refrigerating-box for the reception of a beer keg and for the convenient tapping of the same. In order that the beer-faucet may be conveniently operated, it must be at a fairly well defined height above the floor, while for the necessary connections to be conveniently made to the tapping-tube it must project a certain distance above the top of the beer keg. The result is that with an ordinary construction of cabinet to allow room for the insertion of a keg with the tap-tube would require the faucet to be placed at an inconvenient height, ‘wherefore the best that has and tapping of the keg all arranged in one compartment. There may be as many of these compartments laterally as desired. Where there is more than one compartment, the faucets may be provided in but one of them and properly connected with the others.

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Patent No. 680836A: Apparatus For Cleansing Faucets And Their Connections

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Today in 1901, US Patent 680836 A was issued, an invention of Joseph J. Danks, for his “Apparatus For Cleansing Faucets and Their Connections.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

I have invented certain new and f useful Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning the viscous deposits and other impurities which collect in beer-dispensing faucets and their pipe or hose connections leading from the kegs or barrels from which the beer is drawn. Its main objects are to facilitate changing the connections for cleansing the dispensing apparatus and for drawing beer or other liquid to be dispensed, to save time, and to avoid waste both of the beer or liquid to be dispensed and of the cleansing materials.

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