Friday’s ad is for F.W. Hilsebein Bock Beer, from who knows when. This is obviously a more suave and sophisticated bock. It’s from the German brewery, Berliner Bierbrauerei A.G. vorm F.W. Hilsebein. But I keep expecting the goat to look at the camera and say. “Bock, James Bock.”
Today in 2009, US Patent 20090028999 A1 was issued, an invention of Klaus U. Melisch and Stefan Riedelsheimer, for their “Beer Brewing Kit and Brewing Method to Prepare Wort for the Kit.” Here’s the Abstract:
A kit for home brewed beer which comprises a bottle, wort substantially filling the bottle, and a cap which has venting means to permit escape of gas from the bottle when pressure therein exceeds a predetermined value. There is also disclosed a brewing method wherein lactic acid is added to the wort to reduce the pH to level 4.6 and a predetermined amount of yeast is added to the wort to cause a short fermentation while maintaining the alcohol level below 0.5% by volume.
You knew it had to happen. There’s at least one every year. Two breweries in the home city or state make a bet for whose team will win the big game, with the other’s beer as the prize. The only question is which breweries would step up.
This year, Denver’s Spangalang Brewery is throwing down the gauntlet, and Fullsteam Brewery of Durham, North Carolina has picked it up. The two breweries have wagered the outcome of next weekend’s Super Bowl on february 5, and apparently “the terms of the wager are significant for the brewers and their fans.”
According to the press release I got today from Denver beer writer Marty Jones, “The losing brewery will have to brew a special batch of beer from a recipe chosen by the winning brewery. The beer recipe will include indigenous ingredients from the winner’s state and will be named by the winning brewery.
On tapping day the losing brewery must hang the winning team’s flag and fly it for one week or until the beer is gone, whichever comes first.”
Marty Jones with Fullsteam Brewery’s Sean Lilly Wilson during CBC 2010 in Chicago.
“That Panthers flag,” says Sean Lilly Wilson, founder of Fullsteam Brewery, “is going to look great hanging in the Spangalang tasting room. But we’ll send a beer recipe with some choice Carolina ingredients and flavor to help ease the pain of Denver’s loss.”
“It will be interesting to see if Cam Newtown can sport his 1000-watt smile with Von Miller in his face,” says Spangalang co-founder and brewer Darren Boyd. “I’m thinking ‘Cam’s Kryptonite’ would be a good name for the beer recipe we send to North Carolina.”
Spangalang’s Austin Wiley with Orange Crushsicle.
Each brewery will be asking its social media followers to suggest beer styles, local ingredients and names for the winning beers.
From the press release:
On February 5, the Friday before the Super Bowl, each brewery will release a special pre-game beer to rally local fans.
Spangalang will bring back Orange Crushsicle, which it debuted prior to the Broncos defeating the New England Patriots to win the AFC crown and a place in the Super Bowl. The beer equivalent of the Dreamsicle frozen treat, Orange Crushscicle is a citrus session ale enhanced with orange juice, sweet and bitter orange peel and vanilla. Its name pays tribute to the past and current defense of the Broncos and predicted the creaming of the Patriots by the Broncos.
“Broncos fans came out in droves to try the beer last weekend,” says Spangalang brewer and co-founder Taylor Rees. “Our tap room will be a sea of orange jerseys when we tap it again.” Fullsteam will release Bless Their Heart, a twist to its recent collaboration with Charlotte-based Free Range Brewing. The beer is made with foraged juniper, North Carolina Frasier fir, and an addition of chokeberry syrup. “We thought chokeberry would be a good ingredient to use in this beer,” Wilson says, “due to Manning’s history of choking in the Super Bowl.” No matter which team wins the game, the rival brewers are comfortable with the wager. “The worst that can happen,” Boyd says, “is we let a like-minded, quality obsessed craft brewer take the lead on a beer of ours. So this is a good bet to make. Although the Panthers flag in our brewery would make us all sick.”
Founded in 2010, Fullsteam Brewery is a Durham, North Carolina production brewery and tavern inspired by the food and farm traditions of the South. The brewery aims to “pioneer the art of distinctly Southern beer” and specializes in traditional and experimental beers with a Southern sensibility. Its beers often incorporate locally farmed goods, heirloom grains, and seasonal botanicals.
Spangalang Brewery was founded in April 2015 by former Great Divide Brewery brewers Taylor Rees, Austin Wiley and Darren Boyd. The brewery crafts world-class beer for locals and celebrates the past and present culture of its historic Five Points neighborhood. Spangalang earned numerous “best new brewery of 2015” honors and a gold medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival medal.
May the best brewery win.
Today in 1935, US Patent 1989395 A was issued, an invention of Paul L. Betz and Sebastian Karrer, for their “System For Dispensing Cooled Liquids.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to systems for dispensing cooled liquids, and more particularly to systems of this character for dispensing cooled beverages, such as beer.
You probably saw the news that the papers of the late, great Fred Eckhardt were donated to the Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives, which describes itself as “a community archiving project housed in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at the OSU Libraries & Press. We’re actively collecting materials that tell the story of hops production and the craft beer industry.” The Brew Historian, who may or may not be Tiah Edmundon-Morton, has been teasing out Fred’s papers since acquiring the collection, and has a Tumblr so you can follow along. Today, the OHBA posted a particularly fun one.
In his early Seventies book, A Treatise on Lager Beer, Fred apparently did all of the layout himself. And they found the originals among his personal papers. These, below, are “the original construction paper paste-ups for his Treatise on Lager Beer,” and believed to have been created around 1970. Pretty cool.
Today in 1907, US Patent 842343 A was issued, an invention of Gustave A. W. Schilling and John H. Flach, for their “Air-Inlet and Beer-Outlet Bung for Barrels.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
Our invention relates to improvements in the compressed-air inlet and bung-hole apparatus for beer-holding barrels and for other liquors that are kept on tap; and the objects of our invention are, first, to provide an improved adjustable air-inlet and removable bung for beer-barrels of different capacity, second, to provide a simple bung adapted to be threaded to the bung-holes of barrels and an improved air-inlet and beer outlet valve-controlled pipe that is adapted to be held in barrels of different capacities by any predetermined part of the length of said air -inlet and beer outlet tubes, and, third, to provide a simple inexpensive air-inlet and beer-drawing apparatus that can be changed from one barrel to another. We attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view illustrating the application of our improved device. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the improved bung. Fig. 3 is sectional view of the several parts constituting` the bung. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the wrench used for removing the nut which is threaded within the bung. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a device for removing the bung.
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Bock Beer, from sometime before prohibition. This one is pretty cool, meant to look as if it’s intricately carved wood. It shows the Ballantine rings, but with a goat peeking through the bottom ring, and a chariot being pulled by a pair of them. I wonder if it would disappear if you hung it in a paneled den?
Today in 2014, US Patent D698201 S1 was issued, an invention of Brian Rice Bradford and Klas Fredrik Perman, for their “Beer Glass.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
We claim the ornamental design for beer glass, as shown and described. The claim to the beer glass is directed to the collective appearance of the articles shown, including a transparent body, transparent interior portion, and lid.
Today in 1913, US Patent 1051554 A was issued, an invention of Roady A. Champion, for his “Beer Faucet.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to faucets, and particularly to that class of faucets whereby air is forced into the upper portion of the barrel or cask containing the liquid to be delivered so as to force the liquid out through the faucet.
The primary object of my invention is to provide a very simple, cheap, and effective device of, this character, easily operated, easily’ repaired, having few parts and not liable to get out of order.
A further object is to improve the construction of the valve used in the air compressing pump whereby to prevent any out let of the beer into the pump upon the up stroke of the piston.
Wednesday’s ad is for Amstel Bock Beer, from 1935. It’s hard to think of Amstel brewing a bock, but they did make Amstel Dark when I was a kid. But the ad itself is pretty cool, that minimalist thirties style with strong colors and lines. Although the goat is wearing a blank expression and doesn’t look happy to be there.
