Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1828: Facts Versus Fallacies #23

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Sunday’s ad is for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 23 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered high into double digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “23,” ran in the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger April 17, 1915. This one rebuts arguments made earlier in April at a public hearing that took place in Harrisburg.

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Patent No. 3305136A: Beer Dispensing Assembly

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Today in 1967, US Patent 3305136 A was issued, an invention of Robert E. Harris, for his “Beer and Soft Drink Dispensing Assembly.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention relates generally to the dispensing of beverages, and more particularly to an assembly in which a simple source of refrigeration cools keg beer, soft drink concentrates, and domestic water that has been transformed into carbonated water in the assembly, with the cooled beer, as well as the concentrates blended with the carbonated water, being selectively dispensable from the assembly by use of a single source of carbon dioxide gas under pressure.

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Beer In Ads #1827: Kossuth — Greatest Of Hungarians

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Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 10 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The tenth, and final, one features Lajos Kossuth, who “was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Governor-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. With the help of his talent in oratory in political debates and public speeches, Kossuth emerged from a poor gentry family into regent-president of Kingdom of Hungary. As the most influential contemporary American journalist Horace Greeley said of Kossuth: “Among the orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior.” Kossuth’s powerful English and American speeches so impressed and touched the most famous contemporary American orator Daniel Webster, that he wrote a book about Kossuth’s life. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in Great Britain and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth’s bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitol with the inscription: “Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849.”

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Beer In Ads #1826: Admiral de Ruyter — Greatest Of Holland’s Sea Captains

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Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 9 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The ninth one features Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter, who “was a Dutch admiral. He is the most famous and one of the most skilled admirals in Dutch history, most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. He fought the English and French and scored several major victories against them, the best known probably being the Raid on the Medway. The pious De Ruyter was very much loved by his sailors and soldiers; from them his most significant nickname derived: Bestevaêr (older Dutch for ‘grandfather’.)”

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Patent No. 534541A: Faucet And Attachments Therefor

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Today in 1895, US Patent 534541 A was issued, an invention of Joseph Earl Wright and Edwin A. Grover, for their “Faucet and Attachments Therefor.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Our invention is an improved faucet, and attachment, for. use in drawing beer, or any other liquid with which it is desirable to pre vent the contact of air within the keg. The faucet is provided with a sliding attachment, comprising an inflatable airbag, and a fixed and sliding tube for pushing the bag out of the faucet proper into the keg and subsequently permitting injection of air, and also with valves for regulating the discharge of the contents of the keg. The construction of the device is such that it is cheap and durable, and is adapted to be used in place of the ordinary beer-faucet.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev Buys Goose Island Brewpub

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The Chicago Tribune reported this morning that Anheuser-Busch InBev, who five years ago bought Goose Island Brewing, the production facility and the brand — but not the brewpubs — has announced the purchase of the original brewpub on Chicago’s Clybourn. Founder “John Hall said AB InBev was unable to buy the brewpub under Illinois law at the time of the first sale, in 2011, but also didn’t have much interest. ‘They didn’t understand the value, which they do now,’ he said.” Neither the price or terms were revealed, but apparently “Goose Island’s Fulton Street brewery will become the parent company of the brewpub on Clybourn, which Hall started in 1988 after a career in the corrugated box industry.” In December, the Wrigleyville brewpub closed, meaning ABI will now owns the entire Goose Island kit and kaboodle.

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James Beard 2016 Semifinalists Announced

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The 2016 semifinalist nominations for the James Beard Awards were announced Wednesday, and the good news is there are quite a few beer professionals among the nominees for “Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional.” If you’re not familiar with the prestigious food awards, here’s how the James Beard Foundation describe their annual awards. “Covering all aspects of the industry — from chefs and restaurateurs to cookbook authors and food journalists to restaurant designers and architects and more — the Beard Awards are the highest honor for food and beverage professionals working in North America.” Until very recently, the awards were almost exclusively food and wine-centric, but more recently “beverage professionals” has slowly been expanding to include craft beer and spirits, too. It’s been nice to see the prejudice against beer in the food, cooking and restaurant world finally beginning to slide away. Too slowly, perhaps, but still … it’s about time and nice to see.

The list released Wednesday is the semifinalists. On March 15, a smaller list of finalists will be announced from among the semifinalists and the award winners will be announced May 2. In the category “Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional,” six of the twenty semifinalists work in the beer world. Last year it was five and the year before there were seven beer professionals nominated. Hopefully, many of them will make the cut next month. Here’s the beer people for this year:

  • Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, DE
  • Wayne Carpenter, Skagit Valley Malting, Burlington, WA
  • Vinnie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
  • Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, Evil Twin Brewing, Brooklyn, NY
  • Jim Koch, The Boston Beer Company, Boston
  • Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME

Congratulations to all the semifinalists. It’s a great list, all deserving, though I’m especially pleased to see Vinnie Cilurzo, who’s a friend and neighbor.

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Patent No. 398330A: Hop-Shovel

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Today in 1889, US Patent 398330 A was issued, an invention of Benjamin F. Jacobs, for his “Hop-Shovel.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The invention relates to improvements in hop-shovels; and it consists in the constrution and novel combination of parts, as hereinafter set forth.

It has been the practice to remove the hops from the kiln by means of a rake, which is objectionable, for the reason that when the hops are first dried and yet warm they break up very easily and are very sensitive to the handling they receive. When raked out of the kiln, they not only break, but lose their dust, which detracts materially from their marketable value. The object of my invention is to obviate this difficulty by providing a bag to hold the hops and the dust when it is desired to remove the hops from the kiln.

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Beer In Ads #1825: Daniel O’Connell — “The Liberator”

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Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 8 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The eighth one features Daniel O’Connell, who was “often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic emancipation—including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.”

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Patent No. 2025640A1: Cooling Device For A Beverage Keg

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Today in 2009, US Patent EP 2025640 A1 was issued, an invention of Jan Nørager Rasmussen and Steen Vesborg, assigned to Carlsberg Breweries, for their “Cooling Device for a Beverage Keg.” Here’s the Abstract:

The present invention relates to a cooling device (10) for containing a collapsible beverage keg (12) to be cooled to a temperature of e.g. 5°-7° C. The cooling device comprises a thermally insulating container (14) comprising a housing having a base portion (18) from which an outer wall (20) extends upwardly defining an upper open end (20) and a movable lid (22) which provides access to the interior of the container when the lid is open and a waterproof sealing off of the container when the lid is closed. The container further defines a specific inner volume when the lid is closed. The keg is supported by the base portion and defines in a filled and non-collapsed state a specific beverage volume. A connector (24) is mounted to the container for connection to an external water hose (25) for receiving and introducing tap water into the interior of the container. A residual volume for receiving ice as a cooling medium is defined as the difference between the specific inner volume and the specific beverage volume, the residual volume constituting preferably 17,6% of the specific inner volume. The beverage container communicates with an external tapping cock (26) for supply of a beverage from the collapsible beverage keg, the tap water being provided through the external water hose.

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