Beer In Ads #1817: Robert Morris — “Financier Of The Revolution”

February 10, 2016 By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1915, No. 10 in a series they did in 1914-15 called “Framers of the Constitution of the U.S.A.” The tenth one features Robert Morris, who apparently used his personal fortune to pay for part of the revolution. He also signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And like the rest of the men in this series, “he was ever a moderate drinking of light wines and barley brews and opposed Prohibition Laws, which make the many suffer for the faults of the few.”

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Pizza Hut To Offer Beer Selection

February 10, 2016 By Jay Brooks

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Last month, The Street reported that the Pizza Hut chain has remodeled several of their 6,000+ restaurants, and “plans to remodel roughly 700 of its U.S. stores a year through 2022 in the new format.” The newly refurbished Pizza Huts will continue to have the company’s ” trademark red and black colors, albeit with deeper hues” and will also “feature wraparound windows, outdoor seating and yes, a drive-thru.”

All well and good, so far, but so what, you may be asking. Pizza Hut has also added beer and wine service at the remodeled locations, and plans to add alcohol to each refurbished restaurant. Frankly, I didn’t realize they didn’t serve beer already. Pizza and beer are pretty much a perfect pairing, as iconic as peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese and tomato soup. The more I think about it, almost every pizza place I can name also serves beer, both chains and the small mom and pop pizza joints. How many brewpubs serve pizza? Lots of them, with many even specializing in it.

Why I bring this up is because the wackos at Alcohol Justice tweeted their displeasure at this idea, with this. “Now Pizza Hut wants to sell booze too bit.ly/1PkIwe1 What’s next…wine tastings at Toys-R-Us?” That’s what’s known as a false equivalence, one does not follow from the other. It is, in effect, a bullshit argument. One is a restaurant, and a type of restaurant that typically does carry beer and wine. The other is a toy store. There’s no link whatsoever, nothing that would make this in any way logical. It’s AJ making a mountain out a molehill, as they so often try to do. It’s just absurd.

They idea that a pizza restaurant serving beer and wine is cause for alarm is absolutely laughable. It’s harder to think of one that doesn’t already serve beer then come up with all of those who do. Several times I’ve gone with Porter’s basketball team and his little league baseball team to a Mountain Mike’s or Straw Hat Pizza after a game with the whole team and their parents. Many pizzas are ordered for everyone, with pitchers of beer for the parents. That’s the very definition of family-friendly, with something for everyone. Not once has there been a problem. But in AJ’s worldview, beer at a pizza joint with beer is the same as booze being served at a toy store. But now I’m feeling hungry. I’ve got plenty of beer. I wonder if it’s too late to order from Pizza Hut? They just opened one in our town, and I definitely want to support their decision to upset Alcohol Justice.

Patent No. 5716850A: Monitoring The Colour And Bitterness Of Beer

February 10, 2016 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1998, US Patent 5716850 A was issued, an invention of Gurinder Takhar and Mandy King, assigned to Whitbread PLC, for their “Monitoring the Colour And Bitterness of Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method of determining one or both of the colour and bitterness of beer by illuminating the beer with light of a pre-determined wavelength, typically 400±30 nm, to cause iso-α-acids in the beer to fluoresce. The fluorescence is detected over a range of wavelengths, typically 420 to 673 nm, using a fluorescence spectrophotometer. One or both of the colour and bitterness of the beer is determined by comparing an output signal from the fluorescence spectrophotometer to output signals stored for beers of known colour and bitterness.

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Asahi Likely To Buy Grolsch, Meantime & Peroni

February 10, 2016 By Jay Brooks

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Anhesuer-Busch InBev has been trying to sell off their Grolsch, Meantime and Peroni, since acquiring SABMiller last year. ABI confirmed this morning that they’ve received a binding offer to purchase the three beer brands from Japan’s Asahi Breweries. According to Just Drinks, “Asahi has been granted a ‘period of exclusivity’ related to the purchase, which, AB InBev flagged, is ‘conditional on the successful closing of the recommended acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev.'” The amount offered by Asahi is 2.55 billion euros (around $2.86 billion in U.S. dollars) and which, if accepted, would go a long way toward addressing regulatory concerns about the acquisition of SABMiller by ABI. Reuters also has more about the particulars.

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The Asahi Breweries headquarters in Tokyo, from a trip I took there to judge a beer competition in 2013.

Beer In Ads #1816: Charles Carroll Of Carrollton — “Father Of Religious Liberty In America”

February 9, 2016 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1915, No. 9 in a series they did in 1914-15 called “Framers of the Constitution of the U.S.A.” The ninth one features Charles Carroll III, a.k.a. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who was the only catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and was last remaining signator in 1832, when he finally died at age 95. His catholicism, apparently, made him a champion of religious liberty, and his hospitality “was nothing short of royal,” being “a lifetime user of light wines and barley brews.”

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Patent No. EP1412490A4: Mediating The Effects Of Alcohol Consumption By Orally Administering Active Dry Yeast

February 9, 2016 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 2005, US Patent EP 1412490 A4 was issued, an invention of Joe Owades, for his “Mediating the Effects of Alcohol Consumption by Orally Administering Active Dry Yeast.” It seems to be virtually identical to Patent No. 2452476A1: Mediating The Effects Of Alcohol Consumption By Orally Administering Active Dry Yeast, which was issued to Owades two years before, on January 23, 2003. So if you’re feeling a sense of déjà vu, it’s not you. Here’s the short Abstract from the previous one. “A process for lowering blood alcohol levels in humans after they imbibe alcoholic beverages by administering active dry yeast before or concomitantly with the imbibing of the beverages.”

This is most likely the origin of the hangover prevention that Jim Koch, from the Boston Beer Co., has popularized over the years, but especially after Esquire magazine ran an article about it last April, How to Drink All Night Without Getting Drunk.

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The story got picked up by NPR, Serious Eats and even Snopes took a look at it.

But I’d actually heard Jim tell the story a couple of times at various events, most recently at a beer dinner last year at the Jamaica Plain brewery in Boston celebrating the 30th anniversary of Samuel Adams.

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In telling the story, Jim did, of course, mention that the idea came from Joe Owades, who had worked as a consultant with the Boston Beer Co. since the very beginning, and off and on thereafter. But I don’t think I’d realized before now that Joe had actually patented the idea.

The claim in the patent application describes it in a nutshell. “A method of mediating the effect of alcohol consumption by a person which comprises orally administering active dry yeast containing alcohol dehydrogenase to said person prior to or simultaneously with consumption of an alcohol-containing beverage, whereby to oxidize a portion of the alcohol while still in the stomach of said person.” His own testing of the method, shown in the figures below, found that “blood alcohol level-min. was reduced by 38% by the yeast.”

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Beer In Ads #1815: The Pinckneys — “Fathers Of The Republic”

February 8, 2016 By Jay Brooks

Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1915, No. 8 in a series they did in 1914-15 called “Framers of the Constitution of the U.S.A.” The eighth one features The Pinckneys — Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Charles Pinckney. They were both from South Carolina, and first cousins, once removed. Charles Cotesworth, known as “C.C.,” was the older of the two, and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He also ran for president twice, as the Federalist Party candidate, but lost both times. The other Charles also signed the Constitution, and served as Governor of South Carolina, too. If you think political dynasties are recent phenomenon in America, seven people he’s related to have been governor, as well, in the 218 years since he left office. But was a Democrat, unlike his cousin the Federalist. Happily, they shared a belief in “the moderate use of light wines and barley brews.”

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Patent No. 7882975B2: Double Walled Beverage Container

February 8, 2016 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 2011, US Patent 7882975 B2 was issued, an invention of Jason M. Kelly, assigned to Miller Coors, LLC, for his “Double Walled Beverage Container and Method of Making Same.” Here’s the Abstract:

A double walled container is provided for insulating a beverage. An outer insulating shell or container is secured to the inner container that holds the beverage. A gap exists between the outer container and inner container and the air in the gap acts as an insulating barrier. The inner container is preferably a standard aluminum container. The outer container is preferably made from aluminum or a plastic polymer.

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