Patent No. 4483881A: Process For Discontinuous Wort Boiling During Beer Manufacture

November 20, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1984, US Patent 4483881 A was issued, an invention of Bernhard Lenz, for his “Process For Discontinuous Wort Boiling During Beer Manufacture.” Here’s the Abstract:

In discontinuous wort boiling for the manufacture of beer, the energy of the vapor arising from the boiling is used in a heat exchanger for the production of hot water. The heated brewing water is reheated in a second heat exchange process by the energy from the vapor arising from the boiling and, with this reheated brewing water, the refined wort is heated again in another heat exchange process before the boiling, whereby the brewing water which is cooled in this heat exchange process is reheated by the energy from the vapor arising from the boiling. Thus, the energy from the vapor produced during the wort boiling is fed directly back into the wort boiling process.

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Patent No. 1981627A: Coaster

November 20, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1934, US Patent 1981627 A was issued, an invention of Ralph S. Merriman, assigned to the Closure Service Company, for his “Coaster.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to an article of manufacture designed for use as a tray or holder for glass tumblers, bottles or the like.

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Patent No. 1981014A: Beer Cooler

November 20, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1934, US Patent 1981014 A was issued, an invention of Otto Weigelt, for his “Beer Cooler.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to beer coolers, and more particularly to the water pipe beer cooler of the type adapted for use in brewing establishments.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel beer cooler having means for greatly improved distribution of the beer while undergoing the cooling process, so as to invoke and utilize the greatest amount of cooling efficiency of the apparatus.
A further object is to provide a beer cooler of the water pipe type having an efficient and simple means for accommodating a variation in length of the pipes employed caused by their expansion or contraction during use.
Another object is to provide end manifolds for the pipes having longitudinally slideable mountings permanently secured but capable of limited movement to accommodate variations in expansion and contraction of the water pipes.

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Craft Beer Product Segmentation 2015: A Tale Of Two Charts

November 20, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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It was the best of charts, it was the worst of charts. So begins every great story. This made me laugh like the Dickens this morning, as fellow beer writer Bryan Roth tweeted a chart showing “Craft Production in the U.S.” apparently as of August 2015.

The data comes from IBISWorld, a company that identifies themselves as “one of the world’s leading publishers of business intelligence, specializing in Industry research and Procurement research.” Their website shows that they have offices in Los Angeles, New York, Melbourne, London and Beijing, although the chart claims they’re “Chicago-based.” The report is entitled “Craft Beer Production in the US: Market Research Report,” and was published in August of this year. If you want to buy yourself a copy, it costs between $925 and $1,595, depending on which purchase option you choose.

Hopefully, the chart was not created by IBISWorld, because besides mis-identifying where the company is located, as Roth points out, “the graphic designer who created alternating sized circles not dependent on their % share is bad at their job.” It’s a terrible chart, on so many levels. First, why use “stencil” as the font for the title in the red center circle? Why are the outer circles different shades of blue, for no apparent rhyme or reason. There’s no discernible pattern to that decision. Bock is the lightest color, at 3.9%, followed by Amber Ale at 10.9%, so you might be tempted to think the color is dependent on market share, lighter for lower and darker for higher percentages. But no, fruit beer is the lowest, at 3.5%, and is medium blue, while Lager, at only 8.6%, is the darkest blue on the chart.

Why are the black lines not emanating from the center of the middle? Instead, it looks like one of the webs from the 1980s video game “Tempest.” They all meet in an outer ring, too, except for Bock and Wheat Beer, which are curiously left hanging. But most egregious, the size of the circles are not even close to being proportional to the percentages expressed in them. The sizes appear to be nothing more than random, just like the color choices. So at first glance, it makes no sense and is, at best, confusing. At worst, it looks like it was designed by a five-year old, and frankly that may be overly insulting to toddlers.

Carla Jean Lauter, better known by her nom nom de plume, The Beer Babe, was similarly bothered by the chart, but decided to do something about it. She “fixed” it, making the bubbles proportional to their market share so the chart is easier to read and better represents the reality it’s trying to convey. She also chose the colors of the bubbles to be representative of the beer color of each style, even choosing pumpkin color for seasonal. As Lauter tweeted when she posted her version of the chart, “I feel better now.” Weirdly, so do I. It’s so much better.

Beer In Ads #1734: Brand

November 19, 2015 By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is for Brand Bier, which was established in 1430. If you’re going to pick a brand name for your beer, Brand seems like a pretty good way to go. Brand Bier is still a going concern, and is the oldest brewer in the Netherlands. As for this ad, I’m not sure when it is from, though given how generic it is, it could really be from any time. I’m also not sure if the dozen full beer glasses are meant to spell out anything or otherwise represent some shape.

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Patent No. 8584665B2: Brewery Plant And Method

November 19, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 2013, US Patent 8584665 B2 was issued, an invention of Kurt Stippler and Klaus-Karl Wasmuht, assigned to Krones Ag, for his “Brewery Plant and Method.” Here’s the Abstract:

A brewery plant with at least one mash container, a lauter tun, a wort pan and a water housing, wherein at least part of the thermal energy requirement of the brewery is covered with solar collectors, and the solar collectors directly or indirectly heat a fluid. Also, a brewing method where the thermal energy requirement for at least of a part of the brewing process stages is at least partially covered with a fluid heated directly or indirectly by solar collectors.

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Home For The Holidays Session

November 19, 2015 By Jay Brooks

For our 106th Session next month our host will be yours truly, who writes this here Brookston Beer Bulletin. For my topic, I’ve chosen Holiday Beers, by which I mean this.

For seasonal beers, the Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Mithra time of the year is my mostest favorite. This past weekend, we had our fifteenth annual holiday beer tasting for the Celebrator Beer News, and sampled 42 of this year’s Christmas beers. Here’s how I’ve described them in the introduction of the tasting notes for the holiday edition each year:

Holiday beers are by design no one style, but are a chance for individual breweries to let their talent and imagination run wild. At the holidays, when people stop their busy lives and share some precious time with family and friends, the beer they choose should be equally as special as the time they’re sharing. So a holiday beer should be made to impress, to wow its audience, to stand out. That’s the only criteria that should be met by one of these beers. Will it impress? Different breweries, thankfully, do this in many, many different ways. Some use unusual spices or fruits, some use special malts or hops, some use other uncommon ingredients like spruce or rye, and some make a style that itself is unusual. So there’s nothing to tie these beers together apart from their celebration of the season. That makes it both a delight and a challenge to judge. Ultimately, perhaps more than any other tasting, these beers are simply a matter of what you like and our judging is a matter of what we like. So try them and discover for yourself the many flavors of this holiday season.

Beer and hat of Santa Claus

As I said, I really enjoy the variety of holiday and winter seasonals, and they often seem especially well-suited to colder weather. I don’t really care what they’re Celebrating, be it:

Christmas

Xmas

Chanukah

Winter Solstice
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Krampus

Festivus

And despite the fact that the rightwing nutjobs insist there’s a war on Christmas because people use “holidays” to be inclusive instead of “Merry Christmas,” a lot of seasonal beer labels from the first half of the 20th century used “holiday” rather than Christmas. And what do you know, civilization didn’t end. And that’s usually the time that conservatives point to as being what we need to return to, when America was a more innocent place, pre-1960s. But they drank holiday beers, what do you know? And as far as I can tell, nobody freaked the fuck out like they do today. After the brouhaha with Starbucks cups, it actually made me want to go to Starbucks — a place I don’t normally frequent — just because of how ridiculous it all was.

Special-Holiday-Beer-Labels-The-Peoples-Brewing

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Kochs-Holiday-Beer--Labels-Fred-Koch-Brewery

Christmas-Brew-Beer-Labels-Auto-City-Brewing

So for this Session, write about whatever makes you happy, so long as it involves holiday beers.

Discuss your favorite holiday beer.
Review one or more holiday beers.
Do you like the idea of seasonal beers, or loathe them?
What’s your idea of the perfect holiday beer?
Do have a holiday tradition with beer?
Are holiday beers released too early, or when should they be released?
Do you like holiday beer festivals?

Those are just a few suggestions, celebrate the holiday beers in your own way. Happy Holidays!

So start your holiday celebration early. It’s never too soon. To participate in the December Session, on or around Friday, December 4, write your post, then leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail or copy me (@Brookston) in your Twitter feed with your link.

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Patent No. 2813638A: Palletizer

November 19, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1957, US Patent 2813638 A was issued, an invention of Frank H. Miller Jr., assigned to Miller Engineering Corp., for his “Palletizer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to a palletizing device and to the method of operation thereof, and in particular to a palletizing device which is completely automatic in operation.

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Patent No. 133152A: Improvement In Apparatus For Curing Hops

November 19, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1872, US Patent 133152 A was issued, an invention of Nehemiah E. Hinds, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Curing Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to an Improvement in kilns for curing hops; and consists, first, of a series of tubes connected with a steam generator outside of the kiln, arranged within the kiln in such a manner as to discharge the steam beneath the hops and permit it to pass up through the hops, thereby thoroughly saturating them, the object of this part of the invention being to keep the hops thoroughly dampened while undergoing the bleaching process; secondly, of a pair of frames, covered with canvas, arranged within the kiln in such a manner as to be swung down upon and I completely cover the hops, the object of this part of the invention being to partially confine the steam, but more especially the fumes of the brimstone, within the kiln, and only permit them to escape slowly through the canvas—the united objects of the two parts of the invention being to produce a kiln that will cure hops in a manner far superior to the kilns heretofore in use.

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