Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 3765903A: Isomerised Hop Extract

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Today in 1973, US Patent 3765903 A was issued, an invention of Brian Clarke, Robert Hildebrand, David Lance, and Alexander White, assigned to Carton and United Breweries Ltd, for their “Isomerised Hop Extract.” Here’s the Abstract:

A process for the preparation of an isomerised hop extract for use in the flavouring of food or beverages which comprises adding to a solution of humulones or their salts a metal ion of calcium, magnesium, nickel, manganese or zinc, which metal ion forms with the humulones a metal ion-humulone complex which then precipitates from the solution. The metal ion-humulone complex is then heated in solid or paste state or in suspension or dissolved in an organic solvent to form a metal ion-isohumulone complex in high yield. The metal ion-isohumulone complex is substantially insoluble and can be used as a bittering additive, without regeneration to a soluble salt of isohumulone, by finely grinding such metal ion-isohumulone complex.

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Watney’s Happy Families

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The other night Boak & Bailey tweeted a photo of a UK eBay listing for a card game published in the 1930s by Watney Combe Reid & Co. LTD, brewers of Watney’s Red Barrel.

One of the many things I’m obsessed with is games. Since I was a kid, I’ve played them, collected them, and even created them. It’s just one more thing to add to the ever-growing list of things about which I’m particularly geeky. So I was already familiar with the card game Happy Families, which is a fairly simple game, and is somewhat similar to “Go Fish.” But I had no idea that a brewery had made their own version of the game.

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Based on the box, it was obviously a giveaway to advertise the Watney’s brand. Intrigued, I would have bought it on the spot, except that, as Boak & Bailey noted, the “Buy It Now” price was a hefty £64.95, or about $100. Beer writing, unfortunately, doesn’t pay well enough to indulge all of my whims. Still, I wanted to know more about the game, and set out to see what I could find.

It was apparently created in England in 1851, by John Jaques II, who was also responsible for inventing “Snakes and Ladders,” “Tiddlywinks,” “Ludo” and the pub favorite “Shove Ha’penny.” It often uses a custom deck of 32 cards, although the game can be played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Cartamundi has the rules online. In the Watney’s version, the rules are printed on the back of the cardboard box:

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In the Watney’s version, the families are the Barrels, the Cheerilads, the Combes, the Hops, the Malts, the Reids, the Stouts, and the Watneys. According to The World of Playing Cards:

Although the 1920s was a decade of optimism after the Great War, the Great Depression made the 1930s a difficult time. In Britain unemployment was widespread. As we see from these images, the woman was the homemaker and had a hairdo, and the man worked. The generation of children who grew up in the 1930s would go on to fight in World War II. They had their share of hardships and built strong values of hard work.

Below are the 32 cards from deck:

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For two of them, they apparently didn’t have a finished card, so here’s those cards taken from the eBay listing photos.

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Hopefully, I can find a less expensive deck of these cards. Great, another item to add to my Wishlist.

Patent No. 4963175A: Keg Cooler Tub

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Today in 1990, US Patent 4963175 A was issued, an invention of Donald E. Pace, for his “Keg Cooler Tub.” Here’s the Abstract:

A transportable keg cooler tub comprising a circular tub-like base with a pliable flexible canvas sleeve extending upwards from the top edge of the base. The sleeve enclosing a plastic liner in intimate contact with ice cubes filling the space between the liner and the enclosed beverage keg. A portion of the plastic liner pulled through an orifice on the bottom outside perimeter of the base providing drainage for the ice contained by the plastic liner.

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Beer In Ads #1709: When Life At Its Best Calls For Beer At Its Best …

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Thursday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1956. Now matter how you feel about the issue of guns and gun control, it doesn’t seem to me that it’s a great idea to mix a romantic evening by the fireplace with a couple of beers and a shotgun. Don’t worry honey, it will be fun. I’ll clean my gun and we’ll drink a few Falstaffs. What could go wrong? But look how happy they look.

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Patent No. 5564568A: Insulating Cover For Keg Beer

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Today in 1996, US Patent 5564568 A was issued, an invention of Pleasant P. Rankin, Sr., for his “Insulating Cover For Keg Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

An insulating cover for keg beer. The cover consists of a relatively flexible insulating material which substantially surrounds one or more kegs of beer. In a first embodiment the cover closely conforms to a single keg of beer, and thus has a cylindrical shape. Handles are provided on the exterior of the cover for easier manual transport of the keg and cover combination. The insulative properties are sufficient to maintain a relatively constant cool temperature without the use of ice, although multiple-use sealed freeze packs may be placed within the cover. In a further embodiment the cover is sized to fit upon a pallet and enclose up to four kegs. A side wall and top of the cover is openable to remove one or more of the kegs.

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Patent No. 2017365A: Device For Tapping Kegs

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Today in 1935, US Patent 2017365 A was issued, an invention of August L. Klein, assigned to the Blatz Brewing Company, for his “Device For Tapping Kegs.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to apparatus for increasing the pressure in beer kegs; and more particularly, a utility device which may be used where expensive tapping apparatus is not available.

Although my invention is not limited to the dispensing of beer, beer is often stored in kegs and at picnics and other functions, difficulty is experienced in dispensing the same. It is common practice to place in the side of the keg a wooden spigot, but due to lack of internal pressure, the beer or liquid flows very slowly. My invention increases the internal pressure so that the contents of the keg are under pressure and will be forced out through the spigot.

The prime object of the invention is to provide quickly attachable means whereby the internal or head pressure may be increased, thus facilitating the dispensing of the contents of a drum or keg.

Another object is to provide means for indicating the internal pressure so that the operator will be guided in this respect.

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The Muppets Drink Lagunitas IPA

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As I’ve revealed many times here, I’ve been a huge fan of The Muppets since I was a kid. I’ve even gotten my own kids to love them, as well, showing them the old Muppet Show on DVD, along with all of the films. So imagine my delight when ABC announced a new Muppet Show called simply “the muppets” that debuted last month. So far it’s been pretty good, with their signature bad puns, musical numbers, celebrity cameos and much of the same type of humor that I loved in the 1970s. Plus, they’re making fun of reality shows, which as a genre I absolutely loathe, so that’s a bonus.

With the kids schedule, and mine, we Tivo almost everything and finally got around to watching Episode 4, Pig Out, yesterday. If you don’t have Hulu, try Putlocker or, depending on your cable provider, the ABC website.

The episode’s plot revolves around the staff unwinding after hard days dealing with their insufferable boss, Miss Piggy, who is miffed she’s never been invited to one of these after parties. She manipulates Kermit into geting her invited with the promise that she’ll turn them down. Then, as you’ve probably guessed, she accepts and everyone assumes that the evening will go downhill fast.

They go to a karaoke bar, and indeed it is quite awkward at the beginning. In fact the bar is called “Rowlf’s,” as you can see on the beer mugs they’re shown drinking out of. Rowlf, a brown shaggy, piano-playing dog, was one of the very first Muppet characters back in the 1960s, so it makes sense that he’d own a bar in the new incarnation.

But then Ed Helms unexpectedly arrives at the bar and things begin to liven up. There’s much drinking and karaoke singing — the Swedish Chef’s turn at the mic is particularly memorable. Halfway through the evening Helms’ is leading a sing-a-long to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” when at one of the tables in the bar, something caught my eye. One of the more obscure Muppets, Chip, and the Swedish Chef were drinking Lagunitas IPA! Chip was drinking out of a mug but the bottle sat on the table while the Swedish Chef was drinking straight from the bottle.

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It’s only there for a few seconds, but there’s no doubt what it is. If you don’t think that trademark is important, or that typefaces and fonts can, or should, be protected, both my wife and my son immediately recognized the bottle when I showed it to them as being from Lagunitas, and all you can see of the label is the single letter “I” on the sideways bottle.

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You can also see humans in the bar holding bottles of Lagunitas IPA throughout the scenes shown in Rowlf’s. They’re all quick cuts but it’s still unmistakable. The Muppets definitely drink Lagunitas IPA. Nice to see my local brewery’s beer on a show I love.

Patent No. 5564602A: Beer-Dispensing System And Apparatus

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Today in 1996, US Patent 5564602 A was issued, an invention of James Cleland and Melvin Kyees, for their “Beer-Dispensing System and Apparatus.” Here’s the Abstract:

A beer-dispensing apparatus including a source of cooled pressurized gas-ladened beer, an elongate beer delivery line extending from the source of beer to a remote beer-dispensing station, a normally closed beer-dispensing valve at the beer-dispensing station, a liquid glycol chilling and recirculating unit, a heat exchanger beer delivery structure including an elongate beer-conducting balance line smaller in inside diameter than the beer delivery line and connected with and extending between the beer delivery line and the valve, an elongate glycol-conducting tube extending longitudinally of and in heat transfer relationship with the balance tube and connected with the glycol chilling and recirculating unit to cause chilled glycol to continuously circulate through it; a thermally insulated heat-storing aluminum body about the balance and glycol tubes; glycol flowing through the glycol tube progressively lowers the temperature of beer flowing downstream through the balance tube to the valve.

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Beer In Ads #1708: One Of “Those Moments”

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Wednesday’s ad is for Carling’s Black Label, from 1955. By “those moments,” an example might be it starting to rain just as you finished washing your car. That would drive anyone to drink, I suppose. But not just any beer, according to the ad copy, will do. You need the “most satisfying beer of all,” a.k.a. “the beer with the heart of gold.”

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Patent No. 5676369A: Method Of Playing A Brewing Game

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Today in 1997, US Patent 5676369 A was issued, an invention of Mark Keathon DeWeese, for his “Method of Playing a Brewing Game.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method of playing a board game related to brewing procedures and the science of brewing. The game includes a board having an endless path divided into a plurality of continuous spaces including a starting space and spaces with indicia upon them corresponding to hops, barley, yeast, brewing science and speciality beer styles. At least two players start by moving their playing pieces along a path according to a roll of the die. Upon landing on a space, a player must pick a card corresponding to that space. The card may require the player to correctly answer a question or may award or hinder his progress in the game. If the card requires an answer, which is correctly answered, the player is allowed to roll again and continue around the board. Upon passing the starting point the player is awarded a piece of brewery equipment. Players continue collecting brewing equipment while moving around the board. Play is terminated when a player receives all of the equipment necessary to operate a brewery.

The finished game was released. I have a copy of it, though I don’t recall where I got it. I think I only tried it one time, and I honestly don’t remember how it played, which I suppose in and of itself isn’t a ringing endorsement.
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