Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 5555992A: Double Hinged Opening For Container End Members

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Today in 1996, US Patent 5555992 A was issued, an invention of William A. Sedgeley, assigned to the Coors Brewing Company, for their “Double Hinged Opening for Container End Members.” Here’s the Abstract:

A container end member has a peripheral wall and integral central end wall portion with a stay-on-tab mounted on the central end wall portion for pivotal and rotational movement and a score line groove defined by two spaced apart terminal ends formed in the central end wall portion for defining a severable panel portion that is large enough so that when severed will provide an elongated opening that vents the container to permit pouring of the beverage in the container at faster pour rates than now available.

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What The New Landscape Of Beer Might Look Like

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You’d have to be living under a rock to not have seen the news that ABI was planning a takeover bid to acquire SABMiller, which might work unless SABMiller might be able to buy Heineken, thus making itself too big for ABI to get in a hostile takeover. These rumors have long been circulating so nobody who’s been paying attention to the beer industry was too surprised at these announcements.

But so far I haven’t seen too much discussion about what the beer world might look like if any of these come to pass. The online news site Quartz filled that gap by producing a chart showing that This is what the family tree of beer companies will look like if AB InBev acquires SABMiller.

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Click here to see the chart full size.

Patent No. 2014492A: Beer Faucet And Tap

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Today in 1935, US Patent 2014492 A was issued, an invention of Kenneth Miles Burdge, for his “Beer Faucet and Tap.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to a beer faucet and tap, and has more particular reference to an improved beer faucet having means for coupling it to the tap bushing ordinarily secured to the head of a beer barrel or keg, and provided with a reciprocating valve operable to drive the cork out of the tap bushing of the barrel or keg when the faucet is initially coupled thereto.

An object of the present invention is to provide a beer faucet and tap of the above kind which is simple and durable in construction, efficient in operation, and otherwise well adapted to meet with all of the requirements for a successful commercial use.

A further object of the invention is to provide a beer faucet and tap of the above kind Whose parts may be economically manufactured and initially assembled in a ready manner, and which parts may be readily disassembled for renewal or repair.

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Patent No. 3467132A: Beer Keg Fitting With Limit Stops

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Today in 1969, US Patent 3467132 A was issued, an invention of Michael J. Parisi, for his “Beer Keg Fitting with Limit Stops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

A beer keg valve having a body portion which inserts into an opening in the keg and a valve at the inner end of the body limited to 90 rotation by abutments on the valve stem which strike against complementary abutments integral with the inside surface of the valve body.

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Gordon Biersch Closes Original Palo Alto Brewpub

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When Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch opened the first brewpub in downtown Palo Alto in 1988, it was one of the few to focus on lagers, and one of the few to focus on fine dining, or at least a step up from the usual pub fare found at most brewpubs at the time. In 1999, two years after opening a production brewery in San Jose, the brewpubs were sold to a restaurant group which today is known as CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and includes the Rock Bottom brewpubs as well as Gordon Biersch. Dean Biersch retired and went on to open the HopMonk Taverns in Sonoma County while Dan Gordon continues to run the production brewery in San Jose.

Today, September 16, CraftWorks announced that they had closed the brewpub on Emerson Street in Palo Alto, as of the close of business on Tuesday, September 15, and apparently “apologizing for short notice.” Unfortunately, there’s no additional information, or indeed any mention at all, about the closure on their Facebook page, website or on the parent company’s corporate website, which hasn’t updated their press releases since 2011.

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The Gordon Biersch brewpub on Emerson Street in Palo Alto.

NOTE: It turns out this was just half of the story. Read the other half, Dan Gordon To Re-Open Original Gordon Biersch Brewpub.

A Look At The Craft Beer Industry Supply Chain

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2013 was the year of the infographics, when I featured a new infographic each and every day, so I haven’t used too many lately. But this look at The Craft Beer Industry Supply Chain stood out as an interesting one. It was crated by Halobi, a company that specializes in supply chain and inventory management for businesses. Here’s their journey, “From Grains to Growlers.”

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Patent No. 3905522A: Keg Tapping Device

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Today in 1975, US Patent 3905522 A was issued, an invention of Mack S. Johnston, assigned to Draft Systems, for his “Keg Tapping Device.” Here’s the Abstract:

In one form hereof, there is disclosed a keg adapter having a siphon body formed of bar stock receivable through the opening of a keg from without the keg. The siphon body has liquid and gas passages extending longitudinally of the keg adapter terminating at their upper ends in a pair of bores disposed eccentrically of the central axis of the keg adapter. In another form, there is disclosed a keg adapter having a siphon body formed primarily of tubular stock with tubular members receivable through the opening of a keg from without the keg. The tubular members per se comprise liquid and gas passages terminating at their upper ends in a pair of openings disposed eccentrically of the central axis of the keg adapter and opening through a flange member formed of bar stock. A coupler unit, having a pair of depending probes, is engageable with either form of the keg adapter with the probes being receivable in the bore holes or tubes as applicable to form a continuation of the liquid and gas passages. A sleeve is provided in the liquid passage of both adapters for opening a normally closed liquid valve therein. A gas valve is axially spaced from the liquid valve and in both forms includes a gas check valve comprising a flexible envelope having a slit and which envelope lies in communication with the gas passage. In the one form, the gas valve also includes a spring-biased valve plate mounting an O-ring sealing about the walls of the gas passage. The tips of the probes on the coupler unit in the one form depress the associated valve members to open the valves and permit ingress of gas through the coupler unit and keg adapter into the keg and egress of liquid from the keg through the keg adapter and coupler unit. In the other form, the tip of the liquid probe on the coupler depresses the sleeve to open the liquid valve whereby air flows through the coupler into the keg past the check valve of the adapter and beer flows outwardly from the keg through the adapter and coupler.

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Patent No. 305227A: Beer-Chip

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Today in 1884, US Patent 305227 A was issued, an invention of Bernard Rice, for his “Beer-Chip.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention has for its object to produce a beer-chip which is free from resinous and other similar matters; and to this end it consists in making the chip from a sheet or strip of veneer cut from a log, beam, or plank previously steamed, as herein more fully described.

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