Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 8802421B2: Method Of Propagating And Delivering Yeast

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Today in 2014, US Patent 8802421 B2 was issued, an invention of Chris White, assigned to White Labs, for his “Method of Propagating and Delivering Yeast.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method of propagating, concentrating and delivering yeast is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of producing and inoculating a bag, propagating yeast within the bag, and concentrating the yeast in a section of the bag that is the removed from the remainder of the bag while not exposing any portion of the yeast therein to an external environment. In order to remove the bag, which contains the most concentrated slurry of yeast, a smaller bag is heat-sealed off of the larger bag, thereby creating a separate bag for the living sediment, which is still the bag in which the sediment was propagated. In a preferred embodiment, the method is specific to the alcoholic beverage industry. The method is also applicable to other industries that grow and transport yeast, bacteria, molds and other microorganisms.

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When Chris spoke at my SSU Beer Appreciation class last semester, he talked about his new innovation, which was patented today a year ago, and which they’re calling the “FlexCell Process” and marketing it as “Pure Pitch.” It’s a pretty cool idea.

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And here’s a short video about the “FlexCell Process” from the White Labs website.

Patent No. 2847309A: Brewing Process

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Today in 1958, US Patent 2847309 A was issued, an invention of Harold Howard Rohrbeck, assigned to the Olympia Brewing Company, for his “Brewing Process.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Heretofore, in the conventional brewing process, it has taken considerable time toV filter the wort through the lautering bed provided by the grain in the lauter tub and also to sparge the bed. I believe the reason for this is that the lines, which are microscopic glutinous protein matter, have collected in the interstices of the filtering bed and have restricted and even completely closed them thus slowing down the filtering step.

It is a main object of the present invention to provide a brewing process overcoming the above disadvantage.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a process in which all or part of the fines are removed from the mash prior to the mash entering the lauter tub whereby to speed up the filtering operation.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus by which the method of the present invention may be carried out.

The process -of the present invention is characterized by the steps of separating the fines from at least a part of the mash prior to the mash being conducted to the lauter tub so that the filter bed is not nearly as congested or restricted by the presence of the fines as heretofore has been the case and thus the filtering action of the bed is much more rapid than heretofore.

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Beer In Ads #1645: Enjoy The Difference!

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Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1961. I love her smile, the expression on her face — it’s so Mary Tyler Moore, especially with the hip material of the dress (or is that a blouse?) she’s wearing. I also love how she’s holding that six-pack, so we know just how light it is, able to be picked up with little effort at the grocery store. Which is probably why toward the end of the ad copy, there’s this suggestion. “Better get a couple.”

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The Robert Smith India Pale Ale Brewery

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The ad I featured yesterday in my long-running Beer In Ads series was for The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The brewery was only called by that name from 1896 until it closed when Prohibition began. From 1887 until 1896, the brewery was called The Robert Smith India Pale Ale Brewing Co. While searching for information for the post last night, I happened upon a cool bit of history regarding the brewery from 1889. The Map Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia includes a survey map of The Robert Smith India Pale Ale Brewing Co. created by Ernest Hexamer and included in the Hexamer General Surveys, Volume 24, published in 1889.

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The brewery was located in West Philadelphia, in the 24th Ward, at N. 38th St, Girard Ave and Philadelphia and the Reading Railroad. The survey also includes some interesting tidbits in the text at the right, a laundry list of architectural facts and figures. For example, the brewery was powered by steam, had two copper kettles — a 100 bbl and 200 bbl vessel — and employed 17 people. Below is a blow-up of the brewery illustration, showing the brewery property and grounds.

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Beer In Ads #1644: The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co.

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Monday’s ad is for The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co., from sometime after 1896 but before Prohibition. From what I can tell, while the brewery was founded in 1774, it wasn’t known as The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co. until 1896, when it acquired by C. Schmidt & Sons and operated as one of their divisions (although another source claims Schmidt’s took over the Robert Smith brewery in 1881). The casks stacked to the left in the ad each have a different beer printed in them, suggesting this was the line of beers offered by the brewery at the time of the ad. The beer’s listed are Tiger Head I.P.A., India Pale, Burton, English Pale, XXX, Old Musty, Brown Stout and Imperial Burton. Only Tiger Head I.P.A. and the Brown Stout also have “Bottling” printed in smaller letters at the bottom of the head of the cask, so I suspect those were the two beers they may have offered in bottles.

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R.I.P. Fred Eckhardt 1926-2015

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I just learned from my friend, and Belmont Station owner, Lisa Morrison that legendary beer writer Fred Eckhardt has passed away. Apparently he died peacefully in his sleep this morning, with a few caregivers by his side.

Portland native Eckhardt was 89, and was a pioneer in writing about and defining beer styles with his early book on the subject, The Essentials of Beer Style, published in 1989. Annually in Portland, the FredFest beer festival has been held since his 80th birthday to honor Fred and his contributions to the modern beer and homebrewing scene. As Lisa observed. “He was one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand. What a life he lived, what he gave to us all.” He will be greatly missed. Join beer lovers everywhere as we raise a toast to Fred’s memory and to his enduring legacy tonight.

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Fred in 1969, from the back cover of his book, A Treatise on Lager Beers.


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Fred Eckhardt and me at the Great American Beer Festival in 2005.

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Fred with Lisa Morrison.

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Alan Sprints, of Hair of the Dog Brewery, with Fred Eckhardt, at Hair of the Dog’s open house in 2008 during OBF.

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Fred with Lisa and John Foyston at OBF in 2009.

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Fred and me at the OBF parade in 2011.

Patent No. 1149256A: Bottle-Filling Device

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Today in 1954, US Patent 1149256 A was issued, an invention of Joseph H. Godfrey, for his “Bottle-Filling Device.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to devices for filling bottles and similar receptacles with liquid, and has reference more particularly to that type of filling mechanism wherein a valve controlling the flow of liquid to the bottle is opened through the agency of an electromagnet when the empty bottle has been suitably positioned relatively to the filling device to receive the liquid, and is subsequently closed by the automatic de-energizing of the magnet to cut off the flow of liquid to the bottle when the latter has been filled to the proper or desired height.

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Patent No. 2685966A: Apparatus For Separating Picked Hops From Leaves And Stems

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Today in 1954, US Patent 2685966 A was issued, an invention of Florian F. Dauenhauer of Santa Rosa, California, for his “Apparatus for Separating Picked Hops From Leaves and Stems.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

An object of this invention, is, to provide. a conveyor, which is inclined laterally, or sidewise. The hops, leaves and stems to be separated are discharged upon the conveyor near the higher section thereof. The clean hops will roll to the lower section of the conveyor, while unclean hops, leaves and stems, will be moved along the higher section of the conveyor. The clean, hops are conveyed to a sacking device, While the unclean hops are moved from one conveyor to another until all of the leaves and other refuse are separated from the hops.

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Beer In Ads #1643: Give Yourself A Break

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Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1956. When you’re sitting in the dark watching nature documentaries, feasting on the carcass of a chicken (or possibly turkey) with some cheese between two slices of bread, you’ll definitely want a cold beer. So “Give Yourself A Break” and have some “late in the evening.” I hope Bambi makes it out the forest.

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Session #102: A Beery Landscape

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For our 102nd Session, our host is Allen Huerta, who writes Active Brewer. For his topic, he’s asking us to look at the big picture, the entire landscape of beer; yesterday, today, and/or tomorrow, or as he more fully explains what he has in mind for the August Session in his announcement, “The Landscape of Beer:”

SURPRISE, SURPRISE! The Landscape of Beer in America is changing. It has even begun influencing beer in countries all around the world. Everyone has their opinion on Local vs Global, Craft vs Macro, and Love vs Business. Those who were at the Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference in Asheville this past weekend had a brief talk about how “Small and Independent Matters”. Something that quite a few people say matters to them, but where is the upper limit? Does a purchase of another brewery still allow a brewery to fall into the Small and Independent camp?

Our topic this month is, “The Landscape of Beer“. How do you see that landscape now? What about in 5, 10, or even 20 years? A current goal in the American Craft Beer Industry is 20% market share by the year 2020. How can we get there? Can we get there?

Whether your view is realistic or whimsical, what do you see in our future? Is it something you want or something that is happening? Let us know and maybe we can help paint the future together.

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Because the weekend’s all but over, I decided — as usual — not to follow instructions per se, and instead found four literal landscapes of beer’s constituent parts in my library of photographs.

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The River Trent, in Burton upon Trent, although the brewing water actually comes from an aquifer deep below the town (but the photo of the aquifer is pretty dull).

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Barley growing in the San Luis Valley of southwest Colorado.

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Hops in the Yakima Valley, Washington.

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Yeast bubbling at White Labs in San Diego.