Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 20110138521A1: Party Goggles

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Today in 2011, US Patent 20110138521 A1 was issued, an invention of Bruce Riggs, for his “Party Goggles.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention provides novelty eye goggles comprising an adjustable elastic rubber strap attached to the clear plastic frames of standard, vented safety goggles, with two hollowed-out 12 ounce aluminum beer cans affixed to the eye-sockets, protruding outward from the frames, suspended horizontally and running parallel to the ground. The cans themselves feature a number of brand logos and advertisements,

Who knew you could actually patent beer goggles? But in what sounds more like ad copy than a patent application, their use, and who might want to wear them, is explored, and some pretty bold claims of being able to bust guts.

A cleverly-conceived new novelty item made to let “party people” freely express their sense of individuality and help crank up the festivities, the Party Goggles proudly display, in a very literal way, the figurative eyewear we all have put on at one point or another. A gut-busting sight-gag aimed at those who might find themselves in a raucous roadhouse, hectic house party or fun family get-together, the Party Goggles should find a wide and receptive market among both the swarming barflies and regular, fun-loving folks.


Patent No. 1810630A: Combination Container And Bottle Opener

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Today in 1931, US Patent 1810630 A was issued, an invention of Conrad Lenz, for his “Combination Container And Bottle Opener.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention relates to a combination container and bottle opener and has for its primary object the provision of a container having attached to the bottom thereof a bottle opening device designed to permit convenient removal of a bottle cap.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a container, preferably in the form of a tumbler having the bottom formed to intimately engage a bottle opening device designed particularly to engage the well known form of bottle cap to remove the cap in cooperation with the tumbler.

If anyone can explain the difference between the “primary object” and the second or “further object” I’ll be mightily impressed. But I especially love how they describe that the bottle cap and the beer glass as “cooperating” to open the bottle. That’s genius.
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Patent No. 7735413B2: Method And Device For Brewing Beer

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Today in 2010, US Patent 7735413 B2 was issued, an invention of Klaus-Karl Wasmuht and Kurt Stippler, assigned to Krones AG, for their “Method And Device For Brewing Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

A device for brewing beer, particularly a wort pan (1), with a container body (2) to receive a wort reservoir (3), the device containing an internal boiler (4) arranged in the container body (2), which is provided with a heat exchanger (5) and a guiding screen (8). A wort forced flow (10) provided with a pump is also provided, which runs through the boiler (4). In order to increase the efficiency of the device, the wort forced flow (10) has a thin-layer distributor (17) for the wort, which contains a pipe subsection (11 b) connected with the pump, which subsection leads above the guiding screen (8) via an outlet opening (13) with reduced outlet cross-section into the container body (2). Above the outlet opening (13), a flow-guiding baffle surface (15) is provided, at which the flow arrives from below, to deflect the liquid towards the wort reservoir (3).

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Patent No. 3962851A: Self-Propelled Hop Harvesting Machine

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Today in 1976, US Patent 3962851 A was issued, an invention of Adolf Liepold, Hermann Daum, and Helmut Lindner, assigned to Fella-Werke G.M.B.H., for their “Self-Propelled Hop Harvesting Machine.” Here’s the Abstract:

This invention provides a self-propelled hop picking machine including a hop bine draw-through device which, as the machine moves forward, pulls bines in the path of movement of the machine rearwardly, preferably at a speed greater than the forward speed of travel of the machine, so as to pull such bines from their supporting wires and to convey the bines to picking elements for removal of the hop cones from the bines.

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Patent No. 6748849B2: Bittering Of Beer

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Today in 2004, US Patent 6748849 B2 was issued, an invention of Richard J. H. Wilson and Robert J. Smith, assigned to S.S. Steiner, Inc., for their “Bittering Of Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

Iso-α-acids and reduced iso-α-acids in their free acids states are converted into mobile resins by the addition of concentrated solutions of alkali metal hydroxides. The products may be used in brewing for the bittering of beer and are most effectively used in an apparatus that automatically blends the product with water and injects the resultant, aqueous solution into beer.

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Your Favorite Beer State By State

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Here’s another interesting map of the U.S., supposedly showing the most popular beer for each state. I have no idea how the data was compiled as the creator of the map, and presumably the data behind it, CubeYou, all day yesterday presented you with the following error message when you click on State by State Favorite Beer: “Error establishing a database connection.” And you get that same message even trying to visit their home page so either they’ve been inundated with visitors today (doubtful) or something’s going on with their website (but whatever it is has been going on for several hours). This morning it was finally back up, but we’re no closer to understanding their methodology. They state that “the Beer Map below illustrates the beer brands that have the highest popularity in each state. Popularity indicates how popular a beer is in each state compared with the national distribution.” But that really doesn’t tell us much. And not having any information about who’s in second, third, etc. also makes it difficult to rely on their data.

There are a lot of local favorites, and of course the big boys hold sway in a number of states (10 for ABI beers and 2 apiece for Coors, Miller and Pabst). A few I can’t quite make out because of the size of the map so my own analysis may be off accordingly. Lagunitas owns both California and Illinois, where they have breweries. Heineken’s got Nevada and Hawaii (damn tourists) and imports rule in a few more states, sadly. A few more curious spots: Coors in Washington, and more surprising, Alaskan Brewing in Oregon. Given how fiercely loyal the state is toward their beer, that surprises me most of all, but maybe it has to do with how many strong brands their are in Oregon and that causes them to cancel one another out (or maybe it’s just wrong).

UPDATE: Now that I’m able to see the map larger and make out all of the name on it, even more problems emerge. In Minnesota and Tennessee, Midwest Supplies is listed as those states’ most popular beer, even though it’s a homebrew supply store. Arkansas and Montana have listed “Craft Beer On Tap,” a generic logo and not a brand at all as far as I can tell. Ceres, the Danish beer, in Florida seems questionable and as a reader pointed out, Yuengling is not even distributed in the state of Maine so it’s hard to see how it could be the most popular beer there. And as another reader mentioned, Dogfish Head not being the most popular in their home state of Delaware stretches credulity, as well, and all of these issues in total are making this exercise veer toward farce or chicanery. Whatever CubeYou’s actual methodology might have been, it’s hard to see that they produced any legitimate results. I had wished once their website was back up that there would be more transparency about how the data was collected and perhaps even a way to peek into the raw data itself. Unfortunately, if anything, they seem to have gone out of their way to obfuscate how they arrived upon the results.

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Patent No. 3585045A: Method For Preparing Beer Wort

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Today in 1971, US Patent 3585045 A was issued, an invention of Conrad Lenz, for his “Method For Preparing Beer Wort.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

According to the method of this invention, a first portion of the continuously prepared mash is transferred from a mash-making zone to a first vessel. A subsequent portion of the mash is transferred from the mash-making zone to a second vessel while the first portion is being heated in the first vessel, and the two portions are then combined, whereupon further heating may follow conventional practice of separating a portion of the mixture from the bulk of the same, heating the separated portion, returning the heated portion to the bulk of the mixture, and repeating such separating, heating, and returning until the mixture reaches the desired temperature. The plant employed in performing the method is provided with a two-way valve in the mash transfer conduit which connects the mash-making apparatus with the mash heating or brewing apparatus. Two branch conduits lead from the valve to two vessels of the mash-heating apparatus, at least one vessel being provided with heating means. The valve may be moved in the usual manner between two positions in which it connects the mash transfer conduit with the branch conduits respectively while blocking the other branch conduit.

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Patent No. PP10956P: Hop Variety Named “Columbus”

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Today in 1999, US Patent PP10956 P was issued, an invention of Gregory K. Lewis, Charles E. Zimmermann, and Henry Hazenberg, assigned to Hopunion USA, for their “Hop Variety Named ‘Columbus.'” Doesn’t it seem like Columbus has been around a lot longer than sixteen years? Maybe it was marketed under the name before it was patented, and in fact the application date was March 22, 1995, with a priority date of November 30, 1993, which as I understand it means the date that the applicant asserts was the “invention date,” which in this case is more likely when it was first sold or used by that trade name. Here’s the Abstract:

A new and distinct variety of hop, Humulus lupulus L., named Columbus, has a superior yield of cones and a superior content of alpha acids in its resin. The new variety was cultivated as a result of a cross at a nursery near Prosser, Wash., United States, and has been asexually reproduced in and about Yakima, Wash., United States.

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Patent No. 2681066A: Apparatus For Picking Hops From Hop Branches And Clusters And For Separating Leaves And Stems Therefrom

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Today in 1954, US Patent 2681066 A was issued, an invention of Florian F. Dauenhauer, for his “Apparatus For Picking Hops From Hop Branches And Clusters And For Separating Leaves And Stems Therefrom.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary of the invention’s objects:

An object of invention is to provide an apparatus for picking hops from hop branches and clusters and for separating leaves and stems therefrom is especially designed to receive hop clusters and broken off vine portions that are delivered from the hop picking machine shown in my copending application, Ser. No. 179,722, filed August 15, 1959. The present apparatus comprises two main parts, trommel for separating hops from the other vine portions, and a branch picker for removing hops from hop branches and hop clusters. The branch picker could be used for purposes other than picking hops from branches, such as by of example, the picking of string beans from vines.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of the type described in which the trommel and hop branch picker cooperate with each other to pick hops from branches and hop clusters and to separate the hops from all other parts of the hop vines. The trommel removes freed hops and delivers all other portions of the vine and any hops carried thereby, to the hop branch picker. The hop branch picker severs the hops from any vine portions or hop clusters and delivers the freed hops back to the tromnmel for screening.

A further object of m invention is to provide a device of the type described which is efficient for the purpose intended and will effectively pick and separate hops from hop vine branches or clusters.

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