Patent No. 914787A: Wooden Barrel Or Keg And Head Therefor

March 9, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1909, US Patent 914787 A was issued, an invention of James W. Brainard, for his “Wooden Barrel or Keg and Head Therefor.” There’s no Abstract, but the first paragraph tells the tale, sort of (the OCR didn’t do the best job and I had to do a fair bit of guessing):

The prime object of the present invention is to equip an ordinary barrel or keg made up of wooden staves, with an improved head which detachably held in plate in a simple and effective manner, without the employment of extraneous fastening means, and is arranged to stiffen and strengthen the barrel without detracting from any of its essential features. It is proposed to form the head from single blank of sheet metal, and to shape the some so as to permit of the convenient application and removal thereof without making the barrel material change or alteration in in this connection, the head is arranged rel. to embrace the chime of the barrel or keg so as to incase the same in a metal shield, which rotc’cts the extremities of the staves when in and on the barrel or keg, particularly when rolling the same.

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Beer In Ads #1488: Life-Giving American Barley

March 8, 2015 By Jay Brooks

Sunday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” from 1909. This is another ad for A-B’s non-alcoholic health drink, marketed with snake-oil salesman enthusiasm. “Life-Giving American Barley contains more blood-making properties than any other growth of the soil.” But wait there’s more. “Every drop of Anheuser-Busch’s Malt-Nutrine fairly bubbles and seethes with the life of mother nature’s electrifying earth — the creamy nutriment of ripened barley — the aromatic tonic of Bohemian hops — the vivifying breezes of country air — the warmth of the sun and the blessings of the gentle rains — all instilled into a living liquid food.” Damn, who wouldn’t want to drink that.

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Beer In Ads #1487: Is It Art? No It’s Guinness!

March 7, 2015 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s ad is for Guinness, an ad in the design stages that never was used, but was created in late 1944, sometime after the death of the artist that inspired it, Piet Mondrian , who died February 1, 1944. Mondrian was also born today in 1899, which is why I chose this ad for today. This is one of the “lost Guinness ads” that Martyn Cornell wrote about last year in More great lost Guinness art: new evidence for the genius of Gilroy. The Gilroy he’s referring to is artist John Gilroy, who created most of the iconic characters Guinness used in their advertising, such as the Toucan, the Zookeeper and all of the rest. This one is part of a large stash that mysteriously disappeared in 1971 and then reappeared in America decades later just in time to net whoever absconded with the art millions of dollars. As part of the “lost” unused pieces, Gilroy created a series of ads paying homage to great art masterpieces by Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Picasso, Vermeer and others. This one is a beautifully conceived work that is at once recognizable as being in the style of Mondrian but also cleverly works into the design a pint of stout. It’s shame the series was never finished or green lit.

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Patent No. 6032571A: Automated Home Beer Brewing Machine And Method

March 7, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 2000, US Patent 6032571 A was issued, an invention of Brad Brous, Curt N. Torgerson, Terry Dubson, and Craig A. Wright, for their “Automated Home Beer Brewing Machine And Method.” Here’s the Abstract:

An automated home beer brewing machine and method makes beer in a single vessel under automatic control. The machine and method allows making of wort for beer without requiring apparatus to be sanitized, without boiling the wort, without the use of a traditional water-filled fermentation lock, and without using a wort chiller or ice-packing of a brewing pot. The inventive single-vessel automated brewing operation allows the user to load ingredients, conduct a grain-steeping if desired, and then automatically carries out the rest of the brewing process in a single vessel, until summoning the user days later to sugar-prime and bottle the beer. Thus, the user is required to provide much less time and labor than conventional home beer brewing, and the invention also frees the home-hobby brewer of much of the current art traditionally attached to home brewing.

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Patent No. 3647473A: Malting Grain

March 7, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1972, US Patent 3647473 A was issued, an invention of Peter Michael Howlett, and Keith Christopher Stowell, for their “Malting Grain.” Here’s the Abstract:

A process and apparatus for dehusking cereal grain by a dry mechanical method at a temperature not above about 105 DEG F., and wherein the moisture content of the grain is above about 8 percent by weight in order to damage the grain so that substantial rootlet growth is prevented without substantially damaging the aleurone layer. The dehusked grain is subsequently malted and there are advantages compared with conventional malting of husked grain.

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Beer In Ads #1486: Honored In Its Home Town And Famed The World Over

March 6, 2015 By Jay Brooks

Friday’s ad is still another one for Budweiser, again from 1916. This is one is part of a series from the same year, with the two from the previous days being the three I know about. This one has the headline “Honored in Its Home Town and Famed the World Over.” The copy mentions that the “Saazer Hop Flavor” was “exclusive,” which seems very strange. And for that matter, when did we stop calling them “Saazer” and drop the “-er?” Like all of the ads, it ends with “Budweiser Means Moderation.”

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Beer In Ads #1485: The Better The Hops The Better The Beer Flavor

March 5, 2015 By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is for another one for Budweiser, also from 1916. It seems like this is part of a series from the same year. This one has the great headline “The Better the Hops the Better the Beer Flavor.” Like yesterday’s ad, the parting shot is “Budweiser Means Moderation,” which was part of a strategy to convince people that beer should be spared that the brewing industry adopted far too late to stop the 18th Amendment from being ratified, establishing prohibition in 1920. Needless to say, it was too little, too late, but it’s a cool ad.

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