Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Beer In Ads #1465: If You Can’t Come To Holland …

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Friday’s ad is for Heineken, from 1977. In the year I graduated from high school, Heineken was considered “the good stuff” by my step-father’s friends and relatives, which in retrospect is rather sad and indicative of the state of beer at that time. This is also at a time when Holland seemed mysterious, and people really didn’t know much about the European nation. So using such cliched images in their ads like tulips and windmills probably made sense, but looks really dated now. Even the beer glass has a windmill on it.

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Patent No. 812243A: Circulating System For Beer-Filters

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Today in 1906, US Patent 812243 A was issued, an invention of Max Stahl, for his “Circulating System for Beer-Filters.” There’s no Abstract, but Stahl describes his invention as an improvement over then-current systems, saying his “invention aims to and does overcome the losses and disadvantages [mentioned earlier in the description], and in brief it consists of providing means whereby the column of beer can be switched off the racking-bench and continuously returned to the filter until stable relations are secured and the beer no longer runs cloudy or contains fibers of filter mass.”
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Patent No. 272261A: Beer-Mug

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Today in 1883, US Patent 272261 A was issued, an invention of John E. Jeffords, for his “Beer-Mug.” There’s no Abstract, but Jeffords describes his invention as and its purpose “to provide a neat and a cheap form of mug, which is readily cleansed and not easily broken,” adding that it “consists of a beer-mug made of suitable porous material, glazed.”
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Beer In Ads #1464: Pronounce It Mick-A-Lobe

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Thursday’s ad is for Michelob, from 1967. Apparently, in the late Sixties people still had trouble pronouncing Michelob. It reminds me of the packaging on Lagunitas, which includes “Say ‘lah-goo-knee-tuss'” on their carriers because when the brewery first opened, founder Tony Magee worried that most people wouldn’t know how to pronounce the name of the small west Marin town. So okay, it’s “Mick-A-Lobe,” “Now that’s an order.” Also, “In beer, going first class is Michelob. Period.” Sadly, that is how the brand was positioned. It even seemed to work for a while.

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Patent No. 6100447A: Method Of Barley Transformation

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Today in 2000, US Patent 6100447 A was issued, an invention of Liying Wu and Raymond L. Rodriguez, for their “Method of Barley Transformation.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method for stably transforming barley from mature barley seeds as starting material is disclosed. The method involves germinating mature barley seeds until early shoot development occurs, exposing scutellar or embryo tissue cells on the embryo side of germinated seeds, and introducing foreign DNA into the cells. The cells are initially grown under conditions that allow expression of a selectable marker introduced with the foreign DNA, then on a callus-growth medium effective to suppress callus formation in the absence of the selectable marker. Successfully transformed calli can be cultured in suspension to obtain a desired foreign protein, or regenerated into plants, to obtain the foreign protein from the transformed plants, e.g., germinated seeds.

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Patent No. 3077202A: Beer Keg Tap

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Today in 1963, US Patent 3077202 A was issued, an invention of Hilbert R. Perlick, for his “Beer Keg Tap.” There’s no Abstract, but the description makes plain the aims of this patent, and what improvement it’s bring to the tapping of beer kegs:

With a view toward overcoming the danger inherent in beer keg taps heretofore available, this invention has as its purpose to provide simple means to positively assure against accidental ejection of the tap rod from the keg, by equipping the beer keg tap with a self-energizing unidirecional clutch means carried by the body thereof and operable to automatically grip the tap rod and secure it against outward movement.

Another object of this invention is to provide a beer keg tap having a self-energizing unidirectional clutch means to grip the tap rod and hold it against outward movement in which this safety feature is so designed and constructed that the attainment of the desired objective is accomplished with a minimum structural change to the existing tap and in which only one of its elements, namely the packing gland or top nut requires any modification whatsoever.

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Beer In Ads #1463: Croquet & Beer

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Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1950. Here’s a great rule of thumb for living. “Some sort of recreation belongs in every one of your busy days.” If it’s croquet and drinking beer, I’m in. Especially if I get to dress up in the backyard. But I love croquet, used to play it at my grandmother’s place all the time growing up. Curiously, though, she never offered me a beer. I do like that their croquet set appears to have a place on it where you set down your beer. Ours didn’t have that.

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Patent No. 8646660B2: Reusable Beer Keg

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Today in 2014, just one year ago, US Patent 8646660 B2 was issued, an invention of Thomas W. Bates, Dan Morgan, and Leslie W. Ross, for their “Reusable Beer Keg.” Here’s the Abstract:

A reusable beer keg is disclosed including a hollow beer keg body with a dispenser tube assembly having a dispenser valve, dispenser tube, and a disposable bladder. The dispenser valve is releasably attached to a top portion of the keg body and the dispenser tube and bladder extend into the interior of the keg body. When beer flows through the open dispenser valve and into the bladder, the beer causes the bladder to expand until it contacts the inside surface of the keg body. When the beer keg has been emptied it can be returned to the brewery for reuse by cleaning the dispenser valve, dispenser tube and disposing of the used bladder. The beer keg parts can then be reassembled, using a new bladder in place of the used bladder.

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Patent No. 3865276A: Portable Keg Tapper

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Today in 1975, US Patent 3865276 A was issued, an invention of Hank A. Thompson, for his “Portable Keg Tapper.” Here’s the Abstract:

Portable apparatus is provided for tapping a beverage container such as a beer keg. A portable ice container adapted to be supported by the top of the keg has an opening in the bottom communicating with the tapping aperture of the keg. A dispensing faucet is carried by the ice chamber. A beverage delivery conduit is formed into a cooling coil inside the ice chamber. The inlet of the conduit terminates in a releasable coupling adapted to be attached to a conventional tapping pipe. The outlet of the conduit communicates with the dispensing faucet.

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Patent No. 2823125A: Apparatus For And Process Of Fermenting Beer

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Today in 1958, US Patent 2823125 A was issued, an invention of Frank H. Schwaiger, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for his “Apparatus for and Process of Fermenting Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it states the following:

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to provide an improved fermenter which can be fabricated from stainless steel and which requires no overhead chamber for capturing foam which must necessarily rise upwardly into said chamber. Another object is to provide an improved fermenter which requires no special housing, which is easily housed on a single floor of a building, which can be easily cleaned, which requires less space per unit capacity, and which separates the foam from the beer more completely and more efficiently. Another object is to provide a fermenter construction which moves the foam automatically toward the foam chamber. Another object is to provide a fermenter which without moving parts automatically prevents beer from spilling over a baffle into the foam chamber even though the beer increases in volume during fermentation. Another object is to provide a fermenter which can be fabricated in a metal fabricating shop, shipped to the brewery, and placed upon a suitable base therein.

Another principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved process wherein the foam condensate is directed back into the manufacturing process at a different point from where the foam was taken. Another object is to provide a process wherein the foam condensate can be filtered or treated before it is redirected into the process.

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