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Beer In Ads #1438: It’s The Little “Extras”

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Saturday’s ad is another one for Schlitz, from 1952. It’s an interesting ad, focusing on “the little ‘extras’ that make Schlitz the best-liked beer in history.” They mention three “extra’s,” the “purity born of choice ingredients,” “delicacy of flavor,” and “that extra smoothness.” The artwork was done by Thomas Vroman, who’s more well-known for children’s books. I especially love the woman lying on the beach, with part of her visible through the glass of beer. That’s a cool effect, the way it’s drawn.

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Alaska Barleywine Festival 2015 Winners

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Here are the winners from this weekend’s Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage, Alaska.

  1. St. Elias Brewing’s Moose Juice, Soldotna, Alaska
  2. Midnight Sun Brewing’s Termination Dust Belgian-Style Barley Wine, Anchorage, Alaska
  3. Lagunitas Brewing’s Olde Gnarlywine Barley Wine, Petaluma, California

And the Best Winter Beer:

Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks again to Tom Dalldorf from the Celebrator Beer News, for sending me the winners.

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Patent No. US 2731027A: Beer Dispensing Apparatus

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Today in 1956, US Patent 2731027 A was issued, an invention of Carl L. Daun, for his “Beer Dispensing Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description, he describes as an “invention relat[ing] to [an] apparatus for dispensing carbonated beverages without there by changing the gas content of the beverage while eliminating the losses customarily encountered in dispensing such beverages. He continues:

This apparatus is particularly useful in dispensing beer from barrels but is, as will be apparent, suitable for all liquids. According to present practice barrel beer is dispensed from a faucet connected to a tap rod projecting to the bottom of the barrel through a tap which serves to provide a fluid tight seal at the tapping hole. Beer is forced up the tap rod to the faucet by the gas pressure in the barrel. A pressure regulated gas (air or carbon dioxide) source is connected to the interior of the barrel through a gas check valve in the tap. Theoretically such a system will maintain the carbon dioxide gas content of the beer constant and the drawing should be uniform. In practice, however, various losses attributable to variations in the gas content caused by temperature and pressure deviations from the ideal are encountered to a greater or lesser extent.

Keep reading here.
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Wine vs. Beer, Big vs. Small, More Trademark Woes

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Opened in 2012, the tiny Cambria Beer Co. is located in the equally small town of Cambria, described more as a “seaside village,” boasting about 6,000 residents. It’s located along Highway 1, in San Luis Obispo County, midway between San Francisco and L.A.

The brewery uses a small 3bbl brew sculpture system, and operates a small tap room on Cornwall Street. They offer a wide variety of beer styles, continually rotating. A recent list included five on, with two in the fermenters and three more scheduled right behind those. Beers sell out quickly, but they try to keep up. Owners Aaron and Jennifer Wharton decided that since they were the only brewery in town, that Cambria Beer Company was the right name for their decidedly local enterprise.

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Not everyone agreed. The Jackson Family Farms is best known for Kendall-Jackson wine, but that’s just one of the more than a dozen wineries that they own. Another one of their labels is Cambria Estate Winery. So you’re probably thinking that makes sense, probably located right down the street. Nope. To get to the Cambria Estate Winery from the brewery, you’ll need to head south on Highway 1, then pick up Interstate 101 at the junction in San Luis Obispo. Drive south to Santa Maria, turn left in downtown and drive west out of town to the winery. All told, it will take you about one hour and twenty minutes to get there, because it’s nearly 80 miles away outside the town of Santa Maria, which is even in a different county (Santa Barbara County), too.

I first saw this on Grub Street, but the local newspaper, The Cambrian, naturally has the most complete account in When is Cambria not in Cambria? Apparently, the Whartons have been trying to negotiate to keep their name since they received the C&D letter from KJ’s lawyers on New Year’s Eve.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, when it comes to trademark law, alcohol is alcohol; they’re in the same class of goods as far as trademark is concerned. This is hardly the first time this has happened. Another small brewery in the Bay Area had to add a letter to their name because a spirits company was using the original spelling. A San Francisco brewery not long ago had to change the name of one of its beers, because there was a rum of the same name.

So there is some precedent here, it’s not totally out of left field. The Cambrian author wonders if every business in Cambria using Cambria in their name should be worried, rightly concluding no. But the fact that the winery is so far from the town and they serve largely a different demographic makes it not so cut and dry. A commenter on Reddit who claimed to be close to the parties involved mentioned that the brewery’s attorneys believed they had a strong case, but the $50,000 (minimum) price tag to fight it was too much for them, as it would be for almost any small company. So the brewery did what most people would in this situation, and decided to change their name. Last week, they posted that decision on their Facebook page, asking fans and customers to help them come up with a new name by leaving a comment. They’ve had a lot of suggestions so far, including several funny ones.

I’m starting to think that trademark law may need some modification. Clearly, alcohol is not alcohol anymore. Maybe there was a time when that made sense, but I think most of us can agree that we can tell the difference between beer and wine. And it seems to me geographic truth should trump whatever reason this winery is using a name that has nothing to do with where it’s located. I seem to recall another trademark case where the Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) sued Boston Beer Works and lost, the court ruling that “Boston” was too generic a term, ditto “beer.” Komlossy Law has a nice overview of the case, if you’re interested in learning more. And those were both beer companies, so it does seem like Cambria Beer might have had a decent shot at keeping their name. Still, you have to understand not wanting to spend a fortune going to court on an uncertain result. As we learned in “War Games,” sometimes “the only winning move is not to play.” If nothing else, I hope we can all support whatever new name they decide on and stop by and spend our money there the next time we drive by on our way to or from Los Angeles or the Bay Area. Success is always the best revenge.

Patent No. 3298835A: Process For Production Of A Hop Concentrate

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Today in 1967, US Patent 3298835 A was issued, an invention of Murray Peter John Andrew, Clarke Brian James, Hildebrand Robert Peter, and Harold Frank Vincent, and assigned to Carlton & United Breweries, for their “Process for Production of a Hop Concentrate.” Essentially it’s a “process for the production of a hop concentrate wherein the flavour imparting constituents of hops are increased by extracting and then converting inactive constituents to active flavour imparting constituents.” There’s no Abstract, but this is from the description:

The process of this invention involves the utilization of those constituents which are regarded as relatively inactive or which do not normally impart the desired flavour characteristics to brewed beverages and which are not converted to any substantial degree to active flavour-imparting constituents during treatment by existing. processes. In the process of our co-pending application the relatively inactive hop constituents of a-acids known as humulones are converted to the more active iso-humulones by the process of isomerization. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved process for the production of a hop concentrate for brewing purposes, whereby the lupulones content of the p-acids of hops may be utilized in addition to the humulone content of the a-acids, thereby increasing the flavouring or bittering characteristics of the hop concentrate final product for the production of a brewed beverage.

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Beer In Ads #1437: Refreshing As All Outdoors

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Friday’s ad is still another one for Schlitz, from 1956. This is another backyard barbecue-themed ad, like yesterday’s, but in this one at least the attendees are dressed slightly more casually. The art is by Tom Hall, another popular illustrator of the day. What is in that bowl next to the man in the foreground, on the table with two bottles of Schlitz? Are those brown potato chips, or something else?

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Patent No. 20140017354A1: Beer Brewing System And Method

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Today in 2014, just one year ago, US Patent 20140017354 A1 was issued, an invention of James Joseph and Brandy Callanan, for their “Beer Brewing System and Method.” Here’s the Abstract:

The present subject matter relates to systems and methods for automated, whole grain brewing. In one configuration, such a system can include a base, a boil kettle positioned on the base, a first heating element in communication with the boil kettle and configured to selectively heat fluid contained in the boil kettle, and a mash tun positioned on the base, the mash tun configured to receive one or more solid or fluid materials therein. A pumping system positioned at least partially within the base can be connected to the boil kettle and the mash tun, the pumping system being operable to selectively pass fluid into, out of, and among the boil kettle and the mash tun. In addition, a control system can be positioned at least partially within the base and configured to selectively control the first heating element and the pumping system.

Essentially it’s an “automated, whole grain brewing system” for homebrewing, but you read a lot more about it in the description.
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Patent No. 3364033A: Method Of Preparing Hop Extracts

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Today in 1968, US Patent 3364033 A was issued, an invention of Lars O. Spetsig, assigned to Sweden’s Stockholms Bryggerier Ab, for his “Method of Preparing Hop Extracts.” There’s no Abstract, but here’s his introduction in the description. “This invention relates to a new and improved method of preparing hop extracts for flavoring beer and other fermented malt beverages, in which a more complete utilisation of the hop constituents is achieved.” And further along there’s this:

It has now been discovered that better utilisation of the valuable substances is achieved if the hops are extracted in the following manner. The hops are first treated with Warm water to obtain a tannin extract. This is followed by leaching out the readily soluble bitter substances (among them hulupones) and isomerizing the relatively insoluble humulones to readily soluble isohumulones: by boiling the hops in an aqueous solution of neutral pH to yield a first bitter extract. Rapid boiling at this stage is preferred to counteract oxidation. The vapour boiling off is condensed to form an aromatic extract. Since the most valuable aromatic substances are the last to be distilled off, however, fractionation may be employed to collect two or more separate fractions. Finally, the partially spent hops are oxidised by customary means, e.g. see Swedish Patent No. 150,997, to form a second bitter extract.

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Beer In Ads #1436: King Of The Grill

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Thursday’s ad is yet another one for Schlitz, from 1954. You see the main figure from the ad — the King of the grill — appropriated and used in other posters, but this is where it originally appeared. The illustration was by another well-known artist of the day, Tran Mawicke. Don’t you miss dressing up for backyard barbecues? Oh, wait, that never happened, at least not in my lifetime. Also, take a closer look at the salt and pepper shakers hiding behind the Schlitz logo — those are awesome.

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Beer In Ads #1435: A Romantic Lunch

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Wednesday’s ad is another one for Schlitz, from 1956. The beautiful illustration is by Haddon Sundblom, who’s most famous for his depiction of Santa Claus for Coca-Cola, which pretty much set the standard for how we think of him today, in red and white, not coincidentally Coke’s colors, too. In this ad, a young couple looks like they’re having a romantic lunch date, holding hands as the order. But while the young woman is staring longingly at her date, he’s eying the beer that;s just arrived at the table. There’s only one beer on the tray, so presumably it’s for him. I predict this relationship will fail, if she won’t join him for a beer.

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