Today in 2010, just five years ago, US Patent 20100000997 A1 was issued, an invention of Erik L. Southers, for a “Double-Ended Openers Beverage Can.” Here’s the Abstract:
The invention relates to a beverage can with an opener at each end allowing the user to drink from the first end while opening the second end which results in the liquid rapidly evacuating the beverage can. The beverage can is particularly useful for chug-a-lugging beer.
Yesterday, January 6, was a dark day in Tildonk, Belgium, located in the Flemish Brabant, near the center of the northern part of the country. Tildonk is located in the municipality of Haacht, and that whole area has less than 14,000 people, so it’s a fairly small village. It was also home to a true farmhouse brewery, Hof ten Dormaal. The small brewery made a wide variety of beers, including a range of Belgians, sours, wild beers, a barrel-aged series and a number of experimental beers, too. I say “was,” because yesterday starting around 6:45 a.m. there was a fire at the brewery which completely destroyed the farm brewery, and the “bottling line, warm chamber and a big part of the stock (another account mentions thousands of bottles) are completely lost.” The brewery originally came from Montana, and was installed in 2009. The following year, they added a bottling line. Fortunately, the brewhouse and fermenters appear to have been spared, and, more importantly, no one in the family was injured.
During last year’s Brussels Beer Challenge, I had the pleasure of visiting the brewery, meeting André Janssens and his family, and tasting many of their beers along with my fellow judges. It’s out in the open countryside, a beautiful rustic setting. We visited the brewery, the tasting room, but spent most of our time in the garden, opening and enjoying the beer made right there at the farm.
The farm grows cereal and keeps cattle, and is “99% self-sustainable.” The farm grows its own hops and malt, their water comes from a well on the property and they make their energy from rape seeds grown in their fields. Yeast is the only ingredient they buy for brewing. They feed the leftovers to their livestock. Perhaps you’ve had their beer, it is imported by Twelve Percent Imports and available in California, along with Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, Washington DC, and Wisconsin.
Here’s a short video showing part of the damage to the brewery and the farm buildings.
It didn’t always look like that, of course. Below are a few of my photos from my visit last November. Happily, there’s already an effort underway to return the once-picturesque brewery to former glory. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up and is soliciting donations. If you love good beer, please be generous.
Outside the farmhouse brewery.
I loved these tiny clay shields on the brick wall outside of the farmhouse.
From the gate outside looking in to Hof ten Dormaal.
Cafe seating on a patio outside the tasting room of the brewery.
Inside the tasting room, local artwork hangs on the wall above wooden kegs aging beer.
Owner and brewmaster André Janssens leads a tour of his brewery.
Hof ten Dormaal’s brewhouse.
The courtyard garden, surrounded by the family home, farm buildings, and the brewery.
Some of the Brussels Beer Challenge judges posing in the courtyard.
Again, if you love great beer and want to help support it, this is a great way to help out a family and their farmhouse brewery. Please donate to help rebuild the brewery through Go Fund Me and definitely go visit the brewery the next time you’re in Belgium.
UPDATE: Sam Vanderstraeten, the creator of the GoFundMe campaign posted some Day 2 photographs showing more of the destruction wrought by the fire.
Tuesday’s ad is an another interesting ad by famed Swiss illustrator Herbert Leupin. This is maybe the sixth or seventh work by him that I’ve featured over the years. In this one a beautifully rendered glass of beer inexplicably has a boater hat with a flower in it floating above it. I don’t what the story is, but like everything Leupin did, it’s a wonderful work of beer art.
On Saturday, January 24, from Noon to 4 PM, the Brewing Network‘s 6th annual Winter Brews Festival will take place at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord. The beer festival will feature over 50 breweries and proceeds will benefit the Coral Reef Alliance. Sandwiched in between the weekends of the final NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl — so you won’t miss a game — the annual event will showcase dozens of award-winning craft breweries, including local favorites, 21st Amendment, Drake’s, Heretic, and Lagunitas, as well as some great new breweries like Calicraft and The Rare Barrel.
Live music from Ralph Woodson and Purple Haze will set the mood for an afternoon of great beer and a worthy cause. Sponsors of the event include The Hop Grenade Taproom & Bottle Shop, the 21st Amendment, Drake’s Brewing Company, Hop Tech Homebrew and White Labs, and proceeds will benefit the local environmental non-profit, the Coral Reef Alliance.
Tickets are now on sale and are $40 pre-sale or $50 at the gate and include unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. Designated Drivers pay only $5, however this is a 21 and over only event. The event, which will, for the first time, take over the entire Todos Santos Plaza, is conveniently located just two blocks away from the Concord BART station, making it easy to get to and from the festival safely. For more information on the event, and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.BNbrewfest.com.
Today in 1970, US Patent D216422 S was issued, an invention of Karl Koch, for an ornamental design for a “Beer Can.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described simply as a “can circular in all cross sections and the side opposite that shown is the same in appearance as the side shown except that the label area is replaced by a continuation of the barrel motif.”
Today in 2011, just four years ago, US Patent 20110000913 A1 was issued, an invention of Todd Allen Bland, for a “Beer Can with Top and Bottom Pull Tabs.” Here’s the Abstract:
The herein invention discloses improvements to the conventional beer, soda or vegetable juice can such as tomato as well as medical or automotive such as oil cans containing fluid. The improvements consisting of one or a plurality of pull tabs on the top and the bottom of the can allowing the liquid to empty out of the cans in a matter of seconds. Prior art only shows one pull tab on the top taking the cans too long to empty for consumers that desire their beverage to flow quicker and to avoid spraying their beverage potentially getting in to the eyes of consumers and destroying property such as clothes and furniture as it is widely known consumers puncture holes toward the bottom of the can to release the liquid quicker endangering themselves and others by spraying beverage and by the sharp objects used to make the holes in the cans. My new invention will improve safety for these types of consumers furthermore if the top tab breaks the bottom pull tab will allow the can to be opened. Additionally, a tomatoe juice can having two pull tabs on the top allows the thick juice to flow more rapidly. This also relieves having a sharp can opener to accomplish this task.
Monday’s ad is for Beverwyck Brewing, from 1949. The Beverwyck Brewery was located in Albany, and was founded in 1872. After prohibition ended, “Beverwyck reopened in 1933 with six products. Beverwyck India Ale and Porter were produced from 1933 through 1944, while Beverwyck Ale, Bock, Beer and Irish Cream Ale were produced from 1933 to 1950 when the brewery was acquired by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co of Brooklyn, New York. F. & M. Schaefer closed the brewery in 1972.” Everybody looks really happy to be on a picnic, even the bird is smiling. I think it must be because those beer bottles are huge.
Today in 2012, just three years ago, US Patent 20120000367 A1 was issued, an invention of Rudolf Michel and Ludwig Scheller, for a “Brewery Facility for Producing and Bottling Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:
The invention relates to a brewery plant (12) for producing and bottling beer, comprising a brewhouse facility (01) in which wort is produced from raw materials while employing process energy, and further comprising a bottling facility (02) in which beer produced from the wort is filled into packaging containers, in particular bottles, while employing process energy, wherein in order to supply the brewhouse facility (01) with process energy a first energy supply network (16) is provided, into which process heat having a first temperature level is fed from at least one first energy generation facility (17) and is distributed by a heat transfer means to different energy consumers (14, 15) in the brewhouse facility (01), and wherein in order to supply the bottling facility (02) with process energy a second energy supply network (21) is provided, into which process heat having a second temperature level is fed from at least one second energy generation facility (22) and is distributed by a heat transfer means to different energy consumers (23, 24, 25) in the bottling facility (02), wherein the maximum temperature of the heat transfer means in the first energy supply network is above the maximum temperature of the heat transfer means in the second energy supply network.
If you love this sort of thing, there’s much more about the specifics at the patent application page.
Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1947. Featuring singer and comedian Eddie Cantor dressed up in a football uniform, watching the game on to modern eyes is a very tiny television screen. There’s also a small table holding a bottle and a glass of beer. The tagline, “For You Armchair Quarterbacks,” forever linked drinking beer while watching football on TV.
Today in 1916, US Patent 1166599 A was issued, an invention of Andreas R Keller, for a “Mash and Strainer Tank Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description, the overview states the “invention relates to new and useful improvements in mash and .strainer tank machines, and is designed to increase the efficiency of such machines by improving the mixing, percolation, heating or cooking, straining, and drawing-off features, thereby overcoming the predominant and objectionable disadvantages of the machines now in use.”
