Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 20140008367A1: Beverage Delivery Can

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Today in 2014, just last year, US Patent 20140008367 A1 was issued, an invention of six people including Jim Koch, and assigned to the Boston Beer Co., for a “Beverage Delivery Can.” Here’s the Abstract:

A beverage delivery can may comprise various configurations. Such configurations may comprise various aperture shapes, sizes, and configurations and various shapes, textures, configurations, and dimensions of the lid and surface of the can. A beverage can may comprise various exterior shapes such as a tapered shape, a faceted shape, a pint glass shape and the like. In embodiments, the beverage can may comprise various types of nucleation devices. In embodiments, various external packaging may be used with one or more beverage delivery cans.

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This not the can, at least not yet, that Boston Beer put their Samuel Adams Boston Lager and other beers in, a prototype for which is below. This can design more resembles their proprietary glass, so perhaps we’ll one day see this can on store shelves.
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North Coast Doubles Their Square Footage

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The local paper near Fort Bragg along the North Coast, the Ukiah Daily Journal is reporting that “North Coast Brewing Company expands,” adding a “[n]ew location will house brewery overflow.” North Coast Brewing apparently has leased a new warehouse, effectively doubling the size of their footprint, which “will increase North Coast Brewing’s storage by 10,000 feet, which is about equal to the brewery itself.” According to the Daily Journal:

18661 Old Coast Highway, in Fort Bragg, the former location of Mendocino Sports Club and Circus MECCA, will be a temporary storage facility for finished beer before being trucked to a their larger distribution point in Petaluma, according to Doug Moody, Senior Vice President at North Coast Brewing Company. The brewing company signed a 10-year lease for the property.

The move gives them greater flexibility in managing their product flow, much of which is immediately trucked to a storage facility in Petaluma because they’ve run out of room in Fort Bragg. The brewery, now in its 27th year — part of the class of ’88 — is, like many well-established breweries, growing by leaps and bounds and is hoping to remain in Fort Bragg. They’ve been trying to buy a part of an old mill site formerly owned by logging giant Georgia Pacific, but they haven’t yet been able to come to terms. If they do, you can plan on seeing a bigger single space that would “include a 200-seat performing arts center, restaurant and [North Coast] reestablishing brewery tours.” Even if it was approved tomorrow, it would likely take another three years to open the doors of a new brewery, but I for one would love to be there for the grand opening.

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The current brewery in Fort Bragg.

Patent No. 640860A: Combination Beer Bottle & Glass

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Today in 1900, US Patent 640860 A was issued, an invention of William Baum Jr., for a “Combination Beer Bottle and Glass.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described in the application like this. “The invention consists of the combination, with a main body portion or bottle, of a top portion detachably mounted thereon and adapted to be used as a drinking cup or glass, and a base portion also detachable mounted on the body portion and adapted to act as a support for the detachable cup portion.” It seems like an interesting idea, perfect for travel since you wouldn’t have to pack a glass, but I don’t think it ever quite caught on.

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V Is For Vomit

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Inexplicably today is “Vomit Day,” though I’m not entirely sure why. Usually days have sponsors, or were created by somebody. Nope. Often they make sense, like if it was possibly the day after St. Patrick’s Day or New Year’s Eve. Or perhaps something significant occurred in history to mark the day or there’s some tradition behind it. Nope. I’ve been collecting holidays and dates since I lived in New York City in the late 1970s, so I got it from somewhere, I just don’t know where I found it, and Google didn’t turn up anything useful or definitive. So I’m left scratching my head as to why today might be “Vomit Day.” But celebrate we will.

A few years ago I made a list of Puke Words, that is different slang terms for throwing up, tossing your cookies or paying homage to the porcelain god. It’s not nearly as exhaustive as my Drunk Words list, but it was only a one day project on a slow news day once upon a time. It was merely a love of language that set me down that path. But whether by getting sick or — gasp — drinking a bit too much, I reckon it’s happened to all of us at one time in our lives and I thought it would be fun to see how many puke words I could find. If you know of one I missed, please leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list. If you know where it came from, or anything more about it, that would be even better, but if it’s just something you heard somewhere while your head was bent over in the commode, that’s okay, too. Happy Vomit Day, everybody! Let’s be careful out there.

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Patent No. 3784059A: Beverage Can Drinking Holder

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Today in 1974, US Patent 3784059 A was issued, an invention of John Katzakian, for a “Beverage Can Drinking Holder.” Here’s the Abstract:

A beverage can drinking holder including an annular sleeve encircling the upper end margin of a beverage can wherein the sleeve has an interior surface gradually tapering radially inwardly progressively upwardly for receiving and seating the upper end edge of the can. The sleeve includes an annular upper end edge forming a drinking lip encircling the sleeve and spaced above the upper edge of the can a distance sufficient to provide an overflow reservoir for receiving an expanding volume of foam and beverage from the can below. In addition, a sharp rigid can-piercing element is carried within the sleeve for driving an opening into the top of the can. A stein or mug-like holder assembly includes a pair of spaced annular members for receiving the opposite ends of the can wherein one of the members is movable between advanced and retracted positions to permit insertion of the can therebetween and subsequent holding of the can by moving the movable member to its advanced position.

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Beer In Ads #1428: Read Our New Label

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Wednesday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1969. I’m not sure what the label looked like before the sixties ended, but the new one is what I remember, a logo and a short story. Notice in parenthesis at the bottom it states “(This family brews beer better),” a bold claim indeed. But then I have to ask, why focus on the new label first?

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Patent No. 20100000997A1: Double-Ended Openers Beverage Can

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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.

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Help Rebuild Belgium’s Hof ten Dormaal

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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.

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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.

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Outside the farmhouse brewery.

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I loved these tiny clay shields on the brick wall outside of the farmhouse.

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From the gate outside looking in to Hof ten Dormaal.

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Cafe seating on a patio outside the tasting room of the brewery.

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Inside the tasting room, local artwork hangs on the wall above wooden kegs aging beer.

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Owner and brewmaster André Janssens leads a tour of his brewery.

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Hof ten Dormaal’s brewhouse.

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The courtyard garden, surrounded by the family home, farm buildings, and the brewery.

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Some of the Brussels Beer Challenge judges posing in the courtyard.

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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.

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Beer In Ads #1427: Leupin’s Chapeau’d Beer Glass

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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.

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