Today in 2010, US Patent 20100323060 A1 was issued, an invention of Wilhelm Wolfgang-Peter, assigned to Krones Ag, for his “Method of, and Apparatus for, Flavor Recovery in Beer Brewing.” Here’s the Abstract:

A beer-brewing method, and an apparatus implementing the method, where vapors escaping from the wort during a boiling phase are passed, on the steam side, to a rectifying column connected to a wort boiler and the vapors are rectified, at least one flavor-containing distillate being recovered from the vapors and being fed to the wort following the boiling phase.