Today in 1964, US Patent 3117005 A was issued, an invention of Morton William Coutts, for his “Process For the Manufacture of Beer and the Like.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to a process for the manufacture of beer and the like and has for its objects the provision of an improved continuous process for such manufacture which makes use of certain phenomena which occur during the preparation of brewers Wort and the fermentation thereof and which individually cause problems in production but which when combined bring about beneficial results.
For example, when brewers wort is boiled certain heat sensitive material precipitates and coagulate-s. It has been found that these precipitated particles while in a boiling state have adsorptive properties and take up from the wort many objectionable and unwanted flavours. It is normal practice to hold the hot wort before cooling, and during this time these particles coagulate and as they coagulate gradually lose their adsorptive powers, the adsorbed flavours again becoming soluble and so producing objectionable flavours in the finished beer.
