Today in 1885, US Patent 325979 A was issued, an invention of Fredrich Louis Sebastian, for his “Hop-Breaker.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in the construction and operation of a machine for breaking up hops preparatory to their use by the brewer.

The object of the invention is to so prepare the hops that very little time will be necessary to extract the properties of such hops when put into the hot liquor in the process of making beer, and thereby lessening the loss of the aroma in the steam arising from such liquor. By breaking the hops up I do not mean to be understood as grinding them to a powder, as if they were reduced to this condition they would be comparatively worthless to the manufacturer of beer.