Today in 1967, US Patent 3310407 A was issued, an invention of Michael George Royston, for his “Fermentation Processes for the Production of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, and the application simply says that the “invention relates to the continuous production of beer.” It’s later summarized with this:

The invention concerns the stage at which hopped Wort including yeast, as is conventional, is allowed to ferment to produce beer as the final product. In this fermentation stage of production the rate of’conversion of the sugar in the wort is a function of the concentration of sugar and of the enzymic yeast cells in the wort.