Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

  • Home
  • About
  • Editorial
  • Birthdays
  • Art & Beer

Socialize

  • Dribbble
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Beers / Patent No. 4729900A: Foam-Stabilized Malt Beverage

Patent No. 4729900A: Foam-Stabilized Malt Beverage

March 8, 2016 By Jay Brooks

patent-logo
Today in 1988, US Patent 4729900 A was issued, an invention of Kenneth Clare, Margaret A. Lawson, and Walter Bryden, assigned to Merck & Co., Inc., for their “Foam-Stabilized Malt Beverage.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

A fermented malt beverage having improved foam stability and desirable lace, cling, and clarity is described. The beverage is stabilized by adding 5-400 ppm by weight of combined xanthan gum and a cold-water soluble protein.

Xanthan-Gum

Here’s a better explanation, from the application:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A number of malt beverages or beers will produce a relatively good foam immediately after pouring, but the foams so produced are not as persistent as is usually desired by the consumers of such products. In addition, consumers desire a beer possessing a foam that will “cling” to the insides of a glass or mug in an attractive “lacy” pattern. Lace and cling are difficult to achieve in the presence of slight contaminant levels of surfactants or detergents on the glassware, as occurs when beer mugs or glasses are handwashed and quickly rinsed prior to use. A further requirement is that the beer exhibit good clarity to the consumer, i.e., the absence of any noticeable “haze”.

Propylene glycol alginate (PGA), heteropolysaccharide S-10 (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,976) and cellulose ether (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,00) are additives known to stabilize beer foam.

However, continuing research is being conducted in an effort to discover new polymers, additives, and polymer combinations which may be more economical and which can be utilized to impart improved foam stability, lace and clarity to fermented malt beverages while avoiding attendant “haze” levels.

Xanthan gum as an extender or thickener in the food industry is well described in the literature. Also well known in the art is the use of collagen hydrolysates, derived from animal skin, in the preparation of hair care preparation, shampoos and skin care preparations. Collagen derivatives have been used in the brewing process as fining agents. Further, gelatin hydrolysates are well known in the pharmaceutical industry as tablet excipients used in granulating and binding operations during tablet manufacture. However, there are no general references to such compositions in combination being disclosed for specifically improving foam stability and properties of fermented malt beverages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has now been found that the foam retention and lace/cling properties of a fermented malt beverage can be stabilized while minimizing haze formation by adding a combination of xanthan gum and cold-water soluble protein to the beverage in a combined amount sufficient to result in a final concentration in the beverage in the range of about 5-400 ppm, by weight. The proteins useful in the invention include, inter alia, collagen, gelatin, or milk protein hydrolysates, having a number average molecular weight of 900-12,000, which can be used in a weight ratio of 1:4 to 4:1 of xanthan gum/protein.

Xanthan-Gum

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries, Just For Fun, Politics & Law, Related Pleasures Tagged With: History, Law, Patent, Science of Brewing



Find Something

Northern California Breweries

Please consider purchasing my latest book, California Breweries North, available from Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore.

Beer Bulletin Email

Enter your email address to receive daily digests:

Recent Comments

  • Martyn Cornell on Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Dreher Jr.
  • Martyn Cornell on Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Dreher Jr.
  • Martyn Cornell on Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Dreher Jr.
  • Lucy Corne on Beer Birthday: Lucy Corne-Duthie
  • Kendall Staggs on Beer In Ads #4341: Miss Rheingold 1955 Filling Yuletide Requests

Recent Posts

  • Beer In Ads #4460: Miss Rheingold 1958 Makes Pre-Game Predictions June 6, 2023
  • Beer In Ads #4459: Miss Rheingold 1958 Plays Tennis June 5, 2023
  • Frites Birthday: Eddy Cooremans June 5, 2023
  • Beer Birthday: Kevin West June 5, 2023
  • Beer In Ads #4458: Miss Rheingold 1958 Has Half The Work And Twice The Fun June 4, 2023

Tag Cloud

Advertising Anheuser-Busch Announcements Bay Area Belgium Brewers Association Brewing Equipment Budweiser Business California Christmas Europe France Germany Guinness Health & Beer History Holidays Hops Humor Infographics Kegs Law Mainstream Coverage Miller Brewing Northern California Pabst Packaging Patent Pennsylvania Press Release Prohibitionists Rheingold San Francisco Schlitz Science Science of Brewing Sports Statistics The Netherlands UK Uncategorized United States Video Washington

The Sessions

session_logo_all_text_1500

Next Session: Dec. 7, 2018
#142: One More for the Road
Previous Sessions
  • #141: Future of Beer Blogging
  • #140: Pivo
  • #139: Beer & the Good Life
  • #138: The Good in Wood
  • #137: German Wheat
Archive, History & Hosting

Typology Tuesday

Typology-png
Next Typology:
On or Before March 29, 2016
#3: Irish-Style Dry Stout
Previous Typologies
  • #2: Bock Feb. 2016
  • #1: Barley Wine Jan. 2016
Archive & History

This month’s posts

June 2023
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« May    

BBB Archives

Go to mobile version