Today in 1988, US Patent 4767640 A was issued, an invention of Henry Goldstein, Patrick L. Ting, Etzer Chicove, Gary Goetzke, and John M. Cowles, assigned to Miller Brewing Company, for their “Light Stable Hop Extracts and Method of Preparation.” Here’s the Abstract:
A method of preparing anactinic hop extracts comprising three stages: pre-purification of a liquid CO2 hop extract using liquid-liquid extraction to isolate pure humulones or alpha acids; isomerization/reduction of the humulones to obtain a mixture consisting of reduced isohumulones and non-isohumulone light unstable products (NILUPS); then adding alkali and water to the mixture of reduced isohumulones and NILUPS, heating and stirring to extract the reduced isohumulones into an aqueous phase and to leave the NILUPS in an oil phase. The aqueous phase is an anactinic hop extract which can be used to prepare light stable malt beverages.
This is one of a multitude of patents that Miller received in order to maintain their image, using a clear bottle for Miller High Life. It seems like it would have been far less expensive to just re-brand the beer with a brown bottle, but I guess that’s why I’m not in marketing.
