Today in 1898, US Patent 616336 A was issued, an invention of Emil Kersten, for his “Means For Racking Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The invention relates to means for racking beer contained in casks partly filled with chips or shavings, for attracting and retaining the heavier substances forming part of the products of fermentation, and for fining the beer.

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved means for first drawing the beer in a perfectly pure and fine state from such cask without causing the beer to become turbid when running close to the sedimentcovered bottom and chips in the cask, and then drawing the remaining portion of the beer from the cask with as little sediment as possible.