Today in 1979, US Patent DE 2808712 A1 was issued, an invention of Simon Redl, assigned to Anton Steinecker Maschinenfabrik, for his “Plant to Manufacture Beer Wort by Hydrating Crushed Malt — Introduces Water as Unbroken Film to Avoid Aeration of Product.” Here’s the Abstract:
The installation comprises a pressure roll mill for wet crushing brewers malt into a wort mixing chamber where a hydrator introduces additional water and an agitator mixes the milled malt and water. The hydrator is designed to introduce water in the form of a continuous, film which runs down a guiding surface extending into the wort mix. The guiding surface pref. extends alongside or beneath and for the full axial length of the mill rolls. The guiding surface is a side wall of the casing which forms the chamber containing the mill rolls and the agitator. Both walls are pref. employed as guiding surfaces. Water is pref. run on to the guiding surface from an adjustable width slot at the bottom of a supply pocket. The guiding surface pref. form one edge of the slot which has a width of 0.5-5.0., (1.5-3.0) mm. The hydrator offers faster and more homogeneous mixing in of water than single exit water inspectors. Undesirable aeration of the wort is held to an absolute minimum which was not possible with spray injectors.
