Sunday’s ad is for “Coors Beer,” from 1936. This ad was made for the Coors Brewing Co., who did not do as much advertising as their competitors. In part, this was because they were not sold nationwide until the 1980s. This one features the tagline “Deliciously Different,” which is “because Brewed with Coors own Private Brand Malt.” And that is still true, as I visited the valley in southwest Colorado where there are several large family farms growing barley for Coors. It was impressive. Is is noticeably different in the flavor? Doubtful.
Beer In Ads #2221: 15 Billion Pounds Of Farm Products!
Monday’s ad is a trade ad, by the United States Brewing Industry Foundation, from 1939. After prohibition ended, the industry started doing PSA-type ads in an attempt to create goodwill for beer and brewers. They would later go on to do a fairly sophisticated series of ads between 1946 and 1956, known unofficially as Beer Belongs. Officially, they were “The Home Life in America” series, consisting of 120 ads, with a new ad running in major periodicals each month. Last year, for my Beer in Ads series, I featured every one of them. But in the years before that, the U.S. Brewing Industry Foundation (a precursor to the original Brewer’s Association) dabbled with a variety of similar ads promoting the industry as a whole. These were especially popular during World War 2, and in fact they even won an award from the government for some of these ads. Most of the ads were black and white, although a few were in color, though usually in a minimal way, with a few colors accented rather than being in full color.
In this ad, that “15 Billion Pounds Of Farm Products” the headline refers to barley, corn, rice and hops “from 3 million acres of farm lands” that have been purchased by American breweries since the repeal of prohibition six years before. I believe their point was that it was good for the economy, but it’s so subtle I’m not quite sure. And I love that inset explaining that 3 million acres is roughly “All the potato fields in this great country put together.” It’s also “all the crop lands harvested in five New England states!” So that’s a lot of land.
Patent No. 249332A: Mixture Or Grist For Brewing Purposes
Today in 1881, US Patent 249332 A was issued, an invention of Francis J. Geis, for his “Mixture or Grist for Brewing Purposes.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
My invention consists in a mixture or grist for brewing malt-liquors, composed of malt and cereals or grain having the cellulose or integument and germ or heart removed, the cereals or grain constituting from about twenty-five to fifty per centum, by weight, of the said mixture or grist.The cereals or grains thus treated have the oily and other objectionable matter removed, but contain the maximum amount of starch and the necessary albumenoids and gluten.
In carrying out my invention I prefer to remove the cellulose or integument and germ or heart of the cereals or grain by means of mechanism which is another invention of mine, and for which I intend to apply for Letters of Patent.
Before brewing I substitute for preferably from twenty-five to fifty per centum of the weight of malt ordinarily employed to produce a given quantity of the beverage alike weight of the prepared cereals or grain, and mix the two to form a grist. I then subject the combined mass of malt and cereals or grain to treatment by any suitable one of the usual methods employed in the manufacture of lager-beer, beer, ale, porter, or other malt-liquor, according as I desire to produce either of those beverages. I have found that one hundred pounds of the prepared cereals or grain will equal one hundred and thirty-six pounds of malt in extractor wort (the liquor that runs or is produced before fermentation) for the beverage, and as the prepared cereals or grain are much the cheaper,it is obvious that by means of employing this substitute I very materially cheapen the cost of the beverage. A larger and better quality of yeast of a uniform and vigorous character also results from the use of the prepared cereals or grain.
Patent No. 936011A: Apparatus For Making Malt
Today in 1909, US Patent 936011 A was issued, an invention of George J. Meyer, for his “Apparatus For Making Malt.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
Heretofore malting has usually been effected by tumbling barley or other grain around in rotatable drums or turning the same over periodically by hand or mechanical shovels while the same is supported in thin horizontal layers on a floor or in shallow boxes. None of these systems utilize the overhead space in the rooms of malt houses and therefore are not economical in this respect,
One of the objects of this invention is to utilize this overhead space to the fullest extent and thereby increase the malting capacity of a building of certain dimensions.
My invention has the further object to simplify the means whereby malting is effected so as to reduce the cost thereof and also insure a more thorough mixing of the barley from time to time during the malting operation so as to insure a more uniform product.
Patent No. WO2012122019A1: Barley Cultivar Moravian 115
Today in 2012, US Patent WO 2012122019 A1 was issued, an invention of Dennis Dolan, assigned to MillerCoors, for his “Barley Cultivar Moravian 115.”
Moravian barley in Colorado.
Here’s the Abstract:
A barley cultivar, designated MV115, is disclosed. MV115 is a high yield, lodging resistant cultivar with exceptional malting characteristics particularly useful in the brewing industry. The disclosure relates to seeds, plants, and to methods for producing a barley plant produced by crossing barley cultivar MV115 with itself or another barley variety. Methods for producing a barley plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes are disclosed. Barley varieties or breeding varieties, plant parts, methods for producing other barley varieties, lines or plant parts, and to the barley plants, varieties, and their parts derived from the use of those methods are disclosed. The disclosure further relates to hybrid barley seeds and plants produced by crossing bariey cultivar MV115 with another barley cultivar. Methods for developing other barley varieties or breeding lines derived from variety MV115 including cell and tissue culture, haploid systems, mutagenesis, and transgenic derived lines are disclosed.
Last year, I visited Coors’ barley fields in a valley in Colorado, where local farmers grow Moravian barley for them.
Patent No. 4165388A: Torrefied Barley For Brewer’s Mashes
Today in 1979, US Patent 4165388 A was issued, an invention of Robert D. Bryce, for his “Torrefied Barley For Brewer’s Mashes.” Here’s the Abstract:
Torrefied, expanded barley for use as a partial replacement for malt in brewer’s mashes is prepared by heating unmalted barley having a protein content of at least about 12% to a temperature sufficient to expand the barley to a degree that a given volume of barley before heating weights about 1.4 to about 1.75 times the weight of the same volume of barley after heating. Before heating, the unmalted barley preferably has a moisture content of about 12% to 20% by weight.
Patent No. 3897569A: Malting
Today in 1975, US Patent 3897569 A was issued, an invention of Ronald Horgan, for his “Malting.” Here’s the Abstract:
An improved malting process comprises the steps of steeping barley or other cereal grain to initiate germination thereof, subjecting the germinated grain to a treatment to restrict further growth and respiration of the grain, and malting the grain in a relatively short period. The treatment may be a mechanical treatment such as pumping the grain in water, or it may be a temperature or chemical treatment. The subsequent malting may be carried out at a temperature between 20 DEG and 40 DEG C and the malting period is less than 48 hours.
Patent No. 456872A: Process Of Manufacturing Malt
Today in 1891, US Patent 456872 A was issued, an invention of Frederick W. Wiesebrock, for his “Process of Manufacturing Malt.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
It is the purpose of my invention to provide a novel process for the manufacture of malt to be used in the production of fermented liquors, said process being of such a character that it may be practiced at all seasons of the year. It is my purpose, also, to materially cheapen the production of malt, to render the same independent of skilled labor, and to produce more uniform and better results than have been attainable heretofore.
Patent No. 3679431A: Wort Production
Today in 1972, US Patent 3679431 A was issued, an invention of David Henry Clayton and John Karkalas, for their “Wort Production.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
This invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to wort production.
– Wort contains in addition to fermentable carbohydrates, soluble nitrogeneous compounds. Barley malt is the traditional raw material for the production of wort since it provides a source of carbohydrates and “nitrogen com pounds and in addition provides the enzymes capable of degrading the carbohydrates and nitrogen compounds to the soluble components of wort.
Malt is manufactured from e.g. barley by the process of malting. This consists of first germinating and then drying barley grain under controlled conditions.
The manufacture of malt is expensive because (1) large capital investments are necessary for the malting machinery, (2) a skilled labour force is required to operate the malting machines, (3) malt can only be made successfully from the higher qualities of barley which are expensive and (4) during the malting process a physical loss in dry matter occurs; this is known as the malting loss.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of producing a wort in which the use of barley malt is reduced or virtually eliminated.
We have found that wort may be produced by treating an aqueous slurry of starch and protein-containing plant material for example unmalted cereal grain e.g. It appears that said hydrodynamic conditions result in the formation of a homogeneous mass very suitable for the action of the starch liquefying enzyme. Examples of starch and protein-containing plant materials other than cereals include roots, fungi material and by-products of processes to which ‘cereals have been subjected.
Examples of suitable materials include tapioca and rice, as well as wheat, barley and maize.
The invention provides a method of producing wort from an aqueous slurry of starch and protein-containing plant material comprising the steps of liquefying starch by treating the slurry with a commercial starch liquefying enzyme subjecting the slurry to hydrodynamic conditions such that a substantial thixotropic reduction of viscosity is produced by shearing forces in the slurry to facilitate the action of the starch liquefying enzyme prior to any substantial reduction of viscosity resulting from the enzymatic liquefaction converting starch to sugar by treatment with a saccharifying enzyme and converting protein to soluble nitrogen-containing compounds by treatment with a proteolytic enzyme.
The invention also provides wort when produced by a method as set out in the last preceding paragraph.
The invention also provides a process for brewing beer including such a method.
The invention also provides beer when produced by such a process.
The invention also provides a process of producing a concentrated wort syrup by concentrating wort produced by such a method.
The invention also provides a concentrated wort syrup when produced by such a process.
Patent No. 406486A: Steeping Tub For Steeping Barley
Today in 1889, US Patent 406486 A was issued, an invention of Fritz Susemiehl, for his “Steeping Tub For Steeping Barley or Other Grains.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to improvements in steeping-tubs for steeping barley and other grain, in which the form of the tub is preferably globular, except at its top, and having a spout or mouth-piece on its upper edge at one side similar in form to those found in pitchers, the water being conveyed into the tub through perforations in exit-tubes in connection with compressed air passed through same by means of an air force-pump, the tub or vessel laving a false perforated bottom with trap-door connecting with a conveyer-pipe passing out through the bottom of the vessel; and the objects of my improvements are, first, to permit the barley or other grain and refuse foreign matter floating on top of the water to be discharged from the vessel or tub through its spout or mouth-piece; second, to cause the Water to be discharged with great force in the vessel through the perforations in the exit pipes, to stir and agitate the grain in the vessel, and thus cleansing it from dirt and foreign substances adhering to it; third, to permit the dirt and foreign substances wash ed off the grain, which sink, to pass through the perforations of false bottom and lie upon the real bottom of the vessel, thus separating the same from the cleansed grain, and, fourth, to provide means for expeditiously removing the cleansed grain, after its proper treatment, from the vessel by means of a trap-door through the false bottom and a conveyer pipe leading therefrom through the bottom of the vessel. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a front view of the steeping-tub. Fig. 2 is a view of a vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a top view of the false bottom. Fig. `1i is a top view of one of the arms of the water and air pipes. Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the same on the line :roc ofFig. 4, the exit-pipes being removed; and Fig. 6 is a detail view of the means of attaching one