Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 3033762A: Straining Tank

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Today in 1962, US Patent 3033762 A was issued, an invention of Robert C. Gadsby, Schwaiger Joseph, and Frank H. Schwaiger, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for their “Straining Tank.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it’s stated that the “invention relates to an improved straining tank or grain extractor or lauter tub, and more particularly to an improvement in an existing kind of lauter tub presently in widespread use in the brewing industry to remove extract from brewers grains.” They later elaborate a bit more:

This invention relates to an improvement in existing lauter tubs having agitators therein which increases the efficiency or reduces the draw-o time to about two-thirds of the time previously required. This is important because the lautering step in the brewing process has in the past been one of the slowest and one of the bottlenecks in the production of beer. In other words, in the usual brewing operation today, the capacity of the step which uses lauter tubs or straining tanks largely determines the capacity of the brewery.

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Patent No. 519513A: Apparatus For Racking Beer

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Today in 1894, US Patent 519513 A was issued, an invention of Harry Torchiani, for his “Apparatus For Racking Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it’s stated that the “invention relates to that class of. devices that are used in drawing or filling beer from casks into the barrels, half-barrels, kegs, etc.,” adding this. “The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus of this kind, which can readily be adjusted for barrels or kegs of different sizes, and which prevents the spurting of the beer from the apparatus or keg when the apparatus is withdrawn from the keg.”
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Patent No. 1302549A: Process For Brewing Beer

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Today in 1919, US Patent 1302549 A was issued, an invention of Herman Hausen, for his “Process For Brewing Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but as Prohibition began, the invention was specifically for non-alcoholic beer to satisfy demand for at least the taste of beer once the regular kind was outlawed. Here’s a fuller explanation.

My invention relates to the manufacture of non-alcoholic beer, of beer containing less than one-half of one percent of alcohol, and of temperance beer. In the processes heretofore employed for making such beverages, the de-alcoholizing occurs by distillation of the alcohol after the liquid vis fermented or the beer brewed. These old processes involve certain disadvantages which are obviated by my invention, which, generally speaking, consists in simultaneously boiling and fermenting the beer wort in a vacuum and within the range of beer fermentation temperatures at which the activity of the yeast is not destroyed to evaporate the alcohol and preserve live yeast in In the accompanying drawing I show more or less diagrammatically and mostly in sectional view all the apparatus required to carry out my new process.

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Patent No. 3181684A: Transfer Mechanism For Conveyor Keg Palletizing Device

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Today in 1965, US Patent 3181684 A was issued, an invention of John Miller, assigned to Schaefer Brewing Co., for his “Transfer Mechanism For Conveyor Keg Palletizing Device.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it states that his “invention is to provide a more efficient transfer mechanism for the barrels or kegs and particularly such a transfer mechanism which is more reliable and sure in operation in transferring the barrels or kegs from the conveyor to the skids which convey such barrels or kegs to the palletizing position.”
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Patent No. 581700A: Bottling Apparatus

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Today in 1897, US Patent 581700 A was issued, an invention of Alvin James Donally, for his “Bottling Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it states that he’s “invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottling Apparatus.” While he never summarizes what those are in a short, concise sentence, he does offer this.

It is highly desirable in the bottling of various liquids, and more especially in the bottling of ale and beer, to maintain gas or air pressure on the liquid both for the purpose of retaining the gas of the liquid in solution and for the purpose of effecting the delivery of the liquid into the bottles under a steady pressure, so that there may not be any material variation in the rate of flow, and it is also desirable to keep the liquid as far as possible from exposure to the air of the place where the bottling is carried on. It is of course desirable also to prevent the waste of the liquid which frequently occurs through the filling of the bottles to overflowing. Some of these objects have been attained in part hitherto; but so far as I am aware no apparatus has been devised as yet which will enable all of these objects to be attained in a satisfactory manner. Thus it has been sought to maintain the pressure on the liquid and to prevent the waste of liquid by providing in addition to the filling-tube a second tube, which returns or conducts to the barrel or other supply vessel the air displaced from the bottle, but this alone is not altogether satisfactory. It has also been proposed to maintain the required pressure of carbonic acid gas in the keg or barrel in which the liquid is delivered to the bottler. This is possible sometimes; but in some cases it happens that the keg or barrel is not capable of standing the gas-pressure which is necessary to force the liquid into the bottles. I have sought to provide in the first place for the separation in large part of the air displaced in the bottles from whatever overflow of liquid there may be, and for the escape of the air from the apparatus, and the return of the liquid to the supply vessel. I have sought also to provide for the admission of gas to the supply vessel without interference with the escape of the air and the return of the overflow. Furthermore, I have sought to provide for the handling of the liquid under gas pressure, in the manner already referred to, in cases where the original keg or barrel is not calculated to withstand gas pressure and the liquid can be drawn therefrom only by gravity.

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Patent No. 2468840A: Heater For Wort Kettles

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Today in 1949, US Patent 2468840 A was issued, an invention of Robert C. Schock, for his “Heater For Wort Kettles.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it states that the “invention relates to means and methods of heating wort prior to its use in the making of beer.” A little later on, they add that the “invention comprises a heating unit having varying heat units supplied to it for their exchange with a mass to be heated, and to keep said mass heated, such exchange taking place at relatively lower temperatures, then at relatively higher temperatures, and then again at lower temperatures, the latter if desired.”
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Patent No. 3317025A: Automatic Keg Feeder

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Today in 1967, US Patent 3317025 A was issued, an invention of Ernst Schickle, assigned to Rheingold Breweries, for his “Automatic Keg Feeder.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description it states that the “invention relates generally to brewery operation and particularly to an improved apparatus for effecting transfer and controlled delivery of beer kegs or similar containers from a feeder location to an operating location.” A little later on, they add that the “invention may be briefly described as an improved beer keg transfer and delivery apparatus which includes, in its broad aspects, a keg receiving and neonmulating conveyor, a keg transfer unit, a delivery conveyor and associated means for effecting controlled keg delivery in spaced relation onto the delivery conveyor.”
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Patent No. 3316916A: Hop Picking Machine

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Today in 1967, US Patent 3316916 A was issued, an invention of Florian F. Dauenhauer and Thomas H. Frazer, for their “Hop Picking Machine.” There’s no Abstract, and all they say in the description is a generic the “present invention relates to improvements in a hop picking machine, and it consists in the combination, construction and arrangement of parts as hereinafter described and claimed.” Which isn’t much for such a complicated machine, but you can get a better sense of it reading through the lengthy full description.
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Patent No. 2156951A: Can Filling Machine

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Today in 1939, US Patent 2156951 A was issued, an invention of Henry Mondloch, assigned to the Hansen Canning Machinery Corp., for his “Can Filling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but they state in the description that the “present invention relates generally to improvements in the art of packing successive batches of commodity in receptacles, and relates more specifically to improvements in the construction and operation of so-called can filling machines of the automatic type.”
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Patent No. 382023A: Beer-Bottling Machine

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Today in 1888, US Patent 382023 A was issued, an invention of John C. Bauee, for his “Beer-Bottling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that his “invention relates to improvements in machines for filling bottles with beer or other effervescent liquid; and it consists, generally, in an automatic cut-off valve which is opened by the bottle as it is brought in contact with it, and the liquid is allowed to pass into the bottle without being exposed to the atmosphere, thereby retaining the gases which would otherwise pass off and deteriorate the liquid, and be closed and the flow of the liquid stopped when the bottle is removed.”
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