Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1859: Facts Versus Fallacies #47

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Wednesday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 47 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “47,” and details the failed efforts of a prohibition in neighboring Ohio. They quote several prominent citizens in Ohio, including a former U.S. president. Their conclusion. “The fallacy of Prohibition is best shown by the fact that whenever tried it has proven a failure, because it is neither just nor practical.”

Facts-v-Fallacies-47-1915

Beer In Ads #1858: Facts Versus Fallacies #42

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Tuesday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 42 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “42,” and is an interesting tactic. It’s simply a reprint of a letter from a federal judge, D.E. Bryant, explaining why in his opinion the local option is a terrible idea and will not work. But here’s my favorite paragraph.

My experience is that prohibitory laws do not prohibit; that they do no good, but to the contrary they are extremely hurtful. There is but one answer to this, and it is that you cannot legislate successfully upon what men regard as a matter of taste. When legislation trenches upon taste the citizen will violate the law with impunity, and in so doing he does not regard himself as a criminal.

Sounds to me like he knew what he was talking about, as that’s pretty much exactly what happened during prohibition.

Facts-v-Fallacies-42-1915

Beer In Ads #1857: Facts Versus Fallacies #31

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Monday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 31 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “31,” and again discusses the Brooks High License Law (no relation) and the fallacy of the local option where counties can choose to ban alcohol, even if the rest of the state doesn’t. It’s what became known, after prohibition ended, as dry counties and wet ones, a system that was as bad then as it is today.

Facts-v-Fallacies-31-1915

Patent No. 493896A: Keg Rack

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Today in 1893, US Patent 493896 A was issued, an invention of Ward E. Pierce, for his “Keg or Tool Rack.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to keg or tool racks and particularly to that class which is adapted to be stored and shipped in knock-down shape, to be readily set up in stores and vending places, and which afford easy and convenient means for holding nail kegs, agricultural implements.

My object is to produce such a rack which may be readily assembled at the place where it is desired to be used, and adapted to hold kegs in a very convenient position so that the goods may be readily displayed therefrom; and also easy and convenient means for holding hoes, forks, brooms, &c.,taking up a minimum amount of space.

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Patent No. 46973A: Improved Process For Obtaining A Condensed Extract Of Hops

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Today in 1865, US Patent 46973 A was issued, an invention of Samuel R. Percy and Walter S. Wells, for his “Improved Process for Obtaining a Condensed Extract of Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Our invention consists in the preparation of a condensed extract of hops, which possesses all the valuable properties of the hops, which is computed to lose about thirty-three and one-third per cent of their strength the first year, and afterward to decline more rapidly. All these and other objections are entirely obviated by our invention.

A quantity of hops is placed in an air-tight vessel, and the air is then exhausted therefrom in any of the methods ordinarily used for that purpose. Warm or cold water is then introduced, which should be kept heated by the admission of steam, and the hops allowed to steep for two or three hours. The degree of heat is not essential. We prefer that it should approach nearly to the boiling-point of water in vacuo. A small quantity of alkali or alkaline salts should be added to the water, the amount, when so used, not to exceed one pound of alkali or its equivalent of alkaline salts to I every one hundred pounds of hops. When the hops, by these means, are sufficiently digested, a vacuum is formed in a chamber communicating with the vessel in which the hops have been steeped, so that when the cooks communicating between this vessel and this receiver are opened the water and condensed steam containing the virtues of the hops pass through into the receiver, a vacuum being maintained therein sufficient to draw all the liquid from the hops. Water and steam are again and again admitted into the steeping vessel, as before described, until the hops are entirely exhausted of their properties. The fluid thus holding said properties in suspension is strained through a suitable strainer adjusted within the connecting pipe while in transition from the steeping-vessel to the receiver. When a sufficient quantity of this fluid extract of the hops, effected as above stated, is accumulated in the receiver, a vacuum evaporating-pan is ready for its reception by covering or coating its inner surface with any oily or fatty substance cerine, paraffine, &c., to prevent the extract from adhering to the pan and burning. Avaouum is then formed in this pan and the fluid extract is drawn through a pipe or tube connecting with the receiver, as fast as needed, into this vacuum, evaporating, or condensing pan. At such time, during the process of evaporating and condensing such fluid, as the operator may deem proper, a quantity of molasses, saccharine matters, or the extracted liquor of grain, whether malted or not, is to be drawn into the vacuum condenser and mixed with the fluid therein contained, amounting in quantity to about three gallons of molasses orits equivalent proportion of saccharine matter or extracted liquor of grain to every one hundred pounds of hops employed,though these proportions are by no means arbitrary. The whole is then evaporated or condensed to the consistence of very thick molasses, after which it may be taken out and put into vessels for use or transportation.

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Beer In Ads #1856: Facts Versus Fallacies #28

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Sunday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 28 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “28,” and discusses the Brooks High License Law (no relation) and in general how highly regulated the alcohol industry was even in 1915, and that it is the most “fortified in the law,” as one Congressman put it.

Facts-v-Fallacies-28-1915

Patent No. 4144914A: Apparatus For Rapidly Dispensing Beer Into Open Cups

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Today in 1979, US Patent 4144914 A was issued, an invention of John W. Nilon and Thomas J. King, for their “Apparatus for Rapidly Dispensing Beer into Open Cups.” Here’s the Abstract:

Beer is stored in vessels located in a refrigerated storage area before passing through dispensing lines connected to a plurality of dispensing taps. The dispensing lines are maintained in heat-exchanging relationship with cooling apparatus which further depresses the temperature of the beer below that of the refrigerated storage area. By the time the beer reaches the cooling taps, the temperature of the beer is sufficiently depressed so as to permit the beer to be dispensed at a high rate into drinking containers which pass beneath the taps.

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Beer In Ads #1855: Facts Versus Fallacies #19

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Saturday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 19 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “19,” and is the earliest one I’ve found so far. The ad talks about the evidence that already existed proving that the enforcement of a prohibition would be impossible. Looking back to 1885 and up the previous thirty years, in southern states where alcohol had been made illegal, the number of illegal distilleries had nearly tripled from when it was legal. Not to mention, the loss of revenue and the additional government expenses for enforcement.

Facts-v-Fallacies-19-1915

Patent No. D210566S: Keg Cradle

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Today in 1968, US Patent D210566 S was issued, an invention of Frederic C. Jay, for his “Keg Cradle.” There’s no Abstract, and in the description there isn’t much beyond the self-evident claim that it’s a keg cradle.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the keg cradle embodying my new design, the keg being indicated in broken lines for illustrative purposes only.

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Patent No. 1020878A: Collapsible Box Or Package

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Today in 1912, US Patent 1020878 A was issued, an invention of Arthur E. Bendelari, for his “Collapsible Box or Package.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The object of my invention is to provide an improved collapsible rectangular box or package which shall be particularly adapted for holding and shipping beer-bottles, but may be used for other analogous purposes. The box is made from a single sheet of paraffined cardboard, the same being adapted to fold in such manner as to provide interior projecting portions that serve as vertical, diagonal partitions that meet at the center of the box chamber and divide the chamber, or interior of the box, into four equal compartments, each of which is adapted to contain a bottle.

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