Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Patent No. 3545475A: Tap Assembly

By

patent-logo
Today in 1970, US Patent 3545475 A was issued, another invention of Marlow W. Dodge and Arthur L. Johnson Jr., for their “Tap Assembly.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

A tap for tapping an initially sealed keg of draft beer and including a draw tube, a gas tube, a tap body, and a coupling constructed as a unitary assembly, the draw tube remaining in the same position relative to the tap body before, during and after tapping of the keg. A yieldable sealing membrane in a plug in the tap hole of the keg is punctured as the draw tube is inserted into the keg, and then seals around the gas tube to establish an automatic seal between the tap and the plug. A taper at the lower end of the tap body wedges into the plug to hold the tap body and the tubes on the keg.

Untitled
Untitled

Patent No. 2916421A: Straining Tank

By

patent-logo
Today in 1959, US Patent 2916421 A was issued, another invention of Robert C. Gadsby, Joseph Schwaiger and Frank H. Schwaiger, assigned to Anheuser Busch, for their “Straining Tank.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to a straining tank or grain extractor or lauter tub, and more particularly to a new type of straining tank for use in the brewing industry to remove extract from brewers grains.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to increase the efficiency of the extraction of soluble substances from material within a straining tank. Another object is to provide a’straining tank with the shortest exposure and contact time between the wort and grains and between the sparge water and the grains which have substances extracted therefrom, thereby extracting less of the undesired substances from the husks of the grains. This results in a cleaner and milder flavor for the resulting wort. Another object is to eliminate the mechanical agitator formerly required and avoid the formation of channels which the numerous knife .blades previously cut into the grain bed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a straining tank which is relatively small and inexpensive compared to those lauter tubs and mash filters presently used to remove extracts from grains. Another object is to increase .the capacity for removing extracts from grains in a brewing operation, thereby increasing the capacity of the brewery. Another object is to provide a straining device which requires less time per batch and allows more brews per day. Another object is to provide for the fast removal of spent grains from a straining tank which can then be easily and rapidly cleaned.

Still another object is to provide a device which has a smaller initial cost and which requires fewer operators than previously required to efficiently operate a straining tank or mash filter.

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled

Beer In Ads #1752: Pabst, Chicken & Fries

By


Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. That’s some seriously greasy looking fried chicken, and the fries don’t look much better. Still, it makes me hungry to look at it. And we’ve got another one of those magic bottles, the kind that fills the entire glass to overflowing, but is still only half empty.

Pabst-chicken-and-fries

Patent No. 3625843A: Method For Treating Beer

By

patent-logo
Today in 1971, US Patent 3625843 A was issued, another invention of Heinz Doevenspeck, for his “Method For Treating Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

It is an object of the present invention to develop this prior art method and, in particular, to render it applicable with advantage to the treatment of liquids, preferably of beer. The method is intended to be developed in a manner as to enable the same to be carried out at temperatures of only about 25 C, thereby to prevent changes in flavor and color of the liquids to be treated and to obtain, at the same time, pasteurization and/or sterilization as well as stabilization of the liquids for the purpose of increasing the durability thereof.

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled

Patent No. 2336280A: Hop Cluster Stemmer

By

patent-logo
Today in 1943, US Patent 2336280 A was issued, another invention of George E. Miller, for his “Hop Cluster Stemmer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to hop picking machines.

Hops grow on vines which are trained vertically on strings attached .to’ horizontal wires suspended about eighteen feet above the ground. At harvest time the vines are pulled down and hauled to a plant where they are run through a machine which picks the hops from the vines. The picked hops are then separated from the leaves, etc.

From the time the vine is pulled down in the hop field to the time it is fed into the picking machine, it receives considerable handling in the course of which clusters become detached from the vine. A cluster comprises an arm or branch of the vine bearing a cluster of hops. Heretofore the only satisfactory way to salvage the hops on these clusters was to pick them off by hand-an expensive, laborious task.

The object of this invention is to provide a machine for doing this work.

Untitled
Untitled

Beer In Ads #1751: Bear’s Black Label Football

By


Sunday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, from 1951. It looks like it was probably the back cover of a program for a football game, though it’s fairly low key, soft sell, just showing a bear playing football. The only hint that it’s a beer ad is the bear’s scarf, flapping in the wind as he rushes for a touchdown.

black-label-1951-football

Patent No. 2139029A: Hop Picking Machine

By

patent-logo
Today in 1938, US Patent 2139029 A was issued, an invention of George E. Miller, for his “Hop Picking Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to a hop picking machine, and especially to improvements in the construction and operation thereof.

The object of the present invention is generally 5 to improve and simplify the construction and operation of hop picking machines; to provide a machine which will not only pick or remove the hops from the vines, but also from arms and clusters broken and pulled off the vines during the picking operation; to provide a machine which employs belts and cooperating drums mounted above them, said belts and cooperating drums .being provided with picking fingers which comb a the vines from opposite sides to remove the hops; to provide an endless flexible diamond-‘ meshed wire screen belt which is disposed below the picking belts, and cooperates therewith, to pick arms and break up clusters; to provide a machine which is divided into two picking zones, 80 one zone’in which the picking fingers are comparatively widely separated and where the major portion of the hops are removed, and a second zone in which the picking fingers are closely spaced to strip the vines of the remaining hops; to provide a picking machine which provides almost immediate liberation or removal of the hops from the picking zones, so as to prevent damage or breakage of the hops after they have been removed from the vines by the picking fingers; to provide a picking machine which tends to flatten out and spread the vines as they pass through and between the picking fingers. so as to insure a more thorough picking or removal of the hops; to provide means for separating the hops from leaves which are accidentally removed during the picking operation; and further, to provide means for automatically releasing and removing the vines from the machine when picked.

Untitled
Untitled

Patent No. 3290153A: Process And Apparatus For Concentrating Wort

By

patent-logo
Today in 1966, US Patent 3290153 A was issued, an invention of Peter D. Bayne and John L. Pahlow, assigned to Schlitz Brewing Co., for his “Process and Apparatus for Concentrating Wort.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The process of the invention, which includes the continuous film evaporation under high temperature and short holding time conditions, prevents degradation or color gain of the wort. On reconstitution, identical or organoleptic properties of the original wort are obtained.

The process of the invention utilizes a continuous flow of wort which is obtained by use of the pair of hot wort settling tanks in combination with the centrifuge so that a continuous supply of wort is available. Thus, it is not necessary to cease openation while waiting for a new batch of wort. l

A provision is also made in the process for automatically adding hop constituents to the Wort in the holding tank. A portion of the hop constituents will be lost during the concentrating process, and to compensate for this loss, a predetermined amount of hop constituents may be empirically added during the concentration process.

In addition, the process employs a density control mechanism which accurately regulate-s the final specific -gravity or concentration of the wort. The wort being discharged from the finishing evaporator passes through the density control mechanism which regulates the heating medium used in the` evaporator so that a uniform degree of Wort concentration is obtained.

Untitled
Untitled

Patent No. 2529882A: Hop Strainer

By

patent-logo
Today in 1950, US Patent 2529882 A was issued, an invention of Carl F. Mittman, for his “Hop Strainer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to strainers, clarifiers and. filters, and more particularly to a combined hop strainer and trub clarifier or separator for use in the brewing industry.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved strainer, clarifier and separator with which the cooked hops and wort may be separated continuously, completely and rapidly; with which a major amount of the trub, that is, the fine solids of the cooked hops and wort mixture, will be effectively separated from the wort; with which no sugar coating on the separating surface can take place; with which the separating surfaces will be automatically cleaned; with which all parts of the apparatus Will be easily accessible for cleaning and collection of stale wort is prevented; which will have maximum capacity with minimum overall dimensions and low cost of operation; and which will be relatively simple, compact, efficient, practical and inexpensive.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved simple, inexpensive and continuous method of separating cooked hops and wort; with which maximum recovery of the wort is .possible; and which will require only relatively simple apparatus.

Another object is to provide an improved method and apparatus for continuously separating cooked hops from wort; with which the separation Will occur upon a clean and sterile screen; with which the screen will be conditioned continuously and automatically during use.

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled