Friday’s ad is for the malt liquor Colt 45, from 1970. This was at the height of the space race, the year following landing on the moon, so turning the can of malt liquor into a rocket was marketing genius. What’s the only thing better than a six-pack of Colt 45? Why two, of course. Very subtle. Associating the kick of a rocket with the kick of increased alcohol? Genius. “Take Off Time” indeed. “All Systems Are ‘Go'” to get drunk.
Today in 1962, US Patent 3037431 A was issued, an invention of Leonard McGihon of San Leandro, California, assigned to the King-O-Matic Equipment Corp., for his “Carton Feeding, Erecting And Filling Mechanism” There’s no Abstract, although there’s a paragraph in the description that summarizes it nicely.
The present invention relates to mechanism for taking respective folded cartons, successively from a stack, opening these cartons to a box-like form with open sides, feeding cans or other containers in groups into the carton through the open sides thereof, and then closing the cartons so as to provide a carry-home pack of the containers in the carton. The various operations take place in sequence and continuously to provide a rapid and efficient method of packing containers in cartons, for example beer cans packed in the familiar six-pack cartons as now commonly on the market. More particularly, the instant mechanism is designed to operate on a carton of a character having a closed rectangular shape with partially open sides, the open sides being provided with connected or continuous side flap portions, the respective adjacent side flaps of each corner being connected by a gusset type fold. In this type of carton, the folding of the flaps attached to the end panels of the carton tucks these flaps behind the containers or cans in the carton and effectively holds the carton closed during shipment and handling, but provides for easy opening by the user.
Today in 1917, US Patent 1228917 A was issued, an invention of Herman Heuser, for his “Manufacture of Dry Extracts Of Beer, Etc.” There’s no Abstract, though in an old book of Chemical Abstracts, also from 1917, is summarizes it as “A preparation for the formation of alcohol-reduced beer by the addition of H20 is formed of dry extract, [along with] dry, live yeast and fermentable carbohydrates.” The descriptions also picks up mid-sentence (because I suspect there’s part of the application that’s gone missing or the OCR didn’t pick up):
substances to produce in the beverage made by properly water-diluting such compound the desired reduced amount of alcohol by yeast-fermentation; Thus, when such extracts are intended for conversion into beverages of low-alcoholic strength, the amount of added fermentable substances ‘is small, and vice versa it is larger for the manufacture of beverages having higher alcoholic content, but in each case the compound contains yeast in live condition to create fermentation in the dilute beverage to produce the desired reduced amount of alcohol.
Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1941. This ad was presumably from the months before America entered World War 2, when life was still relatively normal. A time when the “thoughtful wife” has Schlitz waiting for her husband when he arrived home from “a day’s hard work.” For some reason she left the icebox door wide open, letting all the cold air out and warming up the beer, not to mention all of the food in there.
Today in 1991, US Patent 5021246 A was issued, an invention of Roger L. Sieben and Klaus D. Zastrow, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for their “Step Mashing Process For Producing Low Alcohol Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:
A low alcohol reduced calorie beer is produced by a mashing technique wherein a main mash at a temperature below the activity range for beta-amylase is added incrementally to a brewing liquid at a temperature above the deactivation temperature of beta-amylase and below the deactivation temperature of alpha-amylase at a rate such that the added main mash is substantially instantaneously raised to the temperature of the brewing liquid. This mashing technique limits the conversion of starches by beta-amylase and other enzymes without significant loss of alpha-amylase from overheating to produce a wort having a low real degree of fermentation of from about 40% to about 46%. The main mash has a temperature of about 95° F. to 120° F., and the brewing liquid has a temperature of about 169° F. to 174° F. and can be water or a cooker mash that has been boiled and cooled. Beer can be produced having less than 2% alcohol by weight and less than about 118 calories per 12 ounce serving.
Today in 1957, US Patent 2794453 A was issued, an invention of Lucien Grosbois, for his “Filling Heads For Bottling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that the “invention relates to filling heads adapted to be mounted on bottling machines for gaseous liquids under pressure.”
Today in 1940, US Patent 2203130 A was issued, an invention of Patrick J. Costello, for his “Beer Energizer.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that the “object of my invention is to provide a device for drawing beer in its normal stage without applying extra pressure or force, whereby to create a line creamy foam.” I’m not sure what about that “energizes” the beer, but it’s certainly a catchy name.
On June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians hosted the Texas Rangers with a promotion entitled “10¢ Beer Night” in an effort to boost sagging attendance to Municipal Stadium. 25,134 fans showed up, about twice the number expected. They were allowed to purchase six 10¢ beers (12 oz. cups of 3.2 beer or 4% ABV) at a time, but there was no limit on how many trips to the concession stand one could make. To give that some context, regular beer prices at the time were 65¢, so a dime beer was about 6-and-half times cheaper, a pretty good bargain. Accounts vary on the brand of beer. Some say Stroh’s while other say it was Genesee. By the time the game ended in chaos, around 60,000 beers had been consumed.
To add fuel to the fire, a little over a week before in Texas, the Rangers had a similar promotion in which there was “a bench-clearing brawl” when the two teams had played “at Arlington Stadium in Texas [which] left some Indians fans harboring a grudge against the Rangers.”
The Indians had been losing most of the game, but managed to tie it up in the 9th inning, at which point I’ll let Wikipedia take over the story.
After the Indians had managed to tie the game, a 19-year-old fan named Terry Yerkic ran onto the field and attempted to steal Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs’ cap. Confronting the fan, Burroughs tripped. Thinking that Burroughs had been attacked, Texas manager Billy Martin charged onto the field with his players right behind, some wielding bats. A large number of intoxicated fans – some armed with knives, chains, and portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart – surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands. Hundreds of fans surrounded the outnumbered Rangers.
Realizing that the Rangers’ lives might be in danger, Cleveland manager Ken Aspromonte ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers, attacking the team’s own fans in the process. Rioters began throwing steel folding chairs, and Cleveland relief pitcher Tom Hilgendorf was hit in the head by one of them. Hargrove, after subduing one rioter in a fistfight, had to fight another on his way back to the Texas dugout. The two teams retreated off the field through the dugouts in groups, with players protecting each other.
The bases were pulled up and stolen and many rioters threw a vast array of objects including cups, rocks, bottles, batteries from radios, hot dogs, popcorn containers, and folding chairs. As a result, umpire crew chief Nestor Chylak, realizing that order would not be restored in a timely fashion, forfeited the game to Texas. He too was a victim of the rioters, as one struck and cut his head with part of a stadium seat[11] and his hand was cut by a thrown rock. He later called the fans “uncontrollable beasts” and stated that he’d never seen anything like what had happened, “except in a zoo”.
As Joe Tait and Herb Score called the riot live on radio, Score mentioned the security guards’ inability to handle the crowd. He said, “Aw, this is absolute tragedy.” The Cleveland Police Department finally arrived to restore order.
Later, Cleveland general manager Phil Seghi blamed the umpires for losing control of the game. The Sporting News wrote that “Seghi’s perspective might have been different had he been in Chylak’s shoes, in the midst of knife-wielding, bottle-throwing, chair-tossing, fist-swinging drunks.”
The game ended with the Indian forfeiting because order could not be restored so the game could be completed.
The scene as thinks began to turn ugly in the bottom of the 9th.
Things went from bad to worse after that. Here’s a run down of the statistics from sportswriter Dan Coughlin, who was there that night and got punched in the face:
You can read all about Dan Coughlin recalls the Indians’ famous Ten-Cent Beer Night and see a gallery of photos at SB★Nation entitled Celebrating 10-Cent Beer Night in photos.
Mental Floss summed it up like this:
Among the more tame incidents was a woman who flashed the crowd from the on-deck circle, a father-son team mooning the players, and fans jumping on the field to meet the outfielders. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, the Indians tied the game, but never got a chance to win. Fans started throwing batteries, golf balls, cups, and rocks onto the field. The drunk-fest involved more streakers, base stealers (literally), and fans who stormed the field and attacked the opposing team. Cleveland players had to wield bats to come to the aid of the Rangers players. Texas was awarded a forfeit.
Not exactly baseball or beer’s finest hour.
And a special thanks to Jason Petros from MoreBeer and The Brewing Network for reminding me it was today.
Today in 1974, US Patent 3814003 A was issued, an invention of Nickolas Lothar Vacano, assigned to Rainier Companies, for his “Brewing Apparatus.” Here’s the Abstract:
A large size thin-shelled outdoor metal tank, such as for making beer, with a conical metal bottom having a shallow slope of no more than 25 DEG from the horizontal, a conduit communicating with the tank interior at the apex of the conical bottom, a circular cylindrical vertical metal wall joined to the bottom, a metal roof joined to and supported by the vertical wall, insulation exterior of the bottom, wall and roof, a vent opening in the roof, a manifold centrally located in the tank spaced above the bottom and the level of unsuspended solids which may settle therein, said manifold having a plurality of openings through which carbon dioxide gas can exit into liquid in the tank, and a pipe leading from outside the tank to the manifold for supplying carbon dioxide thereto. The tank can have a tubular ring positioned inside the tank adjacent the periphery of the bottom, a pipe communicating with the ring and the exterior of the tank for supplying fluid to the ring, and a plurality of holes in the ring from which fluid under pressure can be ejected along the slope of the bottom to wash solids to the conduit in the bottom for removal.
Wednesday’s ad is for Olympia, from the 1950s. I suspect this was originally a billboard ad, and it’s surprisingly colorful. A Stubby bottle of Olympia sits next to a full pilsner glass on a table in front of a grand piano. What is that box on the table to the right of the beer? Tissues, cigars or something else?
