Tuesday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1963. Part of a series of ads from the early 1960s (see, for example Beer In Ads #225: Falstaff, This Is The One) in which they feature the slogan “For your Light-hearted moments … This Is The One.” One note, you may think that’s a bottle of Falstaff he’s holding, but it’s referred to as a “handy Glass Can.”
Today in 1936, US Patent 2038939 A was issued, an invention of Eberhard A. Klepper, for his “Method of Making Prune Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but the description is below, giving the objects of the invention for making prune beer. The application was filed in October of 1933, just as prohibition was scheduled to end three months later, but not issued until 1936. It’s hard to understand why anyone would have thought prune beer was a good idea at the same time that legal beer was returning after a thirteen year drought.
A few months later, the Milwaukee Sentinel on August 16, 1936 ran a short article about prune beer.
A San Jose newspaper on November 14, 1936 reported that a man in Hollister, California was actually trying to build a brewery to make prune beer using “sub-standard prunes” using the method described in this patent.
I wonder if it ever opened? The last brewery in Hollister I knew about was Bill Millar’s San Andreas Brewing, which is also where Stone’s Mitch Steele got his start. They made a cranberry beer I really liked, Cranberry Noel, but not a prune beer as far I recall. Whatever the fate of prune beer, it doesn’t look like it ever really took off.
Today in 1914, US Patent 1094469 A was issued, an invention of Thomas P. Pick, for his “Beer-Stein.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the “invention relates to improvements in beer steins and the like and has for its object to provide a device of this character with a hinged cover which may be detached therefrom at will.”
Monday’s ad is for Whitbread, from 1952. So what is the “Best of the Light Ales?” According to this bartender, it’s Whitbread Pale Ale, which apparently “pours clean and clear to the last drop.”
Today in 1915, US Patent 1137495 A was issued, an invention of Anton Landgrebe, for his “Apparatus For Dispensing Beverages.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the “invention relates to [a] beer apparatus and has particular reference to means for cooling and dispensing beverages and especially beer.”
Sunday’s ad is for United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from the late 1940s. I’m not exactly sure what year, but it’s the year after whatever year the brewing industry paid $400,000,000 in taxes. Two men are looking for a place to grab a beer, and decide the bar must meet four criteria:
I know I always wonder if bar owners are following the law before I’ll even consider visiting them. Don’t you? The other oddity is that the UBIF also announced a “clean-up or close-up” program to improve or get rid of bar bars in order to raise the standard of all of them. The idea, undoubtedly, was to change the pre-prohibition perception of bars, especially when it was still fresh in the minds of most Americans. Still, I know I’ll go to a place meeting those conditions, though I suppose the last one os the most important to me.
Today in 1938, US Patent 2115335 A was issued, an invention of Samuel A. Hurst and Harrie A. Keck, for their “Can Filling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the “invention relates to an improvement in’ machines for filling cans and other receptacles with various kinds of materials, and more particularly to an improvement in machines for filling receptacles.”
Saturday’s ad is for Heineken, from 1966. This is sort of a nostalgic ad using imagery from wartime and specifically World War 2, which seems odd to me.
Today in 1939, US Patent 2155947 A was issued, an invention of Theodore H. Low, for his “Bottle Opener.” There’s no Abstract, but the description summarizes it that the “invention relates to improvements in hand decappers or openers for bottles sealed with crown caps.”
Friday’s ad is for Asahi, from sometime over the last decade or so. It’s hard to say since Japanese anime or manga art is often so timeless. Animation in the form of anime and manga is incredibly popular in Japan, and became increasingly so in the U.S. from the 1980s on. Beyond the cheesecake factor, it’s a simple, and familiar beer advertising image, of a woman on the beach in a bikini. I’m sure that music means something, but I don’t recognize the tune. The woman also may be a familiar character from a popular manga book but I don’t recognize her either.
