
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.”

By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks

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.”


By Jay Brooks

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.

By Jay Brooks

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.”



By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks

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.”

By Jay Brooks

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.

By Jay Brooks

Today in 1934, US Patent 1956218 A was issued, an invention of George J Huntley and Harry A Rau, assigned to the Crown Cork & Seal Co., for their “Capping Head.” There’s no Abstract, but the description summarizes it. “The present invention relates to an improvement in capping heads and, more particularly, comprises a means for feeding closure or cap blanks to the capping mechanism of the capping head.”





By Jay Brooks

Today in 1973, US Patent 3729321 A was issued, an invention of N.L. Vacano, assigned to Rainier Companies, for their “Preparation Of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but the description summarizes it. “This invention relates to the production of beer. More particularly, this invention is concerned with improvements in the process of producing beer starting with the wort, fermenting the wort with yeast to form green beer, aging of the beer and the subsequent finishing operation, as Well as improved apparatus for producing beer.”



By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is for beer generally, from the 1950s. It was created for the Brewers Society, presumably a brewing industry trade organization in Great Britain. It appears that the Brewers Society became the British Beer & Pub Association in the 1990s. A quick search reveals that they did a series of ads in the 1950s using a tagline referring to beer as “The Best Long Drink in the World.” This one features a boat, but instead of the coxswain shouting “stroke,” they’re all shouting “good wholesome beer” instead.

Despite this ad being the size I found it, the resolution is terrible, but the smaller one below is slightly sharper, despite being much smaller.

