Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 1996184A: Keg Tapping Seal

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Today in 1935, US Patent 1996184A was issued, an invention of Edward Werthner, for his “Keg Tapping Seal.” There’s no Abstract, and the OCR was taking the day off when they digitized this one. I’ve tried to fix it where I could but some of it is just gibberish:

The usual beer keg is commonly only provided a cupped wooden bung and the dispensing means for discharging the beer as needed includes a tapered tap to be driven into the cupped bung to break out the bung bottom and their wedge fluid tightly into the bung side wall, said tap carrying the usual faucet tube or red; it often happens, however, that the side wall of the bung instead of remaining intact in the bung hole, breaks and will not fit tightly seal around the tap, or that the bung is driven completely into the keg. When such occurrences happen, not only does the keg-tapping person becomes showered with leaking beer squirting under pressure from the keg, but the gas from the beer is lost and the beer soon spoils. It is the object of my invention, however, to overcome such difficulties with the foregoing in-view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed, description being accomplished by reference to the accompanying drawing.

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Beer In Ads #1512: Goodness Knows

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Wednesday’s ad is another one for Budweiser, this one from 1961. It’s another ad from their “Where there’s life” series, this one is called “Goodness Knows.” At least three people are having a barbecue, or at a minimum are grilling a steak. One man is in the background sipping his beer, while a second masculine hand is holding a steak with tongs. The woman, wearing a huge and possibly mischievous smile reaches for the only other glass of beer we can see. Is she stealing the other man’s beer, or simply reaching for her own? Her expression appears to suggest the former.

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Patent No. 3436319A: Thin Layer Steam Distillation Of Hop Oil Extract

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Today in 1969, US Patent 3436319 A was issued, an invention of Louis Anton Freiherr Von Horst and Maximilian Kellner, for their “Thin Layer Steam Distillation of Hop Oil Extract.” There’s no Abstract, but it’s described as relating “to a process of producing essential oil of hop preparations, and more particularly to a continuous process of producing such oil of hop, and to products obtained thereby,” with something approximating an abstract:

Improved process of recovering oil of hop from a solvent extract of hops by steam distillation in a novel manner, namely by passing the hop extract downwardly in a thin layer along an externally heated surface counter currently to the upwardly flowing steam in an oxygen-free atmosphere. This process has the advantage of completely recovering the oil of hop from the steam distillate and simultaneously producing a residual hop extract containing other components of said extract in substantially unaltered form. If the temperature of the starting solvent extract of hops is between about 80 C. and about 135 C., partial isomerization of the humulones to the isohumulones which are important brewing additives, takes place.

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Patent No. 3875303A: Preparation Of Beer

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Today in 1975, US Patent 3875303 A was issued, an invention of Josef Hieber, assigned to Interbrew Betriebs Und Beteilg, for his “Preparation Of Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:

Beer is produced from a wort concentrate by a process involving sterilizing and desalting water, providing the sterilized and desalted water with a controlled salt content, dissolving a wort concentrate having at least 80% dry substance content in the water and fermenting with yeast to produce beer. The wort concentrate is dissolved in the water with a jet mixer and fermentation is carried out in a vessel containing a cooling chamber located above a centrifuge drum having therein plates for separating yeast and an impeller for circulating wort.

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Beer In Ads #1511: Three’s Company

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Tuesday’s ad is still another one for Budweiser, this one also from the 1960. It’s another ad from their “Where there’s life” series, this one is called “The Story.” A shiny couple on the beach at night, roasting weenies over a fire, while the woman in a one-piece bathing suit and a cape pours a beer as they both grin unnaturally like Cheshire cats. It must have been a very good day.

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Patent No. 4653388A: Small Scale Production Brewing

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Today in 1987, US Patent 4653388 A was issued, an invention of Noel R. Wilkinson, for his “Brewing” process, though specifically more of a “small scale production plant.” Here’s the Abstract:

An improved brewing unit in which energy is saved by providing a mash tun, hot water tank and kettle in a single unit, by partially enclosing the mash tun with the tank and if necessary pre-heating the water supply to the tank by using the heat from wort coolers provided between the unit and fermentation tank; further improvements are provided by constructing the kettle as a combined kettle and whirlpool in a single chamber having a circular wall and a tangential inlet to the wall, a pump and wort boiler being in circuit with the kettle so that wort is continuously circulated through the boiler and tangential inlet to the kettle while the worts are boiled. The combined kettle and whirlpool saves space and enables the process of brewing to be shortened with resultant savings in both energy and brewing time.

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Patent No. 4653290A: Beer Keg Ice Sleeve And Method Of Making Same

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Today in 1987, US Patent 4653290 A was issued, an invention of Shelley R. Byrne, for his “Beer Keg Ice Sleeve and Method of Making Same.” Here’s the Abstract:

An ice sleeve cooler for beer kegs or other beverages comprising a slip-over ice sleeve open at the bottom and open at the top and having inner and outer sleeve members with an ice pocket therebetween. The bottom of the sleeve members are joined in sealed relation and have a draw-string for attachment around the lower side wall of the keg, and both inner and outer sleeve members have top draw-strings for individually attaching these members to the keg. The method of fabricating the ice sleeve cooler from a one-piece sheet of plastic stock involves the steps of folding and sealing the sheet to form the double sleeve members with an integral bottom edge.

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Patent No. 724100A: Wort-Separator

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Today in 1903, US Patent 724100 A was issued, an invention of Max Henius, for his “Wort-Separator.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description claims that the “object is to provide a wort-separator of novel as well as comparatively simple and inexpensive construction, whereby the filtration of wort, both from grains and hops, may be effected more thoroughly and with greater economy both of time and labor than by any other filtering means hitherto employed and of which I am aware.”
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Patent No. 149046A: Improvement In Cooling And Preserving Beer

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Today in 1874, US Patent 149046 A was issued, an invention of Peter Libber, for his “Improvement In Cooling And Preserving Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but this introduction sums it up:

This invention relates to device for cooling and preserving beer and ale and similar substances in the process of manufacture, and which is required to be kept at such a temperature as to prevent its becoming sour in the process of fermentation preparatory to being barreled; and it consists in the construction and arrangement of the cooling float or swimmer employed to regulate the temperature of the beer in the fermenting tubs, as will hereinafter be more fully explained.

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Beer In Ads #1510: The Story

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Monday’s ad is yet another one for Budweiser, this one from the 1960. It’s another ad from their “Where there’s life” series, this one is called “The Story.” A couple lying on a rug, the man in a suit, while the woman’s in a lovely yellow ensemble. Cigarette dangling from his mouth, he’s pouring another of those bottomless beers. The glass is full, but you see that the bottle he’s pouring from is still at least half full. Let’s just hope he doesn’t drop any ash in the beer.

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