Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1916. There’s some great copy on this ad, beginning with “Every Glass a Handful of Health.” According to the ad, “Each drop of Budweiser is alive and sparkling with the vital energy of Northern Barley and the tonic vigor of Saazer Hops.” Apparently it’s also the “unchallenged sovereign of bottled beers,” which must have been a precursor to A-B declaring themselves the king of beers.
Today in 1941, US Patent 694584 A was issued, an invention of William G. Wagner, for his “Bottle Cap.” There’s no Abstract, but the description claims that the “object of the invention is to provide an improved bottle cap for use on conventionally shaped or conventionally formed bottle mouths wherein the cap is of such design that it may be readily applied to the bottles by means of conventional bottle capping machines, the cap being advantageous in that it forms and maintains a superior seal with the bottle mouth.”
Today in 1902, US Patent 694584 A was issued, an invention of Otto Selg and Carl Guntrum, for their “Process Of Converting Wort Into Beer.” There’s no Abstract, but the description begins by explaining that in their new invention the “body of the yeast has been withdrawn [and] it is impregnated with carbonic-acid gas and simultaneously clarified. Thus the separate processes heretofore carried on in the fermenting-tub, the storage-tub, and the chipcask are all combined and the latter two processes are carried on simultaneously.”
Tuesday’s ad is for the Green Tree Brewery of St. Louis, and specifically their Buck Beer — apparently a bock — from 1906. Weird that they called it “buck” but then again perhaps they were thinking ahead and believed it was be easier to own or trademark the name which I confess I didn’t even notice was buck when I first looked at this ad.
Today in 1981, US Patent 4253878 A was issued, an invention of Robert L. Weaver and Alastair M. Jamieson, assigned to The Molson Companies Limited, for their “Light Protective Bottle Glass.” Here’s the Abstract:
A light protective bottle glass for use in beer bottles to prevent or reduce flavor deterioration by exposure to light is prepared by adding 0.065 percent by weight of nickel oxide to the Ultraviolet Absorbing Green glass usually used in green beer bottles.
Today in 1964, US Patent 3123476 A was issued, an invention of Michael Edward Ash, assigned to Arthur Guinness Son and Company for his “Production of Hopped Wort.” Here’s the Abstract:
The invention relates to the hopping of wort, a stage in the brewing process which takes place prior to fermentation. The object of the hopping process is to extract from the hops and transfer to the Wort certain desirable flavouring substances particularly humulone, or substances derived therefrom, which are generally considered to provide the bitter flavour in finished beer, and which in some cases may exercise a preservative function.
Today in 1970, US Patent 3498313 A was issued, an invention of Daniel E. Belich, for his “Beer Keg Tap.” Here’s the Abstract:
This application discloses a tap in which the portion of the tap from the head to the bottom of the keg may remain in place during merchandising. The user needs only a small coaxial outlet unit attached to tap beer and gas pressure lines. The outlet unit is small and easily cleaned, and represents only a modest investment for the tavern keeper. The portion of the device which is retained in the barrel contains valving arrangements which prevent the escape of beer or gas pressure from a partially used keg when the outlet is withdrawn, and provide improved Valve arrangements which rely on elastic valve members for admission of air under pressure.
Monday’s ad is for Heineken, from, I think, the early 1990s. I confess I don’t remember this ad campaign from Heineken, but I recently discovered that they had a reasonably long-running series of ads with the tagline “When You make a great beer, you don’t have to make a great fuss.” They’re all minimalist in design with witty text and that fussy tagline. I haven’t been able to find a lot of specifics about the campaign, apart from a few suggestions that it may not have run in the United States. But it’s pretty funny in the context of the ABI Super Bowl ad that accused craft beer drinkers of being to fussy about their beer.
Today in 1965, US Patent 3171746 A was issued, an invention of David Teignmouth Shore, for his “Production of Brewers’ Wort.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description Shore explains that his “invention relates to the production of brewers wort at the mashing stage in which a reaction is created between water and goods, i.e., ground solids or grist to obtain as a product of the stage a wort which is known as sweet wort: the sweet Wort is passed on for further treatment including heating, hopping and fermentation treatment to produce beer of one grade or style or another.”
Sunday’s ad is for the British ad campaign “Beer is Best,” from 1938. Part of “A Calendar of British Beer” from that year, March features a wonderful illustration of a farmer sowing his field with barley, and the text explains that this is the month for it, with some statistics of how much of the grain it takes each year to create all of England’s beer. “All the year round. Beer is Best.” Happy March.
