Today in 1958, US Patent 2841500 A was issued, an invention of James O. Hughes and Ray Nelson, assigned to Tri-State Processing Company, of Yakima, Wash., for their “Method Of Packaging And Preserving Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Our invention relates to a method of packaging hops. An important object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive method of storing hops which have been compressed in bales, for providing an airtight package. A further object of the invention is to provide an airtight casing or container for the hops, which will retain the hops within their original state, without the loss of aroma or color.

A method of packaging hops for shipment and preserving the same in the original condition during such shipment, comprising taking a compressed bale of hops and removing the original covering sheet and bands therefrom, subjecting the original compressed bale of hops to a higher degree of pressure to highly compress the bale and reduce the size of the bale to approximately one-half of the original size, retaining the highly compressed bale in substantially the same reduced size by enclosing the same in a sheet and bands and thereby resisting the expansion of the bale, then enclosing the highly compressed bale which is reduced in size Within a casing formed from a plastic sheet, then heat sealing.

Today in 1998, US Patent 5772000 A was issued, an invention of Paul J. Serres, for his “Hop Vine Transfer System.” Here’s the Abstract:

A hop vine transfer system (10) includes a plurality of magazines (14a, 14b, 14c) each fed by an associated unloader mechanism (12). Once a magazine has been filled with hope vines (V), it is unloaded by a pivoting transfer conveyor (16) having an entrance end (50) alignable with the exit end portion (48) of the magazine. The opposite exit end (91) of the transfer conveyor is disposed in operable engagement with a picking machine conveyor (18) that moves the hop vines, with their stub ends upwardly, through a picking machine (22) to remove the hops from the vines.

Today in 1994, US Patent PP8812 P was issued, an invention of Gene Probasco, assigned to John I. Haas, Inc., for his “Hop Plant Named H87311-3.” Here’s the Abstract:

A new variety of hop plant (H87311-3) originating as the result of a controlled cross pollination between an unpatented John I. Haas, Inc. female hop plant No. 832-17 with an unpatented John I. Haas, Inc. male hop plant No. 833-53M, and unique particularly for its cones’ unusually high percentage of alpha acids when compared to its female grandparent variety Galena (unpatented) and otherwise as herein described.

Its grandparent was Galena hops, but it doesn’t appear to have been subsequently named and made available commercially. FreshHops mentions it only briefly with not much more information than the patent application.

Today in 1968, US Patent 3390000 A was issued, an invention of Robert J. Brison and John H. Litchfield, assigned to John I. Haas Inc., for their “Separation Of Lupulin From Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

In the production of beer or ale one important ingredient employed is hops. Hops contain certain soft resins which impart not only bitterness to the beer, but also aroma. In the usual practice the hop cones which include the leaves, stems, petals, lupulin and at times, seeds, are boiled in their entirety within a sugary wort in order to extract the necessary resins and aromatic oils from the lupulin thereof. The lupulin particles are closed cup-like fibrous containers filled with hop flavoring substance including a relatively small amount of moisture, and essentially soft bitter resins and volatile aromatic oils.

It has been known however, that the flavor content of lupulin deteriorates in the ordinary practice of drying the hops prior to shipment to the brewery and that oxidation of lupulin occurs easily if the dried hops are not placed in sealed containers (preferably in an inert atmosphere) thus avoiding further oxidation thereof.

It will be recognized that such a procedure is costly since it involves packaging and handling extraneous -materials. Efforts dating back to the mid-nineteenth century have been directed to separating the lupulin from the hops although certain economic disadvantages have prevented their widespread acceptance. Further, many of these efforts result in a lupulin product excessively fragmented or crushed, thus exposing its valuable constituents to unnecessarily rapid and disadvantageous oxidation.

It is therefore an important object of the instant invention to overcome the disadvantages of prior art methods of separating lupulin from hops.

It is a further object of the instant invention to provide an improved method of separating lupulin particles from hops in the substantial absence of damage or comminution of said lupulin particles.

Another object of the instant invention is to provide an improved, simplified and economical method of separating lupulin particles from hops in the absence of appreciable particle size reduction and in the absence of appreciable oxidation or deterioration of the soft resin or volatile aromatic oil content `of said lupulin particles.

Still another object of the instant invention is to provide a simple, effective method of separating lupulin from hops which method can be implemented at the ranch or vine location and wherein the hops treated can be fresh (not dried, dehydrated or stored for any substantial length of time) or dried or a mixture thereof.

Today in 1975, US Patent 3891781 A was issued, an invention of Kurt Bauer, Helmut Findeiss, and Alfred Krempel, for their “Process For The Extraction Of Hops.” Here’s the Abstract:

Process for extracting from hops the essential brewing ingredients thereof, viz., neutral substances, bitter substances and tannin, which process comprises subjecting a primary extract solution of hops, e.g., in alcohol or hydrocarbon solvents, said solution containing as ingredients the neutral substances, bitter substances and tannin, to a first liquid-liquid extraction, wherein either (i) the tannins or (ii) the neutral substances are separated off, leaving a solution of (i) neutral and bitter substances or (ii) tannins and bitter substances, and subjecting the latter solution to a second liquid-liquid extraction to separate said solution into its components; the first extractant is desirably an aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon when the primary extract solvent is an alcohol or aqueous-alcoholic solution, to result in extraction of the neutral and bitter substances in a hydrocarbon phase and leaving of the tannin in the alcoholic phase, whereafter the neutral and bitter substances are separated from each other by treating the extract with a second extractant, desirably aliphatic alcohol containing water.

Today in 1895, US Patent 541431 A was issued, an invention of Charlon E. Easton, for his “Hop-Picker.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to machines for picking hops-that is, a machine for picking each strobile or oatkin from the vine,and the object of the invention is to produce a machine that will remove the catkins from the vine or stem thoroughly, rapidly, and without injury.