Today in 1949, US Patent 2472252A was issued, an invention of Arthur Henry Hughes, assigned to Messrs. Arthur Guinness Son and Company Limited, for his “Process For The Preservation Of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that he’s invented “invention relates to the preservation of beer, which term as used herein includes both ale and stout,” apparently by adding “0.041% by volume of hen egg-whites.”
Today in 1892, US Patent 476652 A was issued, an invention of John Kass, for his “Beer-Racking Trough.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that he’s invented “a new and useful Beer-Racking Trough,” adding:
My invention relates to beer-racking troughs for barreling beer as the same is taken from reservoirs or vats; and the objects in view are to provide an apparatus of cheap and simple construction adapted to support barrels or kegs during the operation of filling the same, to so construct the apparatus as to permit of observation of the beer during the operation and for conveniently discharging the barrel at the end of each filling and bunging, to facilitate the changing of the position of the pipe with relation to the barrel, and to prevent waste of the beer or contact of the same with the person of the operator during the operation.
Today in 1989, US Patent 4837034 A was issued, an invention of Joseph L. Owades and Charles J. Koch, assigned to the Boston Beer Limited Partnership, for their “Preparation Of Low Calorie Beer.” Charles J. Koch was Boston Beer founder Jim Koch’s father, himself a fifth-generation brewer who apparently quit the business in the 1950s when things were looking dark for American beer and even tried to dissuade his son from going into the family business. According to family legend, “his greatest gift [to the Boston Beer Co.] lay in an old trunk stored in his attic. That trunk contained family brewing memorabilia and beer recipes dating back to the 1800s.” And the story goes that he gave Jim a recipe from the trunk created by his great-great grandfather, Louis Koch, which was the basis for their flagship beer, Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Joe Owades was the first to create low-calorie light beer when he was at Rheingold and eventually through M&A it turned into Miller Lite and later in life he did consulting work and helped Boston Beer tweak the Louis Koch’s recipe and make it into their Boston Lager. As I understand it, Owades continued to do work with them from time to time over the years, and that’s likely how Joe and Charles ended up working on the patent which, I presume, eventually became Samuel Adams Light Beer.
Here’s the Abstract:
A low-calorie, all-malt beer characterized by full body and flavor of a conventional all-malt beer and a method of preparing the same without any external enzymes is described. A wort is prepared by blending warm malt mash with hot water under conditions which avoid exposing the blend of hot water and the malt mash to temperature between about 52° C. and 75° C., and the resultant wort is converted to beer by fermenting the wort with Brewer’s yeast. The wort extract is oxygenated with substantially pure oxygen in place of air normally used in the fermentation, and the Brewer’s yeast is added to the wort extract at a rate of about 30 to 60 grams pressed yeast per 100 liters wort so as to absorb, within the yeast cells of the Brewer’s yeast, substantially all harsh and grainy flavor compounds contained in the wort extract.
Today in 1989, US Patent 4837156 A was issued, an invention of Leo K. Lampinen, for his “Tilting Lauter Tun.” Here’s the Abstract:
A vessel has a central longitudinal axis, a pair of trunnions defining a tilting axis, and a fixed bottom and a false bottom. The false bottom comprises at least one screen. At least one of the screens is affixed to the vessel by a plurality of hinges so as to allow the screens to freely swing from a first position to a second position as said vessel is tilted about the tilting axis.
Today in 1962, US Patent 3037431 A was issued, an invention of Leonard McGihon of San Leandro, California, assigned to the King-O-Matic Equipment Corp., for his “Carton Feeding, Erecting And Filling Mechanism” There’s no Abstract, although there’s a paragraph in the description that summarizes it nicely.
The present invention relates to mechanism for taking respective folded cartons, successively from a stack, opening these cartons to a box-like form with open sides, feeding cans or other containers in groups into the carton through the open sides thereof, and then closing the cartons so as to provide a carry-home pack of the containers in the carton. The various operations take place in sequence and continuously to provide a rapid and efficient method of packing containers in cartons, for example beer cans packed in the familiar six-pack cartons as now commonly on the market. More particularly, the instant mechanism is designed to operate on a carton of a character having a closed rectangular shape with partially open sides, the open sides being provided with connected or continuous side flap portions, the respective adjacent side flaps of each corner being connected by a gusset type fold. In this type of carton, the folding of the flaps attached to the end panels of the carton tucks these flaps behind the containers or cans in the carton and effectively holds the carton closed during shipment and handling, but provides for easy opening by the user.
Today in 1917, US Patent 1228917 A was issued, an invention of Herman Heuser, for his “Manufacture of Dry Extracts Of Beer, Etc.” There’s no Abstract, though in an old book of Chemical Abstracts, also from 1917, is summarizes it as “A preparation for the formation of alcohol-reduced beer by the addition of H20 is formed of dry extract, [along with] dry, live yeast and fermentable carbohydrates.” The descriptions also picks up mid-sentence (because I suspect there’s part of the application that’s gone missing or the OCR didn’t pick up):
substances to produce in the beverage made by properly water-diluting such compound the desired reduced amount of alcohol by yeast-fermentation; Thus, when such extracts are intended for conversion into beverages of low-alcoholic strength, the amount of added fermentable substances ‘is small, and vice versa it is larger for the manufacture of beverages having higher alcoholic content, but in each case the compound contains yeast in live condition to create fermentation in the dilute beverage to produce the desired reduced amount of alcohol.
Today in 1991, US Patent 5021246 A was issued, an invention of Roger L. Sieben and Klaus D. Zastrow, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for their “Step Mashing Process For Producing Low Alcohol Beer.” Here’s the Abstract:
A low alcohol reduced calorie beer is produced by a mashing technique wherein a main mash at a temperature below the activity range for beta-amylase is added incrementally to a brewing liquid at a temperature above the deactivation temperature of beta-amylase and below the deactivation temperature of alpha-amylase at a rate such that the added main mash is substantially instantaneously raised to the temperature of the brewing liquid. This mashing technique limits the conversion of starches by beta-amylase and other enzymes without significant loss of alpha-amylase from overheating to produce a wort having a low real degree of fermentation of from about 40% to about 46%. The main mash has a temperature of about 95° F. to 120° F., and the brewing liquid has a temperature of about 169° F. to 174° F. and can be water or a cooker mash that has been boiled and cooled. Beer can be produced having less than 2% alcohol by weight and less than about 118 calories per 12 ounce serving.
Today in 1957, US Patent 2794453 A was issued, an invention of Lucien Grosbois, for his “Filling Heads For Bottling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that the “invention relates to filling heads adapted to be mounted on bottling machines for gaseous liquids under pressure.”
Today in 1940, US Patent 2203130 A was issued, an invention of Patrick J. Costello, for his “Beer Energizer.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that the “object of my invention is to provide a device for drawing beer in its normal stage without applying extra pressure or force, whereby to create a line creamy foam.” I’m not sure what about that “energizes” the beer, but it’s certainly a catchy name.
Today in 1974, US Patent 3814003 A was issued, an invention of Nickolas Lothar Vacano, assigned to Rainier Companies, for his “Brewing Apparatus.” Here’s the Abstract:
A large size thin-shelled outdoor metal tank, such as for making beer, with a conical metal bottom having a shallow slope of no more than 25 DEG from the horizontal, a conduit communicating with the tank interior at the apex of the conical bottom, a circular cylindrical vertical metal wall joined to the bottom, a metal roof joined to and supported by the vertical wall, insulation exterior of the bottom, wall and roof, a vent opening in the roof, a manifold centrally located in the tank spaced above the bottom and the level of unsuspended solids which may settle therein, said manifold having a plurality of openings through which carbon dioxide gas can exit into liquid in the tank, and a pipe leading from outside the tank to the manifold for supplying carbon dioxide thereto. The tank can have a tubular ring positioned inside the tank adjacent the periphery of the bottom, a pipe communicating with the ring and the exterior of the tank for supplying fluid to the ring, and a plurality of holes in the ring from which fluid under pressure can be ejected along the slope of the bottom to wash solids to the conduit in the bottom for removal.
