Today in 1969, US Patent 3443958 A was issued, an invention of George E. Dennis, Richard C. Quittenton, and Kenneth R. Robinson, assigned to John Labatt Ltd., for their “Method of Preparing Ground Cereal Grains in the Production of Brewery Mash.” There’s no Abstract, but the invention is described as a “process for producing brewers wort in which cereal grains are dehulled, the dehulled grain is ground to form a fine grist and at least part of the hulls removed before grinding are recombined with the ground dehulled grain and passed through the mashing stage in the usual manner.” Here’s why they think their method is better.

According to this invention it has been determined that the above difficulties [milling problems] can be overcome by removing the hull from the grain before the milling operation. With the hulls removed the kernels of grain can now be more finely ground than was possible in the past and then the finely ground kernels can be recombined with the hulls at any point before the lautering stage. The result of this is an increased yield without any significant sacrifice in run-off time. A series of pilot plant tests indicated that an average yield increase of up to 2% could be obtained with a less than a 15% increase in lautering time.

The degree to which the kernels can be more finely ground according to this invention will be entirely dependent upon the particular situation. Thus, the actual particle size will be dependent upon the nature of the grain, the balance of the lautering time against yield permissible in a given situation, etc.

Today in 1983, US Patent 4383040 A was issued, an invention of Richard Fricker, for his “Fermentation Process and Apparatus.” Here’s the Abstract:

A method for continuous fermentation in which carbohydrate solution is fed continuously into a fermentation zone containing substantially homogeneously distributed yeast and carbohydrate solution whereby the carbohydrate is fermented to ethanol, a proportion of the fermenting liquid continuously passing to a pressurized settling tank, yeast depleted liquid being withdrawn from the upper part of the settling tank and yeast enriched liquid being withdrawn from the lower part of said tank and returned to the fermentation zone, a proportion of yeast being withdrawn without being returned to the fermentation zone, said proportion being such that the concentration of yeast in the fermentation zone is substantially constant, and the pressure within the settling tank is sufficient to prevent the formation of gaseous carbon dioxide. The method enables rapid continuous fermentation to take place using high concentrations of yeast.

Today in 1960, US Patent 2936236 A was issued, an invention of Robert C. Gadsby, Schwaiger Joseph, and Frank H. Schwaiger, assigned to Anheuser Busch, for their “Method of Draining Off Wort From a Straining Tank.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the “invention relates to a straining tank or grain extractor or lauter tub, and more particularly to a new type of straining tank for use in the brewing industry to remove extract from brewers grains. This divisional application relates to the method of straining employed by said straining tank.”