Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Patent No. 3888839A: Isolated Yeast Protein Product With Intact RNA And A Process For Making Same

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Today in 1975, US Patent 3888839 A was issued, an invention of Jon Albert Newell, Robert Dudley Seeley, and Ernest Aleck Robbins, assigned to Anheuser Busch, for their “Isolated Yeast Protein Product with Intact RNA and a Process for Making Same.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it states that “We have discovered a process for obtaining a protein isolate from yeast cells. This process makes use of a neutral or slightly alkaline extraction of disintegrated cells to avoid the deleterious effect on nutritional quality and flavor.”

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Our process is comprised of the following steps: production of yeast cells, rupture of the cells, separation of the insoluble cell wall fragments from the soluble cytoplasmic fraction, treatment of the soluble fraction with alkali, recovery of the protein by precipitation and centrifugation, vacuum concentration, and drying. The substantially cell free isolated protein product contains about 40% of the solids, -65% of the protein, 60-65% of the nucleic acid, 64-68% of the lipid and less than 5% of the carbohydrate that was present in the yeast cell. The isolated protein product has the composition (dsb) of 65-85% crude protein, 9-14% nucleic acid, 2-8% ash, 9-14% lipid, and 2-10% carbohydrate, while including less than 1% crude fiber.

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Patent No. 730651A: Brewing

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Today in 1903, US Patent 730651 A was issued, an invention of Herbert Amos Hobson, assigned to the Concentrated Beer Company Ltd., for his “Brewing.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it states that “this invention relates to a method of brewing in which a hopped wort is produced by first making an infusion or decoction of hops, then running off the infusion or decoction, and after fixing the tannic acid extracted from the hops mashing malt (or malt and grain) in the hop infusion or decoction as the mashing liquor.” Hobson was a British analytical chemist, and obviously he didn’t patent “brewing,” but an improvement on the process. I use the same titles that the grant of application uses, but sometimes they’re a little strange, case in point this one. Anyway, Hobson goes on to describe it great detail:

The invention consists,first, in a methodical process whereby the residual soluble matter contained in the spent malt and spent hops is extracted, the liquor containing such residual extractive matter being used instead of plain water for making the decoction of hops for a fresh brew, so that the residual malt and hop extract obtained from the spent malt and hops left from one brew will be utilized in the next succeeding brew, and so on.

The invention consists, secondly, in withdrawing from the hop extract (after it has been treated to fix the tannic acid, but before it is used for mashing) a portion of the hop liquor, separately heating the liquor thus withdrawn, and returning it to the bulk of the liquor after the mashing of the latter with malt, (or malt and grain,) so as to thereby raise the temperature of the mash without causing dilution thereof, as would be the case were naked steam blown in.

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Patent No. 20488A: Apparatus For Manufacture Of Beer

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Today in 1858, US Patent 20488 A was issued, an invention of George Habioh, for his “Apparatus For Manufacture Of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, though the description in the application states that he’s “invented an Improved Apparatus for Brewing or Manufacturing Beer.” What follows is a very lengthy explanation, but here’s the start of a fuller explanation.

For this boiling of the wort I use a closed copper or kettle; its steam I employ for new mashing and increase its pressure by a superincumbent column of water. This steam enters directly into the mash, and the increasing height of the water increases also the boiling point of the wort contained in the copper. This increased temperature manifests itself in stirring up again the wort, after it becomes clear, and finally the wort clears itself of all the coagulated albumen. The only thing to be observed is that the temperature should be sufficiently high, 2′. e. the steam pipe must be closed by a sufficient column of water.

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Patent No. 2472252A: Process For The Preservation Of Beer

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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.”

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Patent No. 4837034A: Preparation Of Low Calorie Beer

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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.

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Patent No. 4837156A: Tilting Lauter Tun

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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.

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Patent No. 1228917A: Manufacture Of Dry Extracts Of Beer

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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.

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Patent No. 5021246A: Step Mashing Process For Producing Low Alcohol Beer

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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.

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Patent No. 3814003A: Brewing Apparatus

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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.

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Patent No. 1098659A: Racking-Machine

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Today in 1914, US Patent 1098659 A was issued, an invention of John G. Bieniek, for his “Racking-Machine.” There’s no Abstract, though it’s stated in the application that Bieniek has “invented a new and useful Improvement in Racking-Machines,” adding:

The main objects of this invention are to provide an improved racking machine; to provide a racking machine in which the filling apparatus may be readily brought into and out of operative position with respect to the barrel to be filled; to provide a rack 111g machine having means for automatically operating the filling valve; to provide a racking machine having improved mechanism for indicating that the barrel is filled; to provide a racking machine having improved means for firmly holding the filling apparatus in operative position; and to provide a strong, simple and easily operable device adapted to fill beer barrels with great rapidity.

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