US468809A

US468809A - Charles f

Info

Publication number: US468809A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1892-02-16
Anticipated expiration: 1909-02-16

Description

(No Model.)

0. F. LAWTO-N, METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEER.

No. 468,809. Patented Feb. 16, 1892. l'l I I l K mgu \lil I i h =a=x=w inwm mu, 1 .l 11M,

H P3 J14 F N 1' A MH HWH id 1 7 J R Q I Tmnwsea: 5 3 Inventor:

9W a M A 5 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. LAIVTON, OF ROCHESTER, NEIV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO ROBERT I-I. SALMONS, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEER.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. &68,SO9, dated February 16, 1892.

Application filed October 3, 1890. Serial No. 366,950. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. LAWTON, a citizen of the United States,residin g at Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Beer, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for the manufacture of beer; and it consists in various features hereferment.

I will now describe the preferred form of apparatus for carrying out my process, as

represented in the annexed figure, which is an elevation of the apparatus mainly sectioned in a vertical plane.

A indicates an air-filter comprising a me tallic vessel A, filled with clean cotton.

B indicates a pump communicating with the filter by a pipe a, having a valve a, and

communicating also by means of a pipe a" with the bottom of a strong metallic vessel' C, which is filled with asbestus or sand, as at c. A pipe 0, having a valve d, extends from the top of the vessel 0 to a vessel D, while from the vessel D extends a pipe d, having a valve 6. The vessel 0 is surrounded by a jacket 0, while the vessel D is surrounded by a similar jacket D, the spaces between the vessels and the jackets being filled with any suitable non-conductor of heat. The pipes a," and c" are likewise jacketed, so as to prevent the heated air or gas from being cooled. The pipe (1', extending from the lower end of the compressed air reservoir D, communicates with a coil or manifold E, upon which water from a pan or receptacle f is designed to fall to cool the gas or air under pressure. This manifold or coil communicates with a pipe 70, extending along beneath the tuns or vats G G, while branch pipes it, having valves Z, extend from the pipe 7:; up through the bottom of the tuns, where they are provided with finely-perforated arms g. The tuns are provided with covers WV, having downwardlyturnededgestodipintoaliquidinatrough W, secured to the tuns, as shown, the liquid being advisably combined with an antiseptic to pre- 5 5 vent any foreign ferments passing into the interior of the tuns. Tuns G are further provided with funnels i, having valves 10, by means of which the tuns may be filled; but instead of the funnels the vertical pipe 7b may be used for filling. Opening into the top of the tuns is a U shaped pipe 3, which communicates at its outer end with a pipe M, extending over all of the tuns. This pipe extends downward to the drip receiver or reservoir O and intersects the pipe at and is provided on each side of the pipe 0; with a valve R R. NVhen it is desired to compress and force into the wort a gas different from common air, the valves a and R will be closed and the valve R on the pipe N opened. This branch pipe N, whose whole length is not shown, communicates with the holder con taining the gas that is to be pumped into the fermenting-wort.

The tuns G will each be provided with a thermometerj, by means of which the temperature of the wort may be readily determined.

Surrounding the air and gas pump B is a tank 19, which may be partly filled with water when the pump is being rapidly worked at a high pressure. This water preventsthe lower part of the barrel of the pump and the piston inside of it from heating to that degree as to cause cutting of the working parts. As the compressed air passes so quickly out of the pump, this cooling of the outside of the barrel of the pump will not materially lower the temperature of the compressed air that is driven into the second air-filter C and compressed-air receiver D.

Should it be desired to aerate new hot wort recently let into one or several of the fermenting-tuns, or should it be desired to aerate, cool, and purify fermenting wort that has become unclean or sickened, or shows signs of becoming so, then the valves R, R,

filter C and receiver D rapidly beats it, together with the walls of the containing-vessels, surrounded, as they are, by non-conductors, to such a temperature as to destroy noxious ferment-germs. The first of the air that is run through the manifold E and pipe it from the com pressed-air receiver D is allowed to escape without being run into the wort, as usual. This is to get rid of stagnant air that may have lain in the manifoldE or pipe 7c.

Thecompressed-air filter 0 being packed with asbestos or fine sand, the heat evolved by the compression does not char or set fire to it, as it would if the filter O was packed with cotton like the filter A, which is not subjected to compressed air.

The valve e, (leading from the compressedair receiver D to the manifold E,) havingbut a small opening when used with compressed air, prevents any back-circulation into receiverD of cooled compressed airin manifold E or pipe 713. Without covering the com pressed-air filter O and compressed-air reservoir D with a thick coat of non-heat-conducting material the compression of the air in these vessels would not heat it suffieiently to properly sterilize it.

When everything is ready for the use of the compressed and sterilized air, the valvesZ of one or more of the fermenting-tuns are very slightly opened, and the air escaping through this. valve up into the wort expands and consequently absorbs heat while in --the immediate presence of the beer or wort .to be cooled and aerated. By this means the refrigerating effect of the compressed air is obtained with the greatest possible economy of power and plant, and aeration is obtained simultaneously with cooling, which is of considerable advantage, as cold air is more freely absorbed by watery liquids than is warm air. Thepreviously-strained hot wort is run from the vessel, Where it has been boiled down with the hops, by a flexible pipe or hose to the funnel 11, through which it enters the tuns. As soon as the tun is filled to the proper height the stream of boiling wort is shut off and the valve to in the funnel closed. The hot wort is left in the vtun until the heat it carries has killed such injurious ferments as might adhere to the inside-of the tun and its cover and such germs as might be on or in the pipes g and h. This large body of heated wort will remain very hot for a long time; but'after it has stood long enough to kill the germs of injurious ferments the strongly-compressed -tanks, but without sterilization.

qeaeoe out introducing ferments that would spoil it. Besides the usual methods of cooling hot wort, it is exposed to all the contaminating influence of ordinary unpurified air. Besides sustaining the proper yeast ferment, the aeration of the beer with purified or sterilized air kills that most dangerous and troublesome of all sickness in beer and ale known as the butyric, as I have learned by many experiments. After the tun has been filled with hot wort the valve to of the funnel 11 is closed and the funnel filled with boiling-hot water; but after thewort is cooled sufficiently to admit of the yeast being added the valve to is opened and the Water that was standing in the funnel allowed to run into the tun, and then the liquid yeast, as-pure as may be obtained,'is run into the cooled wort through the same funnel. The yeast can now be stirred or mixed up with the wort by injecting a little more air into the bottom of the tun. Air and gaspassing from the tun escape by means of the branch or U-shaped pipe Z into the pipe M. The pump may be worked at a pressure of from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy pounds, (more or less,) which will raise the temperature of the air thus being compressed to 400 Fahrenheit and upward.

WVhen I speak of anair-pump, I mean to include a pump that may be used for forcing either air or gas, or both, i nto the tuns.

I am aware that it has been proposed to filter the air introduced into the fermentingvats; that it has also been proposed to calcine the air on its .way to the wortbymeans of a flame playingvupon a copper tube through which the-air passes, and, finally, that it'has been proposed to lead purifiedair which has been cooled to about 5 centigrade and is under feeble pressure into the fermenting- .The first of these propositions contemplates nothing more than is secured by the use of my filter A- to wit, the removal of dust and like impurities. The second contemplates merely the heating of the air by a flame andwithout retaining it in a vessel sufficiently long to secure the perfect sterilization, which is so essential to the successful carrying out of my process. While the third plan proposed contemplates only a feeble'pressure, which cannot effect a heating to the air and thereby cause its sterilization.

Among the advantages claimed for my process is that it is carried out by a simple and compact apparatus by means of which new hot wort may be cooled in the tuns where it is to befermented, and this, too, without-exposure to common unpurified air, whereas by the usual methods of cooling hot wort it is aerated, it is true; but the aeration is slow and in open vats and the apparatus costly and cumbersome.

Another advantage resides in the faetthat the c'oolingis done in such a way as to effect of power both in cooling new hot Wort and in cooling fermenting wort. Furthermore, by surrounding the compressedair filter and compressed-air reservoir with a thick non-conductor of heat and filling the compressed-air filter with non-combustible filtering material I am enabled to heat the air sufficiently to purify'or sterilize it bythe same apparatus and machinery used to refrigerate and aerate the wort or beer, and this, too, in a single continuous operation. WVhile, therefore, I am aware that the filtering and heating of the air to be injected and the use of feebly-compressed air have before been proposed, I am not aware that any or all of these ideas have been practically carried out or applied, nor that the air has been filtered under compression, nor that the air has been brought to'such a high temperature by compression and retained long enough in thiscondition to effect its sterilization.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. The improvement in the process of manufacturing beer, 850., which consists in raising the temperature of a body of air by highly compressing it and confining it in this condition until the sterilization shall have been effected and thencooling the air and injecting fold E, a water-supply f, and a pipe 70, leading from the coil to the vats, all substantially as shown.

4:. In combination withan air pump or compressor B, an air-filter A, applied to the supply-pipe thereof, an air-filter 0, applied to the discharge-pipe of the pump, a compressed-air receiver D, a cooling coil or manifold connected with the receiver, the tuns or vats, and suitable connecting-pipes.

I11 Witness whereof I hereunto set my hand in the'presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES F. LAWTON. Witnesses:

CHARLES VAN VooRHIs, ARTHUR W. LAw'roN.