Improvements in Brewing.
Year: 1891

page_text: of Application, 27th Oct., 1891-Accepted, 19th Mar., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Brewing.
I AUGUST UMBECK of Barmen Rhenish Prussia, Germany, Merchant, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a new process of brewing beer by which a better yield
of the sugar contained in the malt or other corn used, and of the valuable products
contained in the hops is realized.
With the manner of brewing, hitherto in use, the starch (amylum) contained in
the corn used for making beer and in the malt made thereof and also in other sorts
of cereals, is only partly transformed into dextrin and sugar in mashing by the
diastase which is formed in malting. A considerable part of the amylum is not
used out and remains in the spent grain or malt. Likewise, with the process of
brewing in use until now, where the hop is added to the wort and boiled out therein,
the valuable contents of the hop, especially the hop-oil the rosin of hop and the
bitter acid of hop are not at all used out or only partly, because the hop-oil is
totally volatilized in boiling the hop and because the rosin of hop and the bitter
acid of hop, though they are taken up by the wort, are contained therein in a
floating or suspended state only, and therefore are separated again during the
fermentation.
The object of my invention now is to avoid the loss of amylum, as well as of the
said contents of the hops used.
This is attained 1) by using for that purpose chloride of sodium (common salt)
which possesses the quality, like the diastase, to transform amylum into dextrin and
sugar, in making beer, for then all the amylum is transformed into dextrin and
sugar, and 2) when the said contents of hop, which are extracted by means of
alcohol from a suitable amount of hop, are added to the wort after it has been
cooled down, before or after the principal fermentation, for then neither an
evaporisation nor a separation can take place.
Now since the transformation of amylum into dextrin and sugar by the diastase
can take place only at a temperature of 40 to 70 Centigrades (104° F. to 158° F.),
whereas chloride of sodium causes this transformation only at a temperature of 75° C.
(167 F.) up to the boiling point of water and higher, it is best to add it to the thick
mash and to boil the latter with it.
However it is also effective when added to the mashing water, as well as to the
clear mash and to the wort. The thick mash may then, as usual be boiled partly
or in the whole. The amylum contained in the corn and other cereals may be
transformed according to the new process into dextrin and sugar by the use of
chloride of sodium only, without the diastase contained in the malt, and it is therefore
not absolutely necessary to use malt.
Nearly all free acids and other salts have a similar effect, however in making
beer I use by preference chloride of sodium, of which about 5 to 1% of the weight
of the quantity of beer to be brewed is necessary.
The said elements of the hop may be produced from an appropriate quantity of
hop by distillation with water and they are then dissolved with alcohol to be added
in proper manner to the cooled wort. In thus distilling the hop-oil is got by the
use of a refrigerator. The remaining decoction, consisting principally of rosin of
hop and of bitter acid of hop, is boiled down as much as possible before being
dissolved.
The hop-oil may also be gained by boiling out the hop in the wort, when the
copper or the pan is made like a still, because then the hop-oil which was evaporated
by boiling the wort is separated when the steam is condensed by the cooler.

page_text: The beer produced by this improved method has more body, is of better taste,
more digestible and durable than the beer made as usual, even then when less
amylum and especially less hop have been used in making it.
There being only little alcohol required for extracting and dissolving the said
contents of the hop in proportion to the quantity of alcohol produced by the
fermentation, the expenses caused thereby are of no importance.
The said extract of hop and the described solution of the hop elements may also
be added to the cooled wort and to the beer, which are made according to the
method hitherto in use, and are insufficiently provided with hop; they then serve
as an improvement for such beer.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
An improved process for brewing beer in which 1) the whole of the starch,
(amylum) contained in the corn and the malt made thereof or in the other cereals
used, is transformed into dextrin and sugar and in which 2) the whole of the
valuable elements of the hop, especially of the hop-oil, the rosin of hop and the
bitter acid of hop are used out,
a) By employing chloride of sodium or another salt of similar quality or a free
acid having the same effect, and adding it to the mashing water, the thick
mash, the clear mash or to the wort and
6) By adding the valuable elements of the hop to the wort to which no hop
has been added, or to such wort in which hop had been boiled out, but only
after it had been cooled, either before or after the principal fermentation, or
to the beer brewed and insufficiently provided with hop according to the
old method, those elements having been extracted from a suitable quantity
of hop with alcohol or having been gained by distilling and having then
been dissolved.
Dated this 7th day of October 1891
KARL T. MAYER,
Agent for August Umbeck.