AN IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CLEANSING BEER AND OTHER FERMENTED LIQUORS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
WALKER, of Liverpool, Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster the Thirty-first day of May, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
eight, in the first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Peter Walker, Her especial licence, ful!
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Peter Walker, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Walker, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CLEANSING BEER AND OTHER FERMENTED LIQUORS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Peter Walker, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months

page_text: next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Peter Walker, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):-
The objects of my Invention are, during the operation of cleansing beer,
ale, and porter, to supersede the necessity of supplying by mechanical power
or hand labour the place of the liquor discharging fermenting, and to keep
the casks or other vessels always full, notwithstanding the constant discharge
of the liquor by the fermentation, and to prevent the yeasty head being
broken in upon the liquor. I am aware that some attempts have been made to
save the trouble of filling up by applying to each cask a vessel with a tube to
allow of the yeast rising into the vessel, and allowing liquor to descend
through the same tube into the cask, consequently the upward current of the
rising yeast and the downward current of supply are by such arrangement
acting against each other, and the process of cleansing is thus imperfectly
performed, and which, with the inconvenience of the apparatus, is a sufficient
and probably the reason why such method has not come into general use.
Now an apparatus constructed and arranged according to my Invention
offers a tube or passage for the flowing off of the yeast from the cask or vessel
in which the beer, ale, or porter is being cleansed, and also a tube or passage
for the filling up of the cask or vessel separate from the way or passage for the
rising yeast. By such an arrangement the currents of the rising yeast and
of the liquor descending for the filling up of the cask or vessel will not interfere
with each other; and further, the liquor for filling up will be introduced at the
lower part of the cask, whereby the yeasty head remains unbroken and the
I also employ
attenuation is perfected in a regular and uniform manner.
trough suspended above the casks, by means of which, combined with the
apparatus for carrying off the yeast, and keeping up the constant filling, I an
enabled, but with few attendants, to fill and cleanse a very large number o
casks of fermented malt liquor. In order to give the best information in my
power for carrying out my improvements, I will proceed to describe the Draw
ings hereunto annexed, in which the same letters and figures of referenc
indicate similar parts.

page_text: of
Figure 1 represents my improved apparatus as applicable to a cask, and
which is to be combined with a suitable trough or vessel for receiving the
yeast and for containing the liquor for filling up. Figure 2 is a like apparatus
partly in section, by which the internal arrangement will be more readily
understood. "a" is a conical tube which enters the bung hole of the cask
from the upper part of the conical tube; a ascends the tube b, which I will
call the yeast tube, and which is bent at the upper part, as shewn at Figure 3,
in order that the yeast, as it rises from the malt liquor in the cask through the
conical tube a and the tube 6, may flow into the trough. The mode of con-
necting the said trough with the apparatus, as applied to casks, will be
understood on examining Figures 4 and 5, where the tube apparatus is shewn
as applied to casks connected with the trough marked c. The trough may be
any length according to the number of casks in use. d is a tube descend-
ing through the conical tube a low into the cask. On the end of the tube d,
as shewn in Figure 2, is a screw, by means of which and the screw coup-
ling "e," the tube "d" can be readily connected with the tube f, which,
together with the tube d, may be called the filling tube or passage, as by means
of this part of the apparatus the casks are not only filled in the first instance,
but are kept full by a constant supply of undisturbed liquor from the lower
part of the trough e. g is a hollow screw plug which is screwed into the
trough c, and this screw plug is constructed like a common beer barrel cock,
so as to act as a cock to shut off the flow of liquor when the tube "f" is
disconnected from the tube "d," it being made to lose the passage or way
when the tube f is lowered or raised into a perpendicular position. A horizontal
section of g is drawn below, Figure 1. Figures 4 and 5 shew the trough
suspended above the casks. In using the apparatus with casks, a number of
casks are to be placed side by side on stillions below the trough c, and a tube
apparatus, such as is shewn at Figure 1, applied to each cask and forced
tightly into the bung hole, and the tubes "f" screwed to the tubes d, and the
tubes "f" at "9" screwed into the trough. The malt liquor, in a sufficient
state of forwardness, is to be run into the trough c, from thence it will
pass through the tubes f and d and fill the casks, and a quantity is to
be left in the trough c, which, with the liquor raised by the fermentation,
and afterwards subsiding in the trough c, continues constantly filling up
the casks as their contents are diminished by the cleansing. The yeast
will in working rise up through the tube b and flow into the trough c.
The fermentation and cleansing will then go on without requiring any
attention till completed, and the liquor fully cleansed thereby, which will

page_text: be ascertained by the yeast no longer flowing from the tubes b. The
tube apparatus may then be removed, first separating the tubes f, and
then stopping the flow of liquor by raising or lowering the tubes f, as above
explained.
Figures 6 and 7, and Figures 8 and 9, show such a variation of the apparatus
as will enable the brewer to apply the same to complete the cleansing in the
fermenting vessel, technically termed a square or round or gyle tun. The parts
marked with the same letters of reference indicate similar parts. h is a cover
consisting of doors i, i, and the part partition of the vessel "," as is shewn in
the Drawing. These doors are so arranged as to shut close, in order,
when they are closed, to prevent the passage of the liquor or of the yeast,
excepting by the proper passages or tubes. To make this arrangement of the
apparatus readily understood, it will only be necessary further to say that the
liquor being brought from the coolers to the square or round or gyle tun, and
yeast added, and fermentation having gone on to the desired stage for cleansing,
the lids or doors are to be lowered or shut, and the yeast tubes b and the
supply pipes & screwed or otherwise fixed in their places, taking care to have
three or four inches deep of liquor above the lids or covers to keep up the
supply, as the quantity below lessens in the working off. It will be evident
that by this arrangement the liquor below the lids or covers will be cleansed
in the same manner as that above described with respect to casks, for the
yeast arising above the covers by the tubes 6 cannot return. The liquor thus
cleansed in the round or square or gyle tun may then be drawn off into casks
for use, and at once bunged up.
Having thus explained the nature of my Invention, and the means of
performing the same, I would remark that variations may be made in some
of the arrangements without departing from my Invention, so long as the
general principle of it is retained. But what I claim as my Invention is the
mode of combining instruments such as above described into an apparatus for
cleansing fermented liquors in the making of beer, ale, and porter, without the
application of mechanical power or hand labour, and so as to separate by
distinct ways or passages the rising current of yeast and the downward current
of supply.
In witness whereof. I. the said Peter Walker have hereunto set
mv
PETER WALKER. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1838, the aforesaid Peter Walker came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.