IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR REMOVING OR EXPRESSING BEER FROM YEAST OR PROM HOPS
Year: 1862

page_text: 'PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Pontifex at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd September
. 1862:
I, CHARLES PONTIFEX, of 154, Saint Paul's Road, Canonbury, in the
County of Middlesex, and of 56 and 57, Shoe Lane, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS FOR REMOVING OR EXPRESSING BEER FROM YEAST OR PROM HOPS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the means or apparatus
employed for expressing or extracting the beer remaining in yeast obtained
during the progress of fermentation, or from hops after they have been boiled
with the wort and the principal part of the wort drained off by means of the
strainer contained in the hop back.
For the purpose of carrying out my improvements I take a box, back, or
other receptacle of suitable shape, which I mount, by preference, upon four
wheels; these wheels are made with the outer circumference hollow, which
hollow is used, as hereafter described. At a proper distance from the bottom of
the box or back I place a shelf of wood of sufficient strength, which shelf is
constructed with ribs on its surface to allow the escape of liquids when in
use. A second shelf (or any other number of shelves may be used) is arranged
to fit inside this box or back, and is provided likewise with grooves or ribs on
its upper and under surface, and it is arranged to slide freely through the box;
an upper or top shelf also is made, but arranged to pass to a certain distance

page_text: down into the box or back, and then rest on the side of the box. To extract
the beer from yeast or hops, I take a bag or bags made of canvas of the
description ordinarily used for fining wine or beer, and of a length sufficient
to fill up the length of the box or back before alluded to; I fill this bag with
the yeast taken from "stillions" or from the "working tuns," and fasten the
neck thereof when sufficiently full in any convenient manner.
This bag is
laid horizontally on the bottom shelf of the box or back; the middle shelf is
then put in its place; a second bag. similarly filled is then placed on the
middle shelf, and the top shelf is then placed in position, and the beer
is pressed out by weight or pressure applied to the top shelf. This weight
or pressure may be applied with levers, metal weights, or in other ways,
but I prefer to apply the pressure as follows:-To the ends of the bars which
form the framing or means by which the top shelf descends a certain distance
into the box or back are placed hooks; on to these hooks chains are affixed
which chains pass under 'the wheels and are guided by entering the hollows in
the outer circumference before alluded to. The chains, two on each side, are
gathered together by means of a cross bar and eye, so that they are all tightened
by one hook employed to lift them; this eye is attached by a chain or rope to
a crane, pullies, or other means suitable for lifting, but by preference I use what
are termed "differential blocks." The crane or blocks being tightened, the
whole apparatus is lifted from the ground, but the chains being fixed to the
lid or top shelf of the box the whole weight of the apparatus is employed
to act or press upon the bags, which being thus pressed easily and quickly
discharge the beer contained in them from the solid parts of the yeast
or from spent hops when the apparatus is used for the purpose of pressing
them. I make another form of the apparatus by using a cylindrical case
or drum formed with ribs in the direction of the length of the drum, and
I place the bag or bags filled as before perpendicularly within the drum, and
apply the pressure to the end of the bag as before described to extract the
beer from the yeast or hops.