AN IMPROVED METHOD OF RECOVERING THE BREWER'S WORT AND OTHER MATTERS RETAINED WITH THE HOPS AFTER BOILING OR BOILING AND PRESSING, AND IN THE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Horace Tabberer Brown, of 47, High Street,
Burton-on-Trent, Brewer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF RECOVERING THE BREWER'S WORT AND OTHER MATTERS RETAINED
WITH THE HOPS AFTER BOILING OR BOILING AND PRESSING, AND IN THE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Horace Tabberer Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th May 1875.
I, HORACE TABBERER BROWN, of 47, High Street, Burton-on-Trent,
Brewer, do hereby declare, the nature of the said Invention for "Ax
IMPROVED METHOD OF RECOVERING THE BREWER'S WORT AND OTHER MATTERS
RETAINED WITH THE HOPS AFTER BOILING OR BOILING AND PRESSING, AND IN THE
ARRANGEMENT OF MACHINERY FOR THAT-PURPOSE," to be as follows:-―
This Invention of an improved method of recovering the brewer's
wort and other matters retained with the hops after boiling or boiling

page_text: and pressing, and in the arrangement of machinery for that purpose,
consist in subjecting the hops after drainage from the wort, or after the
usual treatment by hand, hydraulic, or other presses to a process of
successive sparging and repeated circulation of liquid, whereby the wort
still remaining with the hops and many of the constituents of the hop
are extracted and made available for use in the manufacture of beer or
porter, and the Invention mainly consists in continuing the above-
mentioned circulation of each charge of liquid so long as the gravity of
the liquid is found to increase.
• After the best treatment by pressing the hops still retain a large
portion of the wort in which they have been boiled, and in the case of
rich worts the loss is considerable; in addition to the loss of wort many
valuable constituents of the hop remain with the hops after the best
method of pressing employed. The hops after draining or pressing are
placed in vats, preferably of the form and arrangement of the ordinary
mashing tun with a false bottom, but without the stirrer. I then take
water or weak. wort either warm or cold, and sparge it over the layer of
hops either with a rotating sparge or a fixed one. (In some cases I
pass a
current of steam between the true and false bottom, either by one pipe or
more, the steam then passing up through the false bottom raises the
temperature of the hops and the sparged liquid; the liquid after passing
through the layer of hops is allowed to escape, and is raised again by a
pump or other suitable means and conveyed to the sparger. This
circulation of the liquid is continued till the gravity of the liquid ceases
to increase; the liquor is then passed on to another vat with a similar
charge of hops and subjected to like treatment with the enriched liquor;
the hops in the first vat are now washed with water or very weak worts
until sufficiently exhausted, these liquors passed on again to other
charges of hops, and the spent hops thrown out or pressed as usual.
1*
The resulting liquid rich in fermentable matter and containing 3
constituents of the hops may now be boiled and concentrated to the
desired point, cooled, and either fermented by itself or mixed with other
worts that are fermenting or to be fermented.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Horace Tabberer Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HORACE
TABBERER BROWN, of 47, High Street, Burton-on-Trent, Brewer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, in the year
of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Horace Tabberer Brown, Her special
license that I, the said Horace Tabberer Brown, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Horace Tabberer
Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thercafter during tho term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF RECOVERING THE BREWER'S WORT
AND OTHER MATTERS RETAINED WITH THE HOPS AFTER BOILING OR BOILING AND
PRESSING, AND IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF MACHINERY FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Horace Tabberer Brown,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Horace Tabberer Brown, do hereby
declaro the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
'
This Invention of an improved method of recovering the brewer's
wort and other matters retained with the hops after boiling or boiling
and pressing, and in the arrangement of machinery for that purpose,

page_text: consists in subjecting the hops after drainage from the wort, or after the
usual treatment by hand, hydraulic, or other presses to a process of
successive sparging and repeated circulation of liquid, whereby the wort
still remaining with the hops and many of the constituents of the hop
are extracted and made available for use in the manufacture of beer or 5
porter, and the Invention mainly consists in continuing the above-
mentioned circulation of each charge of liquid so long as the gravity of
the liquid is found to increase.
After the best treatment by pressing the hops still retain a large
.portion of the wort in which they have been boiled, and in the case of
rich worts the loss is considerable ;), in addition to the loss of wort many
valuable constituents of the hop remain with the hops after the best
method of pressing employed. The hops after draining or pressing are
placed in vats, preferably of the form and arrangement of the ordinary
mashing tun with a false bottom, but without the stirrer. I then take 1
water or weak wort either warm or cold and sparge it over the layer of
hops, either with a rotating sparge or a fixed one.
In some cases I pass
a current of steam in between the true and false bottom either by one
pipe or more; the steam then passing up through the false bottom
raises the temperature of the hops and the sparge liquid; the liquid
after passing through the layer of hops is allowed to escape, and is
raised again by a pump or other suitable means and conveyed to the
sparger. This circulation of the liquid is continued till the gravity of
the liquid ceases to increase; the liquor is then passed on to another vat
with a similar charge of hops, and subjected to like treatment with the
enriched liquor; the hops in the first vat are now washed with water or
very weak worts until sufficiently exhausted, these liquors passed on
again to other charges of hops, and the spent hops thrown out or pressed
as usual.
The resulting liquid rich in fermentable matter and containing :

page_text: letters indicate like parts, and in which Figure 1 is a side elevation;
Figure 2, a part end elevation; Figure 3, plan of the apparatus on the
lower floor.
After the hops have been treated in the ordinary manner and when
they are in the condition commonly described as "spent hops," I place
thom for convenience in the hop square marked A, which serves as a
reservoir or store, though they may if preferred be taken direct to the
sparging vats.
As the whole or nearly the whole of the soluble portion of the hop is
recovered by my process I prefer not to submit them to the usual
hydraulic or screw presses, but should it be preferred to press them in
the ordinary way it will be convenient to divide the hop square A into
two parts, one for the cakes of hops as they come from the presses, the
other for the said cakes after they have been broken up and disintegrated.
They are thence thrown in such quantities as may be convenient into
the sparging vats B¹, B³, B³. These sparging vats are fitted in the usual
way with perforated copper bottoms or strainers, and their liquid
contents are drawn off by means of pipes to the under backs C¹, C², 0³.
Connected with these same pipes is a steam pipe, so that by closing the
outlet by a suitable valve and admitting steam the whole contents of
each or any of the sparging vats can be thoroughly steamed. The same
steam pipe is continued and connected with heating coils in cach of the
under backs, whereby the contents of cach of them can be kept at any
desired temperature. These under backs are again drained by pipes
leading to the circulating pumps D', D², D³, which may be driven by
belting.or in any other approved manner. From these pumps the
liquor is forced either to the boiling round E' or to the spargers F¹,F2, F³,
as follows:-When a triple set of apparatus is employed (as shown in
the annexed Drawing) No. 1 pump is arranged to deliver to Nos. 1
and 2 spargers, and to No. 2 boiling round; No. 2 pump to deliver to
Nos. 2 and 3 spargers, and to No. 2 boiling round; No. 3 pump to deliver
to Nos. 3 and 1 spargers, and to No. 2 boiling round.
The spargers may be of any usual construction and may be driven
either by shafting and gearing (as shown), or if there is a sufficient
bydraulic head they may be self-acting. The boiling round E' is kept
supplied with water from the most convenient source, and the boiling

page_text: round E' is supplied with wort from the circulating pumps as before
described. Each of these boiling rounds is supplied with a heating coil
in connection with the steam pipe, so that their contents can be kept at
any desired temperature. Each of these boiling rounds communicates
by suitable pipes and stop valves with each of the three spargers. It is
evident that by this arrangement the hops in each or all of the sparging
vats can be thorouglily steamed, moistened, and washed either by
water from the boiling round E¹ by wort from E³ or by wort direct
from the under backs.
I do not confine myself to a triple arrangement (as shown), as it is
evident that the same principle may be applied to one, two, or any
number of vats under backs, pumps, &c. When the hops in the sparging
vats have been thus washed any desired number of times, as may be
determined by the degree of saturation of the resulting liquor, they are
thrown out of the sparging vats, and conveyed in any convenient manner
(as for example by skeps suspended from runners overhead) to the hop
presses G¹, G, G³, and thence either into a square for spent hops, or at
once into carts or trucks for removal. As the object of this final
pressing is chiefly to bring the hops to a more convenient and more
marketable form (for manure or other purposes), the expressed moisture
may be allowed to run to waste, or may be again used by pumping it
up to the boiling rounds.
The liquor obtained from the washing process above described is
pumped up for the last time into the boiling round E or any other
convenient reservoir or directly to the coolers, and treated in the ordinary
way.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the
said Invention and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would
have it understood that I do not claim simply washing spent hops with
water to extract the matters contained therein, but what I do claim and
desire to secure in the hercin in part recited Letters Patent is,-
Firstly. The principle of extracting wort and other constituents left
in the hops either before or after pressing by means of successive
spargings of the same liquor, thereby increasing the gravity of said
liquid and rendering it by subsequent moderate evaporation suitable to
be employed either alone or by mixing with other worts, sweet or bitter,
for fermenting into beer, substantially as described.

page_text: Secondly. The arrangement of the machinery and apparatus specifically
as described for the purposes set forth, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Horace Tabberer Brown, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.