BrewDog to "reinvent" cask ale?

Hmm, I don't know. I'm far from an expert, and the details aren't very specific (unless I'm missing something), but at first glance it just seems like keg conditioning?

I could be very wrong too, just my first thought after a quick read.

 

Yes it's not really new. Just more marketing shite from brewpooch . A bunch of breweries have keg conditioned and used keykegs for it. Homebrewers have done it forever

 

I've heard nitro mimics the mouthfeel of cask...maybe they should try that?

 

Typical non-news from Brewdog. If they focused on better beer instead of marketing, maybe they would have come core offerings that were actually good.

 

Don't rightly know what to think at this point.

However, I do know one thing (speaking as the holder of a couple of US patents and a veteran of what it takes to be awarded a patent). Someone doesn't get a patent for a device and/or procedure that is already in common usage.

Now it doesn't have to be the case that what is patented really works, as there are patents in the US on how to keep a human head alive after it has been severed from the body and for how to build a perpetual motion machine.

But there has to be something new and different going on that the patent examiners haven't seen before and they are usually higly expert at searching for existing patents, etc.

 

Oxidation is part of the beauty that is cask ale. They are kind of taking away one of the better aspects of well kept cask as it develops over a few days.

 

I have always thought it was painfully obvious that BrewDog are trolling the whole 'craft' scene -- claiming obvious gimmicks as true innovation and creativity.

 

Is that trolling or participating?

 

I am with Tom (@drtth) here. BrewDog invented a new system/process here and has received a patent for this invention. They have even offered to share the technical specifications with other breweries.

It would seem that there is a fair bit of cynicism/vitriol here. I suppose that just beating up on Stone brewery is an insufficient hobby?

@StoneGreg

Cheers!

 

The last paragraph of the article says [paraphrased because the article won't let me copy/paste ], Brewdog would gladly share the technical specifications of their real beer system with other brewers despite them having a patent. Maybe another brewer will take them up on that and we will learn about this system someday.

 

clarification via centrifuge, gee thats innovative!

 

Randy, that is indeed correct. They discuss this in the below video (starting at 1:20).

Cheers!

 

I personally would be surprised if we would learn anything from another craft brewery. I would expect that as part of Brewdog providing a free license to utilize the Live Beer technology that they would require the other craft brewery to sign an NDA.

Cheers!

 

Looks like a pretty cool system. I look forward to trying beer from it!

You're not doing anything worthwhile...hell, you're not even trying...if someone isn't criticizing you.

 

A few thoughts about innovation:

Some background: Post-it-notes(TM) and Masking Tape(TM) both make lots of money for 3M and they are only just paper and glue. Both paper and glue were developed years before the birth of Christ. Yet it took until the last century for someone to come up with the idea for two products most of us would hate to live without. (There are lots of other examples of innovations that involved giving a new twist to old ideas, e.g. anyone got any idea how many patents there are for paper fasterners before paper clips got to their current shape?)

Beer and brewing innovation may be no different: With several innovations in brewing process all it took was someone to think to try a variation in process or ingredients that nobody had come up with and made work before, or to bring an idea from some other area of endeavor and put it to use to improve brewing results and thereby contribute a small step that helped get us to the situation we enjoy today. In that context it seems quite possible that Brewdog have figured out a new way of combining some old things. Time alone will tell.

 

From the article:

"The beer is fermented without top pressure then centrifuged to remove hop debris, packaged and allowed to ferment and condition inside the keg."

I wonder if BrewDog realizes this is more or less exactly how ungespundetes Kellerbier has been produced and served throughout Franconia for centuries [including more recently using forced carbonation]?

Again, I hope they are just trolling CAMRA rather than honestly trying to pass this stuff off as new and revolutionary....

 

Tom ,the fact that Brewdog was issued a patent sure does seem to indicate that some level of invention has occurred here. Is there a convenient way to search this patent to learn more?

Cheers!

 

Convenient way to search? Yes and no. (helpful right?)

Basically there is a way to do it for a US patent so long as you know the name of the patent holder. For the UK I haven't the foggiest.

 

For what it's worth, I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight on what a free online newsletter for Pub Owners has to say about the details. Such publications are not notorious for quality communication of technical details.