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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: Patenting Yeast Strains? (stencil)
  Re: Popcorn (stencil)
  RE: beer and calories ("Brian Lundeen")
  Yeast Patents (Alexandre Enkerli)


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Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:41:39 -0400
From: stencil <etcs.ret at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Patenting Yeast Strains?

On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:27:33 -0400, 
in Homebrew Digest #5588 (August 04, 2009)
Alexandre Enkerli  wrote:

>
>Can he get a patent on this strain? If so, what does it mean for the
>brewing industry?
>
If Juan Cano can get a patent on the yeast he extracted from
fossil amber, then probably the descendants of Herman Frasch
and Cyrus McCormick should apply for retroactive patents on
sulfur and wheat.   IANAL but it seems to me that what
Franklin and the other Framers had in mind was encouraging
the creation of *processes,* not of products.  If Cano had
devised new and unique procedures for separating the
encapsulated cells from the amber (which I doubt) then those
probably should be patentable.   But if he simply applied
established techniques (however laborious and demanding the
procedures may have been) then, sorry Juan, no doughnut.

gds, stencil



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Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:30:23 -0400
From: stencil <etcs.ret at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Popcorn

On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:27:33 -0400, 
in Homebrew Digest #5588 (August 04, 2009)
Alan Semok wrote:

>Popcorn works quite well  for beer...I've used it a number of times  
>for one of my Pale Ale formulas, and it's a  great contribution.
>Go for it.

This is good to hear.   Was the flavor of the finished beer
distinctively 'popcorn!' or was it just - different?
Do you recall the amounts you used?  A pound of popped corn
occupies 3 gallons, apparently;  I was considering buying a
2-pound sack from a theater-concession supplier, grinding
it, and then doing a separate cereal mash with some six-row.
Producing this volume with a consumer-grade hot-air popper
seems like a chore, but obviously would be much more
economical.

>Just don't pop in oil.

Still I wonder if the mash wouldn't filter out, and the boil
emulsify, most of the fat.  And what got through to the
fermenter could conceivably be mistaken for olive oil and
eaten (sorry.)

gds, stencil



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Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 18:51:12 -0500
From: "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen at mts.net>
Subject: RE: beer and calories

> 
> Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:40:31 -0400
> From: bill keiser <bk2 at sharpstick.org>
> Subject: beer and calories
> 
>  In the interest of not developing (or reversing) a beer gut, 
> I am looking for information on the specs on beers. And some 
> recipes or means of modifying existing ones that are not as 
> fattening, but still palatable.

Hi Bill,

I would just like to cast my vote here for leaving the recipes alone and
taking up serious exercise as a means to counter these calories. A few years
ago, my weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels were all in the yellow
zone, and I'm certain heading for the red. I decided, enough is enough, and
made a commitment to exercise regularly. I now run the equivalent of a
marathon each week, and all of those factors have normalized. Best part is,
I can eat and drink to my hearts content, and I'm certainly not shy about
including lots of carbs and fats in my diet. Those are staples I couldn't
live without. OK, I could exist, but not live. Now, how much exercise you
need will depend on how much it takes to make your heart content, so to
speak, and of course, your genetics. Still, I never think "dieting" in
whatever form is the way to go in the long run, because I don't think most
people will find denial of things they really enjoy sustainable. Work your
butt off. Literally. By whatever means of exercise you can find enjoyable,
or at least, tolerable. All it takes is a commitment of a few hours a week. 

Cheers
Brian



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Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 22:37:49 -0400
From: Alexandre Enkerli <enkerli at gmail.com>
Subject: Yeast Patents

Mike Sharp posts an edifying summary on yeast patents. Shows how naive I was.

Interesting passage in the document Mike posted:
"compositions or compounds isolated from nature are also patentable.
For example, Louis Pasteur received a U.S. patent 141,072 in 1873
claiming "yeast, free from organic germs of disease."

The strange thing is, I don't seem to be alone in being surprised that
yeast should be patentable. Sounds like there hasn't been a
generalized discussion of these issues, maybe because patents tend to
belong to spheres of specialization.

An advantage of the patent system, is that they expire after a
relatively short amount of time (in the USPTO case, 20 years if filed
since 1995). Let's hope lobby groups like WIPO won't Bono Act them to
the equivalent of a perpetual patent.

Ale-X in Laval
ARC [888km, 62.5]
http://blog.informalethnographer.com/


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