Appeal No. 2002-0952
Application No. 08/929,108
The examiner relies on the following prior art reference as
evidence of unpatentability:
Daoud 4,844,932 Jul. 4, 1989
Claims 36 through 39, 41, 42, 44, and 45 on appeal stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Daoud.
(Examiner’s answer mailed May 18, 2001, paper 37, pages 3-7.)
We reverse this rejection.
Daoud describes a method for preparing wort from malted
grain comprising the steps of mashing the malted grain to
provide a spent grain/wort mash and separating the wort from the
spent grain. (Column 2, lines 64-68.) According to Daoud
(column 2, line 68 to column 3, line 7), the separation step
involves a barrier filtration method accomplished by flowing the
spent grain/wort mash across the surface of a wort-permeable
filter element having a pore diameter in a range of from 10.0 to
100.0 µm to permit wort (but not spent grain) to pass as
filtrate through the filter in a direction transverse to the
direction of the flow. Daoud further teaches (column 3, lines
8-13):
It will be usually necessary, from time to time,
to reverse the flow of filtrate through the filter to
flush from the surface of the filter element which is
in contact with the mash such particulate matter
within the mash as has become resident on said surface
or is clogging the pores of the filter.
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007