Foods and beverages: apparatus – Beverage – Post-primary-alcoholic fermentation operations
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-04
2002-12-10
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Beverage
Post-primary-alcoholic fermentation operations
C099S277000, C426S011000, C426S008000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06490965
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to airlocks, specifically to an airlock assembly that provides a means to electronically detect air as it escapes from the airlock.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
These days, homebrewing has become a popular hobby. Many people produce fermented beverages, primarily beer and wine, in their own home. To produce a fermented beverage, yeast is added to a liquid containing sugar, the liquid being crushed grapes in the case of wine, or mashed barley in the case of beer. The yeast cells employ complicated metabolic reactions to produce, among other things, alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is important that no wild yeast or bacteria contaminate the fermenting beverage - producing undesirable flavors. To accomplish this, homebrewing requires a fermentation vessel that is fitted with an airlock The air lock allows fermentation gasses to escape the vessel, but does not allow surrounding air into the vessel. An economic fermentation vessel is typically fashioned by using a food grade plastic bucket, a tight fitting lid, and a two piece airlock
FIG. 1
shows a typical prior art airlock commonly used in homebrewing. Gasses produced by fermentation enter the airlock through intake tube
12
, which extends into the fermentation vessel
14
through a hole in stopper
16
. Stopper
16
forms an airtight seal with fermentation vessel
14
. Therefore, fermentation gasses can only escape through intake manifold
22
, which is formed by intake tube
12
. The airlock also consists of a reservoir
21
for holding a fluid such as water, and an airlock partition
18
. Airlock partition
18
is in the shape of a cup and covers the portion of the intake tube that is inside the reservoir
21
. The interior of the fermentation vessel is isolated from the ambient air by filling the reservoir with a fluid such that the initial fluid level is between the opening of the airlock partition
18
and the top of the intake tube
12
. As the fermentation process causes the pressure within the intake manifold
22
to increase, the airlock partition
18
rises above the top of the intake manifold
12
and the fluid level inside the airlock partition
18
lowers. When a sufficient pressure inside the intake manifold
22
is reached, fermentation gasses escape from under airlock partition
18
. This causes airlock partition
18
to fall back toward intake tube
12
, producing a “bloop” sound The fermentation gasses escape the airlock through airlock lid holes
26
or through the seal between airlock lid
24
and the reservoir container
28
. Various types of similar airlocks can be found in prior art. One example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,524, issued to C Reitz et al on Sep. 14, 1999.
While these devices are suited for their intended usage, none of them provide a means to produce an electrical signal when fermentation gasses escape from the airlock.
SUMMARY
In order to track fermentation progress, homebrewers observe the air escaping form the airlock Since it is impractical to watch the air lock for the entire fermentation cycle, a device that can monitor the escaping air from the airlock and produce an electrical signal that can be recorded on a device, such as a personal computer, is desirable. This invention is an airlock that produces an electrical signal each time air escapes from the airlock.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an airlock that generates electrical signals that indicate gasses have flowed from the intake manifold to the ambient atmosphere. It is another object of this invention to monitor said electrical signals, and produce a second electrical signal that distinctly indicates the event of gas escaping from said airlock
A third object of this invention to detect gasses escaping from the airlock using an induction coil that has a non-critical tolerance.
In order to attain above objects, the present invention comprises an airlock with a partition which rises as gas collects in the intake manifold, a solenoid type induction coil wound around a non-conductive hollow tube, a ferrite core disposed inside said induction coil such that movement of the core causes a change in the inductance of the coil, a connecting rod which attaches said core to said airlock partition, an oscillator circuit that produces a square wave output and uses said inductive coil is used as an inductive element, a processor which counts the number of rising or falling edges of said square wave for a period of time, stores a history of such counts, and determines if air has escaped from said airlock by performing statistic analysis on said stored counts.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4627280 (1986-12-01), Hayashi et al.
patent: 4842869 (1989-06-01), Forino
patent: 5950524 (1999-09-01), Reitz et al.
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