Refrigeration – Withdrawable liquid – e.g. – dispenser – With plural liquid outlets or sources – e.g. – distributing...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-11
2002-12-03
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Withdrawable liquid, e.g., dispenser
With plural liquid outlets or sources, e.g., distributing...
C062S396000, C165S168000, C164S098000, C164S112000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06487873
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved apparatus for dispensing cooled fluids, in particular beverages such as beer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In most commercial establishments where beer is served, the beer is supplied in barrels or kegs. Beer, as herein used, refers to anyone of those carbonated alcoholic malt beverages that are commonly called beer, ale and stout. The kegs of beer are stored and let to cool in refrigerated cold rooms that are provided in most commercial establishments to store foodstuffs and beverages for immediate access and use. For practical reasons, the temperature in cold rooms must be well above freezing (32° F.) and is typically sought to be maintained between 40° F. and 45° F. Accordingly, the beer, in kegs, stored in cold rooms is cooled to between 40° F. and 45° F. Under most favorable conditions, the beer is cooled to 40° F.
The beer that is chilled to 40° F. is dispensed from normally closed selectively operable beer-dispensing valves, or tap heads, that are located at serving stations that are remote from the cold rooms. The tap heads are normally carried at the upper ends of elongate vertically extending dispensing towers that are mounted atop and project upwardly from bar tops or counters so that the tap heads occur in spaced relationship above the counters and such that serving glasses and the like can be conveniently positioned on the counters, below the tap heads, to receive beer issuing from the tap heads.
The beer is delivered from the kegs to the tap heads through elongate beer delivery lines with upstream ends that are connected with taps that are engaged in the kegs. The beer lines extend from the kegs and from within the cold rooms and extend to the dispensing stations where their downstream ends are suitably connected with the tap heads.
The beer lines are most often established of ⅜″-ID plastic during that is especially formulated and approved for handling alcoholic beverages. The beer lines vary in length from about 15′ or 20′ to in excess of 100′. The downstream ends of the beer delivery lines connect with the upstream ends of equalizer or balance lines made of similar plastic tubing but which is smaller in inside diameter than the beer lines, For example, the balance lines are established of ¼″-ID tubing. The balance lines vary in length between 9′ and 15′. Typically, the downstream ends of the balance lines connect with the upstream ends of ¼″-ID stainless steel connector tubes that project from the lower ends of the towers and that extend up through the towers and connect with the tap heads via tap fittings affixed in the upper ends of the towers.
In practice, beer is driven and caused to move from the kegs through the beer lines and to the tap heads by gas pressure. To this end, suitable high-pressure motive gas supplies are provided to introduce gas under desired pressure, into the kegs. The motive gases most commonly used are air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and combinations of those gases. The gases are most commonly provided in compressed gas cylinders that are stored in the cold rooms and are conducted from the cylinders into the kegs, to the taps, through gas lines. Pressure regulators are provided in the gas lines to control the pressure of the gas in the kegs. Due to friction losses in the systems, the pressure at which the gases are introduced into the kegs is adjusted and set so that beer dispensed from the tap heads flows at a set desired rate. The usual rate at which beer is dispensed from the tap heads is between 1 and 2 ounces per second.
When the gas (CO
2
) that is entrained in beer is let to caused to separate from the beer, it creates foam composed of gas-filled bubbles of beer. When beer is dispensed into a serving glass, the foam generated by the escape of gas is seen to rise to the top of the beer. The foam is rather stable and is such that it breaks down at such a slow rate that it must often be directed to waste by letting it overflow and/or pouring it off from the glasses in which the beer is to be served. If beer is not properly handled, in excess of 50% of the beer can be lost to waste, in the form of foam.
The gas that is entrained in beer imparts into the beer that tongue- and palate-stimulating sensation that consumers of beer desire and that is sometime called its “life”. As gas escapes from beer and is carried away in the form of foam, the beer loses its “life” and becomes what is referred to as “flat” and unpalatable, at a rapid rate. Thus, beer in a glass containing a large volume of foam is likely to have lost so much gas that it is flat of inferior character, if not unmerchantable.
The gas in beer is quite unstable and is such that if let or caused to rapidly expand, as result of rapid thermal heating of the beer or as a result of a rapid reduction of pressure on the beer, it will immediately reach or attain a highly excited state in which adjacent expanding bubbles of beer displace the liquor of the beer and continue to establish ever-increasing larger bubbles of gas that cannot be contained by and that seek to escape or separate from the beer. Once the above gas—separating process starts and/or is put into motion, it does not stop immediately when the temperature and/or pressure on the beer becomes stabilized, but continues until the kinetic energy created by the process is spend and the beer returns to a suitable quiet state.
As the temperature of beer is lowered, the gas entrained therein contracts and becomes more stable and less likely to separate from the beer. Accordingly, it is desirable to chill beer to as low a temperature (above freezing) as possible when it is dispensed.
The above-noted gas-release process resulting from rapid rises in temperature and/or rapid drops in pressure will also occur at any temperature, though the severity of the process decreases as the temperature of the beer is decreased.
Furthermore, beer stored in kegs is maintained under pressure to maintain the gas compressed and entrained in the beer. When the pressure on the beer is suddenly released or reduced, as when the tap heads are opened, the gas entrained therein is let to expand and the above-noted gas-releasing process is set into motion. When the tap heads in beer-dispensing systems of the nature and character referred to above are opened, the pressure on the beer, immediately downstream from the tap heads, is released and the gas entrained in the beer commences to release. The foregoing results in the beer being driven or blasted through and out of the tap heads with and by the gas released immediately downstream thereof.
As a result of the foregoing, the prior art has resorted to the provision and use of the above-noted balance lines. The balance lines, which are smaller in inside diameter than the beer delivery lines, function to cause the drop in pressure that occurs when the tap heads are open to occur in the downstream end portions of the beer delivery lines. The balance lines are of sufficient length so that as the beer and free gas (that is released in the beer lines) enters the upstream ends thereof and continues to flow therethrough it becomes sufficiently quiet so that the freed gas is reabsorbed by the beer by the time the beer reaches and flows through and from the tap heads. While the noted balance lines are effective to eliminate or greatly reduce those adverse effects that result from a rapid release of pressure on beer, they have little or no effect in preventing the adverse effects that result from progressive warming of the beer and expansion of the gas contained therein.
As a result of the foregoing, while the provision and use of the above-noted balance lines attains beneficial end results, they are not wholly effective to prevent the escape of gas from beer flowing therethrough and the generating of excess foam that is discharged through and from the tap heads with the beer that is dispensed. Foam typically accounts for as much as 25% of the total volume of beer dispensed by means
Doerrler William C.
Manitowoc Foodservice Companies, Inc.
Shurtz Steven P.
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