Beer Recipe Interface for Adaptive Brewing Parameter Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated and semi-automated beer brewing systems lack the ability to dynamically adjust brewing processes to achieve precise sensory characteristics of beer, often resulting in deviations from intended taste profiles due to variations in ingredient quality and equipment performance.
Innovation Solution
A user interface and software system that allows users to create and modify beer recipes by adjusting parameters such as mouthfeel, bitterness, flavor, and aroma, using a performance model to calculate changes to mashing and boiling schedules, and automatically adjust brewing steps based on real-time measurements to achieve desired taste characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automated brewing systems use fixed recipe programs, then brewing process automation is achieved, but the ability to adjust sensory characteristics dynamically is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts brewing parameters (temperature, time, ingredient amounts) based on real-time sensor measurements and user-defined sensory targets. The recipe program transitions from static to adaptive, allowing the brewing process to self-adjust during execution to achieve desired sensory characteristics despite variations in ingredients or equipment performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where sensor measurements of brewing parameters (temperature, flow rate, ingredient properties) are continuously monitored and fed back to the controller. This feedback enables real-time calculations and adjustments to the brewing process, allowing the system to compensate for deviations and maintain target sensory characteristics.
2Device complexity
If brewing parameters are kept simple and fixed, then system complexity is reduced, but manufacturing precision of sensory characteristics deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes performance models that calculate optimal brewing parameters (temperature profiles, timing, ingredient quantities) based on user-defined sensory targets. These parameter changes are dynamically determined through software algorithms that consider the specific characteristics of the ingredients and equipment, enabling precise control over sensory outcomes without requiring complex hardware modifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical adjustment mechanisms with software-based control and calculation systems. The performance model and controller use computational algorithms to determine and adjust brewing parameters, substituting physical complexity with intelligent software processing that can precisely manage multiple variables simultaneously.
3Manufacturing precision
If real-time measurements and adjustments are implemented, then sensory characteristic precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-adjustment by automatically monitoring brewing parameters through sensors and modifying the process based on real-time data and performance model calculations. The brewing system serves itself by detecting deviations and implementing corrective actions without requiring constant manual intervention, thereby achieving precision while managing complexity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The performance model acts as an intermediary between sensor measurements and brewing process adjustments. It receives raw measurement data, processes it through calculations based on stored performance metrics and heuristics, and generates appropriate adjustment commands. This intermediary layer simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing the complex decision-making logic in a software module rather than distributing it across multiple hardware components.
Data Source
AI summary
A user interface for a beer recipe creator may have a series of icons that may represent ingredients. A user may drag and drop or otherwise add the icons to containers on a display screen to add or remove ingredients to the recipe. With each added or removed ingredient, a set of descriptors may be updated. The descriptors may include numerical values of beer parameters as well as textual descriptions and visual descriptions. The system may allow a user to start with a desired beer style, and the parameters may show variances from the selected style. The system may generate an ingredients list, as well as a brewing recipe that may be transferred to a controller for a beer making machine. The system may adjust certain parameters that are controllable by the beer making machine to make flavor and other adjustments selected by a user.