Combined Brewing System with Integrated Temperature Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Home and small-scale brewers face challenges with beer carbonation, temperature control, and contamination due to the need for multiple vessel transfers, which result in flat beer, oxygen uptake, and microbial contamination, leading to reduced quality and increased processing time.
Innovation Solution
A combined brewing system featuring a single pressurizable vessel with integrated temperature control, sediment removal, and pressure regulation, allowing for natural carbonation and maturation within the same vessel, minimizing contamination and oxygen exposure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple vessel transfers are used for fermentation, maturation, and carbonation, then each process can be performed separately, but the risk of oxygen uptake and microbial contamination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines fermentation, maturation, and carbonation processes into a single sealed vessel. The vessel includes a fermentation chamber with a removable lid, a maturation chamber, and a carbonation chamber, all integrated within one pressure-resistant container. This eliminates the need for transferring beer between multiple vessels, thereby reducing oxygen uptake and microbial contamination risks while maintaining process separation through internal partitions and sealed transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The single vessel serves multiple functions: it acts as a fermentation vessel, maturation tank, and carbonation container. The vessel can be sealed and pressurized to perform different stages of brewing within the same container, making one device perform the work of traditionally multiple separate vessels and equipment.
2Manufacturing precision
If natural carbonation is allowed to occur during fermentation, then carbonation levels may vary, but control over carbonation precision is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The vessel includes a pressure regulator and gauge that monitor internal pressure during carbonation. The pressure regulator automatically controls the release of CO2 to maintain desired pressure levels, providing feedback control for precise carbonation. This allows natural carbonation to occur while maintaining precise control over carbonation levels through pressure monitoring and automatic regulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system controls carbonation by changing pressure parameters. By sealing the vessel and applying controlled pressure during the carbonation stage, and then regulating pressure release, the system achieves precise carbonation control. The pressure-resistant vessel allows manipulation of pressure as a control parameter to achieve desired carbonation levels.
3Productivity
If the vessel is sealed and pressurized for carbonation, then carbonation efficiency improves, but the ability to remove sediment becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The vessel is segmented into distinct chambers: a fermentation chamber, maturation chamber, and carbonation chamber. The sediment collection chamber is positioned at the bottom of the fermentation chamber with a dump valve for easy sediment removal. This segmentation allows the vessel to be pressurized for carbonation in the upper chambers while sediment can be independently removed from the bottom chamber without depressurizing the entire vessel.
Solution Approach 2:
The dump valve mechanism allows sediment to be extracted and removed from the fermentation chamber while the vessel remains sealed and pressurized. The valve is positioned at the lowest point of the fermentation chamber, enabling selective removal of sediment without affecting the carbonation process in other chambers or requiring vessel opening.
4Reliability
If temperature control is added to the vessel, then fermentation quality improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The temperature control system uses an intermediary approach with a removable lid that can be sealed to the fermentation chamber. The lid creates a sealed environment that allows external temperature control devices (such as heating blankets or cooling jackets) to be applied to the vessel exterior. This intermediary sealed interface enables temperature control without adding complex internal heating or cooling systems to the vessel itself.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures improved beer quality by maintaining natural carbonation, reducing oxygen content, and streamlining the brewing process, enabling high-quality beer production with minimal handling and shorter processing times.
Implementation Method 1
a heating means, a refrigeration means
Implementation Method 2
a heating means, a refrigeration means
Implementation Method 3
means for regulating the pressure of the vessel to facilitate and control natural carbonation
Implementation Method 4
natural carbonation of the contents of the vessel resulting from fermentation
Implementation Method 5
a draft dispense mechanism for drawing off the contents of the vessel
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a combined brewing system for home or small scale brewing of fermented alcoholic beverages, particularly beer, and to a method of making fermented alcoholic beverages. The brewing system comprises a single pressurizable vessel having means for naturally carbonating the beer to the desired level during fermentation, for collecting and substantially separating any sediment from within the vessel and removing it from the vessel while the vessel is under pressure, means for receiving compressed gas for dispense purposes and for maintaining natural carbonation levels, and a draft dispense draw off mechanism for drawing off the contents of the vessel at a desired pressure. The vessel has or is adapted to be coupled with a temperature control system to selectively control the temperature of the contents of the vessel during all stages of processing. Accordingly the vessel or system is capable of accommodating at least the brewing steps of fermentation, natural carbonation, maturation, and draw off so that, in use, the processing is less time consuming and labour intensive compared to other small and large scale brewing processes and the risk of contamination of the contents of the vessel by air and/or undesirable micro-organisms during the brewing process is minimized thereby producing an improved quality beverage.