Patent Application
20190106661
The present invention concerns a method for dispensing a beverage starting from one or more single-serve containers containing a beverage concentrate in an amount sufficient for dispensing a single consumption volume.
When dispensing beer with an appliance starting from in-situ mixing of a beer concentrate and alcohol to be mixed with a diluent such as water, time to cool and mix the different ingredients for obtaining a sensory desired beer is a key parameter for the consumer.
WO2015155237 discloses a single-serve dual pod system with a first pod compartment comprising a concentrated beer granulate and a second pod compartment comprising concentrated ethanol.
WO 2014159458 discloses a disposable beverage pod operable to be used with an apparatus for making a single serving flavoured beverage is provided. The disposable beverage pod is a container comprising a first compartment operable to contain an alcohol-free beverage concentrate in dry or semi-dry form and a second compartment operable to contain ethanol in liquid form. Preferably, the first compartment and the second compartment are attached, but operable to maintain the alcohol-free beverage concentrate separately from the alcohol concentrate prior to use.
While the above prior art documents claim allowing reconstituting a beer by mixing the content of the pods with water and subsequent carbonation, the mixing and cooling of the beverage to an acceptable temperature is either inconveniently long or requires a large amount of energy, leading to complex devices which are noisy, use significant amounts of energy and require a lot of maintenance.
It is therefore clear that there remains a market need for a method of reconstituting a malt based beverage immediately before or at dispensing allowing efficient mixing and cooling of the beverage, easy handling, minimal equipment maintenance and consumer acceptable functionality in terms of noise levels and time for reconstitution and dispensing whilst guaranteeing optimal sensory quality of the beverage.
The present invention concerns a single-serve container comprising a malt based beverage concentrate or fermented beverage concentrate, characterized in that said concentrate is in a liquid state, has a dynamic viscosity of maximally 40.103 mPa·s; a real extract density of at least 2.6° P; and an alcohol content of at least 1 vol %.
The present invention also concerns a kit of parts comprising:
The present invention further concerns a method for obtaining a beverage from a single-serve container, said method comprising the steps of:
The present invention also concerns a method for obtaining a beverage from a kit in parts, comprising the steps of:
The prepared beverage preferably concerns a beer-like or cider-like beverage.
As used herein, the term “concentrate” is given the definition of Oxford dictionary: “A substance made by removing or reducing the diluting agent; a concentrated form of something” (cf. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/concentrate). In line with this, the term “beer or cider concentrate” or, alternatively “(concentrated) beer or cider base” or “beer or cider syrup”, is meant to relate to beer or cider, respectively which had the majority of its solvent component—i.e. water—removed, while retaining most of the dissolved components conferring such features as taste, smell, colour, mouthfeel etc.
A malt based beverage is defined as a beverage prepared with a barley malt or wheat malt, whether or not fermented. Examples of malt based beverages are, amongst others, beers such as lagers, stouts, ales and flavoured malt beverages such as eg. lime-a-rita.
A fermented beverage is defined as a beverage that during production was subjected to a microbiological fermentation step and includes, wine, cider and beer.
As used herein, the term “beer” is to be construed according to a rather broad definition: “the drink obtained by fermenting from a wort, prepared with starchy or sugary raw materials, including hop powder or hop extracts and drinkable water. Aside from barley malt and wheat malt, only the following may be considered for brewing, mixed with e.g. wheat malt, starchy or sugary raw materials in which the total quantity may not exceed 80%, preferably 40% of the total weight of the starchy or sugary raw materials:
(a) maize, rice, sugar, wheat, barley and the various forms of them.
(b) saccharose, converted sugar, dextrose and glucose syrup”.
Although according to certain national legislations, not all fermented malt-based beverages can be called beer, in the context of the present invention, the term “beer” and “fermented malt based beverage” are used herein as synonyms and can be interchanged. It follows, that as used herein the terms “reconstituted beer” and “reconstituted fermented malt based beverage” are to be understood as beverages composition-wise substantially identical to beer but obtained by addition of the solvent, i.e. water or carbonated water, to a previously prepared beer concentrate.
The amount of components dissolved in malt based beverages can also be expressed as so called specific gravity (relative density) or apparent specific gravity. The first one is measured as density (weight per unit volume) of beverage divided by the density of water used as a reference substance, whereas the second one as the weight of a volume of beverage to the weight of an equal volume of water. For example, a specific gravity of 1.050 (“50 points”) indicates that the substance is 5% heavier than an equal volume of water. The densities of water, and consequently also beer, vary with temperature; therefore for both specific gravity and apparent specific gravity the measurement of the sample and the reference value is done under the same specified temperature and pressure conditions. Pressure is nearly always 1 atm equal to 101.325 kPa, while temperatures may differ depending on the choice of further systems for approximating beer density. Examples of such systems are two empirical scales, Plato and the Brix scale, that are commonly used in brewing and wine industries, respectively. Both scales represent the strength of the solution as percentage of sugar by mass; one degree Plato (abbreviated ° P) or one degree Brix (symbol ° Bx) is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of water. There is a difference between these units mainly due to both scales being developed for solutions of sucrose at different temperatures, but it is so insignificant that they may be used virtually interchangeably. For example, beer measured at 12° Plato at 15.5° C. has the same density as a water-sucrose solution containing 12% sucrose by mass at 15.5° C., which is approximately equal to 12° Brix, being the same density as a water-sucrose solution containing 12% sucrose by mass at 20° C. The Plato and Brix scales have an advantage over specific gravity in that they expresses the density measurement in terms of the amount of fermentable materials, which is particularly useful at early stages of brewing. As, of course, both beer and wort are composed of more solids than just sucrose, it is not exact. The relationship between degrees Plato and specific gravity is not linear, but a good approximation is that 1° P equals 4 “brewer's points” (4×0.001); thus 12° Plato corresponds to specific gravity of 1.048 [1+(12×4×0.001)].
For sake of the present invention, a single-serve container is defined as a container comprising at least one ingredient in a predetermined amount such as to allow obtaining a single portion of a beverage when added to or diluted in a liquid stream such as water, whereby a single portion corresponds to a volume ranging between 20 cl and 50 cl, eg. 20 cl, 25 cl, 30 cl, 33 cl, 35 cl or 50 cl. The term “single-serve container” is synonym to and can be interchanged with “single-serve pod”, “unit dose pod”, “single-serve capsule” or “unit dose capsule”.
Viscosity is defined as the dynamic viscosity measured at 20° C. and is expressed in mPa·s.
According to the present invention, the single-serve container comprises a malt based beverage concentrate or fermented beverage concentrate in a liquid state, having a viscosity of maximally 40.103 mPa·s, preferably maximally 1000 mPa·s; a real extract density of at least 2.6° P, preferably at least 6° P, most preferably at least 8° P and most preferably at least 12° P or even at least 20° P; and an alcohol content of at least 1 vol %.
The single-serve container is preferably manufactured in a material having good O2 barrier properties and is preferably non-transparent to light and in particular UV light. An example of such a material is aluminium. Once filled, the single-serve container is properly sealed to protect the concentrate content during transport and to limit O2 ingress into the container or contamination of the concentrate and preferably also preventing the concentrate from light struck.
According to a another embodiment of the present invention and as illustrated in
According to the present invention, the first single-serve container (1) comprises a malt based beverage concentrate (8) in a liquid state, having a viscosity of maximally 40.103 mPa·s, preferably maximally 1000 mPa·s; a real extract density of at least 2.6° P, preferably at least 6° P, most preferably at least 8° P and most preferably at least 12° P; and an alcohol content of at least 1 vol %, preferably between 1 and 30 vol %, more preferably between 1 and 25 vol %, most preferably between 1 and 20 vol %.
The second single-serve container (2) contains an alcohol solution with an alcohol concentration of at least 75 vol %, preferably at least 80 vol %, more preferably at least 85 vol % and most preferably at least 90 vol %.
The first and second single-serve containers can either be two separate containers; can be construed as a single container with two compartments or chambers sealed from one another; or as two individual containers attached to one another.
Again, the single-serve containers are preferably manufactured in a material having good O2 barrier properties and is preferably non-transparent to light and in particular UV light. An example of such a material is aluminium. Once filled, the single-serve container is properly sealed to protect the concentrate content during transport and to limit O2 ingress into the container or contamination of the concentrate and preferably also preventing the concentrate from light struck.
Both the single-serve container of
The concentrate contained in the single-serve container of
As illustrated in
In general, beer (100) subjected to nanofiltration (A) is preferably clear beer that was treated using any regular beer clarification technique to remove yeast and most of the other particles above 0.2 μm in diameter. Such techniques are standard and well known in the art of beer preparation. For example, they include centrifugation, filtration through e.g. kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) optionally preceded by centrifugation, or other types of standard microfiltration techniques.
As can be appreciated the above method of preparing the beverage concentrate for the single-serve container of the invention is particularly advantageous for obtaining low-volume high-density beer or cider concentrates. The degree of concentration of the final product largely depends on the degree of concentration of the retentate obtained via nanofiltration in step a). Therefore, the above method wherein the retentate not only comprises majority of beer (or cider) flavour components but also can potentially be characterised by a high concentration factor of 4, 5, 10, 15, or even 20 or higher.
A used herein the term “concentration factor” shall be understood as the ratio of the beer or cider volume subjected to nanofiltration or reverse osmosis in step a) to the volume of the obtained retentate at the end of the nanofiltration or reverse osmosis in step a), i.e. the ratio of the feed volume to the volume of the retentate obtained in the step a) of the method of the present invention. In an particularly preferred embodiment, a method in accordance with the previous embodiments is provided, wherein the retentate obtained in step a) is characterised by concentration factor of 4 or higher, 5 or higher, preferably 10 or higher, more preferably 15 or higher, most preferably 20 or higher. A relationship between the concentration factor within the above-defined meaning, and the concentration of unfilterable compounds possible to be obtained in the retentate from step a) naturally depends on the type of beer or cider initially subjected to nanofiltration or reverse osmosis, which is shown and can be appreciated from in the graph presented in
Concentration factors of 10 and above can advantageously, in terms of speed and performance, be obtained by, as used herein, a high-pressure nanofiltration, i.e. nanofiltration conducted under a pressure of minimum 18 bar. Thus, in preferred embodiments of the invention, a method is provided wherein the nanofiltration in step a) is a high-pressure nanofiltration, defined as nanofiltration conducted under a pressure in the range of about 18-41 bar, preferably in the range of about 20-35 bar, most preferably about 30 bar.
In case of cross-flow filtration we can always achieve the concentration one pass. But to make the operation more economical multi stages operation is done.
It has been observed that such high concentration potential can particularly be achieved using polymeric spiral membranes in range of 150-200 Daltons or similar. Examples of such membranes include thin film composite ATF (alternating tangential filtration, Refine Technology) membranes such as the ones currently available from DOW and Parker domnick hunter.
After the nanofiltration step, the highly concentrated retentate is collected and packed into the single-serve container.
Optionally, additional ingredients can be added to the concentrate such as alcohol—to attain an alcohol content of between 1 vol % and 30 vol % in the single-serve container—; flavour compounds; volatile scents; carbon dioxide and/or nitrogen, preferably in a gaseous state and preferably at a saturation concentration at a temperature of 25° C. and at an pressure of at least 2 bar (=1 bar overpressure).
Referring back to
As mentioned supra, beer (100) subjected to nanofiltration (A) is preferably clear beer that was treated using any regular beer clarification technique to remove yeast and most of the other particles above 0.2 μm in diameter. Such techniques are standard and well known in the art of beer preparation. For example, they include centrifugation, filtration through e.g. kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) optionally preceded by centrifugation, or other types of standard microfiltration techniques.
After the nanofiltration step, the highly concentrated retentate is collected and packed while the aqueous permeate is fed to the second concentration step b) in order to selectively retrieve ethanol and volatile flavour components, said step either comprising freeze concentration, reverse osmosis or fractionation, preferably comprising distillation, and/or combination thereof.
Distillation is a classic example of a fractionation technique known to be particularly suited for separating alcohol and volatile component from water. The term “distillation” as used herein refers to the separation of the liquid mixture into the components thereof by utilising the difference in relative volatility and/or boiling point among the components by inducing their successive evaporation and condensation in the process of heating and cooling. Examples of the distillation may include simple distillation, fractional distillation, multistage distillation, azeotropic distillation, and steam distillation. In a preferred embodiment, a method of the invention is provided wherein the concentration in step b) comprises aromatic distillation, said distillation defined as distillation configured to ensure high retrieval of aroma-producing compounds.
Distillation forms part of a larger group of separation processes based on phase transition, collectively termed as “fractionation”. Other examples of fractionation comprise column chromatography that is based on difference in affinity between stationary phase and the mobile phase, and fractional crystallization and fractional freezing both utilising the difference in crystallisation or melting points of different components of a mixture at a given temperature. In an advantageous arrangement of the present invention, method b) may comprise such fractionation, preferably distillation, arrangement, wherein different fractions are analysed for the presence of different components such as different volatile flavour component species and then selectively directed for pooling with the retentate from step a) or discarded, which would provide greater control over aroma profile of the final beer concentrate of the invention.
In an alternative concentration process, the step b) of the method of comprises reverse osmosis; and then further comprises at least one additional treatment of the fraction comprising ethanol, obtained following said reverse osmosis, said treatment comprising fractionation, preferably distillation, or reverse osmosis. In said embodiment the aqueous permeate being the fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components is first subjected to a step comprising reverse osmosis to obtain a fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components at a higher concentration than before the step comprising reverse osmosis and leftover fraction, after which said fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components is further subjected to at least one further concentration step comprising fractionation, preferably distillation, or reverse osmosis, to obtain a concentrated fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components and a leftover fraction.
In another alternative concentration process, a method is provided wherein the reverse osmosis is a high resolution reverse osmosis i.e. reverse osmosis conducted under operating pressure comprised within the range of 60-120 bar and at temperature of 0-12° C.
According to yet another alternative concentration process, a method is provided wherein freeze concentration is applied as further concentration step (B). Freeze concentration essentially concerns the removal of pure water in the form of ice crystals at sub zero temperatures. Freeze concentration has the advantage over eg. distillation that it does not remove ash or extract (ions, organic components, etc.) from the permeate obtained by nanofiltration in step (A), which is the case in distillation. For this reason it is believed that a beer or cider reconstituted by the addition of water after concentration by:
Because the present invention aims to provide highly concentrated beverage base in order to minimise costs of its transportation, it is desirable that the concentrated fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components from step b) is also maximally concentrated. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the concentrated fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components from step b) comprises between 75-99% ABV, preferably between 80-99% ABV, more preferably at least 85% ABV. As used herein the term “% ABV” or “percent alcohol by volume” refers to a worldwide standard measure of how much ethanol is contained in an alcoholic beverage, expressed as a percentage of total volume. In a possible embodiment in accordance with previous embodiments, a method is provided wherein concentration step b) is repeated until the concentrated fraction comprising alcohol and volatile flavour components comprises 75-99% ABV, preferably 80-99% ABV.
In a preferred embodiment of the concentration method, beer subjected to the concentration method is beer of gravity higher than 11° P, preferably is high gravity beer defined as beer of original gravity of 14-25° P or even higher. Concentration of high gravity beer is preferred for being applied to the method of the present invention as such arrangement provides synergistic approach resulting in final concentrates characterized by very high concentration factors, not obtainable by any method so far known in the art. As it will, however, be immediately appreciated by any skilled person, any commercial grade beer can be subjected to the provided herein method to obtain a beer concentrate. In line with the above, in another preferred embodiment in accordance with the above embodiments, beer subjected to the method of the invention is any beer comprising alcohol concentration comprised between 2-16% ABV, preferably between 4-12% ABV, most preferably between 6-10% ABV.
For example, beer (100) of original gravity of 11° P (before fermentation), after fermentation can have alcohol concentration of about 5% ABV (RDF 82%) and extract density equal to 2° P of non-fermented sugars and other compounds. During nanofiltration (B) according to the method of the invention, for example 100 hL of such beer will be separated in 2 flows:
In the above example, the concentration factor (calculated by dividing the flow of retentate (2) by the flow of the beer or cider (1) fed into the nanofiltration system) of the final retentate (2) is about 20, which appears impressive as compared to concentration factors achieved by currently known methods. Defining the extent to which an alcoholic beverage was concentrated, however, by simply using concentration factors is can be confusing and is insufficient as the concentration factors depend on the initial concentration of the liquid fed to a membrane-based concentrating system. For example, very diluted liquids can be concentrated several to many folds more than their denser (more concentrated) counterparts, as they contain more water and thus can be volumetrically reduced to greater extent by removing this water through a filtration membrane. A much more exact way of defining the concentration extent in such case is by measuring or estimating the amount of unfilterable components of a liquid subjected to filtration that remained in the retentate after the membrane-based concentration process. For better understanding,
In preferred embodiments of the invention, the higher range of concentrations of the unfilterable components (30% and above) as exemplified above and in
As mentioned above, in particularly preferred embodiments the first step nanofiltration (A) employs high pressure nanofiltration, i.e. nanofiltration operating under inlet pressure of 18 bar and above, typically comprised between from 20 to 30 bar. Such nanofiltration can be performed at ambient temperature (20° C.) or below, possibly bat 10° C. or lower.
Following the nanofiltration step (A), the obtained permeate is subjected to the second concentration step (B), for example, via fractional distillation on a fractionating column. Such arrangement is advantageous as different flavour component fractions can be selectively collected or discarded from the column, which allows greater control over the preferred flavour/aroma profile of the final beer concentrate of the invention. Typically, distillation will be configured to provide a highly concentrated fraction comprising alcohol and aromas (400), i.e. a fraction comprising between 75-98% ABV, which will be packed in the second single-serve container. Following present example, for ease of calculations it can be assumed that distillation process provided alcohol solution of e.g. 95% ABV in a volume of 5 hL.
The overall beer concentrates prepared by this concentration process (fractions 200 and 400 together) (can achieve final concentration of unfilterable compounds (following addition of the concentrated ethanol fraction (4) to the nanofiltration retentate (2)) equal to or higher than 8%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, even up to 30% (w/w), which is equivalent to the final concentration factor (calculated as a ratio of starting volume of beer (1) to the volume of the final concentrate (6)) ranging from 4 to 6 or even 6.5.
Optionally, additional ingredients can be added to the second single-serve container such as alcohol to attain an alcohol content of 75 vol % or more; or volatile flavour components; or gaseous carbon dioxide or nitrogen.
At introduction in the appliance the single-serve container is opened, either manually by a consumer or automatically within the appliance (eg by piercing at closing a door of the appliance). Once properly introduced in the appliance, the content of the single-serve container is preferably emptied into a mixing chamber, where the concentrate is diluted to a desired level with water, with beer, with an alcoholic solution or another diluent of choice, to obtain a single portion volume of beverage. The mixture can optionally be cooled and/or carbonated before dispensing. In case of diluting the concentrate with an alcoholic (ethanol) solution, it is preferred that the ethanol content is 30 vol % or less, more preferably 25 vol % or less, most preferably 20 vol % or less, allowing fast mixing of the concentrate in the alcohol solution without macromolecules precipitating in the mixture. As such mixing energy can be kept to a minimum and heating of the mixture due to mixing is limited or avoided.
The single-serve container of
The method for obtaining a beverage from a kit in parts, comprising the steps of:
The mixture can optionally be cooled and/or carbonated before dispensing. By first diluting the content of the second single-serve container to obtain an intermediate mixture having an alcohol content of 30 vol % or less, preferably 25 vol % or less, more preferably 20 vol % or less, the content of the first single-serve container can be mixed swiftly with the alcohol of the second single-serve container, without macromolecules precipitating in the mixture. As such mixing energy can be kept to a minimum and heating of the mixture due to mixing is limited or avoided.
According to a preferred embodiment, the first and second single-serve containers comprise an amount preferably gaseous carbon dioxide and/or nitrogen, such that for carbonation of the reconstituted beverage no or only a limited amount of external pressurized gas needs to be provided. Referring to
For example, the ethanol of the second single-serve container contains:
The water of the first single-serve container contains:
Finally, the final gas content in the target beverage can be tuned with an external source of pressurized gas (9). This of course requires the use of an additional consumable, which is detrimental to the comfort of use of a dispensing apparatus, but since the source of pressurized gas is merely used for fine tuning the final content of gas in the target beverage, the gas consumption is very limited and one charge can last a long time.
The liquid diluent (3) generally comprises water, and can be pure water only. By pure water, it is meant water containing minerals rendering it drinkable. In particular, the liquid diluent can be still water, as illustrated in
Alternatively, the liquid diluent (10) can be a base liquid, for example having a neutral flavour profile which, when mixed with different types of concentrated beverages of the first single-serve container and with the ethanol of the second single-serve container yields a large variety of target beverages. Such embodiment is illustrated in
The concentrated beverage extracts contained in the first single-serve container preferably comprise various amounts of ethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate, ethyl butyrate, and ethyl hetanoate. These are the major flavouring compounds of beer, which concentration profile gives each beer its own characteristic flavour profile. As explained above, it is preferred that the concentrated beverage extracts be produced by removing a fraction of the water and most (or all) of the ethanol of a conventionally brewed beer. Alternatively, or concomitantly, it can be produced or completed by addition of flavouring compounds.
As illustrated in
Alternatively, as illustrated in
As its name indicates, a dose unit corresponds to one serving of beverage. Depending on the country and type of beverage, one serving can be a glass (10) of capacity generally comprised between 20 and 50 cm3 (1 cm3=0.1 cl). It follows that for a target beverage having an ethanol content of 5 vol. %, the second single-serve container (2) must therefore have a capacity of 10 cm3 for a 200 cm3 target beverage, of 17 cm3 for a 330 cm3 target beverage, and 25 cm3 for a target beverage of 500 cm3 (0.5 l). Similarly, a 500 cm3 target beverage having a 9 vol. % ethanol content requires a first single-serve container of 45 cm3 capacity. The larger the second single-serve container, the larger the amount of CO2 or N2 which can be stored, and the larger the alcohol content of the target beverage.
The volume of the first single-serve container (1) may vary more than the one of the second single-serve container, depending on the amount of water still present in the first single-serve container. For a first chamber containing not more than 5 vol. % water, the capacity of the first single-serve container can be comprised between 10 and 50 cm3. For a first chamber comprising between 20 and 40 vol. % water, the capacity of the first single-serve container can be of the order of 50 to 150 cm3.
As illustrated in
A first single-serve container and a second single-serve container as discussed supra are loaded in a respective housing, such that the liquid diluent (3) flowing from the upstream end (5u) to the downstream end (5d) of the dispensing tubing system must flow through the interior of both first and second single-serve containers (1, 2).
The dispensing apparatus can comprise two different housings (12) fluidly connected to one another for receiving the first and second single-serve containers separately. Alternatively, as shown in
For hygienic reasons and ease of use, a unit dose as illustrated in
Downstream of the first and second single-serve containers, the dispensing tubing system may comprise a mixing chamber for mixing the liquid diluent with the concentrated beverage extracts, ethanol, and gas. The mixing chamber can comprise moving element to dynamically mix the components or, alternatively, it may be a static mixer or simply a sharp curving portion in the downstream end of the dispensing tubing system. If a mixing chamber is used, care must be taken to select a mixing mechanism which does not generate excessive amounts of foam due to the presence of gaseous CO2 and/or N2. Yet in case of high carbonation levels (with either or both of CO2 and N2) in the single-serve containers, expansion of the gas in the mixing chamber will generate cooling.
The present invention also concerns a method for producing a fermented target beverage in situ and dispensing said fermented target beverage. An example of the method is illustrated in
Using the apparatus of the present invention according to the foregoing method and using the unit doses discussed supra, allows the in situ preparation of a large variety of fermented beverages, in amounts corresponding to one glass of beverage, of capacity comprised between 200 and 500 cm3 (=20-50 cl). The thus prepared fermented target beverage may comprise between 4 and 9 vol. % ethanol, and between 1 and 6 g/l of CO2 and/or N2 typical ratio CO2/N2 is about 3), by simply loading a unit dose into the dispensing apparatus and flowing the liquid diluent through the unit dose. In a most preferred embodiment, the liquid diluent is still water, and no additional source of pressurized gas is required. The latter is made possible by taking advantage of the substantially higher solubility of gases such as CO2 or N2 in ethanol compared to water, or to a 4 to 9 vol. % ethanol solution in water (cf.
Alternatively, the liquid diluent is not still water only, but a base beverage contained in a vessel (cf.
The first single-serve container preferably contains about 40-60 ml of concentrate for dispensing a single serve portion of 350 ml, whereas the second single-serve container preferably comprises between 5 and 55 ml of concentrated ethanol (75 vol % ethanol or higher). As, preferably the appliance allows dispensing a beverage portion at a temperature of 7° C. or lower and preferably even 3° C. or lower (typically for lagers), without precooling the single-serve container and by pre-cooling the diluent to 0° C. or just slightly lower (depending on the alcohol content), limiting the energy needed for mixing both fluid streams is key. Additionally, minimizing the energy needed for mixing both fluid streams, allows for designing a mixing chamber without moving parts such as an impeller and hence designing an appliance that is easy in use and maintenance and yet performs according to a high standard of short time for reconstitution and dispensing whilst guaranteeing optimal sensory quality of the beverage.
According to a preferred embodiment as shown in
In the device one or more single-serve containers can be loaded comprising identification means 14 such as for example a bar-code scanner or RFID scanner that allows identifying content related identity tags on the pods or capsules such as a bar code or RFID tag 15.
In this case the pressure regulator control unit also comprises a memory comprising a set of pre-loaded dispensing pressure level sequences for setting and varying the pressure in the liquid line during a dispensing cycle, whereby the microprocessor selects a sequence based on input received from the pod or capsule identification means and controls the pressure regulator accordingly.
In order to allow a good control it is further preferred that the control unit comprises a flow meter allowing determining the volume of liquid flowing through the liquid line as an input to the microprocessor.
The source of pressurized gas can either be a metal high pressure cartridge comprising liquid food grade CO2, N2 readily available on the market or can be a plastic cartridge comprising food grade CO2, N2 at lower pressures of between 4 and 2 bar.
The above described device allows dispensing a beverage whereby the pressure in the liquid line changes from a first pressure level higher than ambient pressure to a second pressure level higher than the ambient level by said pressure controller during mixing and dispensing of the beverage.
As such it for example possible to load the device with a pod or capsule containing a concentrated beer and coupling the device with a source of carbonated water.
The device identifies the pod and thereby the content thereof and a pre-set pressure sequence for dispensing beer is loaded from the memory.
Upon dispensing, the pressure regulator will be controlled to set the pressure in the liquid line at a pressure corresponding to the gas pressure desired in the beer upon dispensing (eg. 2 to 2.2 bar). This pressure is maintained substantially constant during the dispensing of approximately 90% of the volume of the beer to be dispensed. Subsequently the pressure regulator is actuated to increase pressure to a level of eg. 2.4 bar in the liquid line, to promote foaming of the beer at dispensing and as such obtain a foam collar on the dispensed beer. This pressure in the liquid line is maintained substantially constant until all liquid for the beer is dispensed.
After the required volume of liquid is dispensed, the pressure regulator can be actuated to further increase the pressure to a level of eg. 3 bar to clean the liquid line and blow out any remaining liquid rests, thereby preventing liquid remaining in the liquid line which would increase the chance of the formation of a biofilm in the liquid line.
Alternatively, the identification means can be used to detect the content of the single-serve containers, such as the alcohol content of the second single-serve container, allowing the appliance to select the amount of water needed to dilute the alcohol content of the second single-serve container to a level of 30 vol % or lower before adding the content of the first single-serve container thereto.
Referring to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16163059.5 | Mar 2016 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2017/057519 | 3/30/2017 | WO | 00 |
