Patent Application
20150052790
The present disclosure relates generally to beer fonts, growlers, and wine bottle corks, as they are used to identify and organize liquids in private or commercial settings.
In recent years, drinking establishments have found commercial success by offering ever larger selections of draft beers. To assist bartenders in sales efforts, beer makers and distributors sell elaborate identifying fonts, or handles, that mount on beer taps, often displaying a trademark logo on a faceplate mounted vertically on the fount, oriented toward would-be customers.
A ‘font’ is a handle that the serving bartender pulls forward to release beer into a glass. These vendor-provided fonts have gotten larger over time, as the beer distributors seek to receive more attention from restaurant clients. The most garish fonts can be more than a foot tall from the tap.
The industry's current practices requires a bartender to change out fonts by unscrewing them from a screw stud extending from a beer tap. Rotating and removing the font by unscrewing it from the screw stud on the tap can take more time than a busy bartender has to spare.
Bartenders also tend to have several different bottles of wine open at any given time, typically house wines or featured wines sold by the glass. Similarly, bartenders often keep beer growlers available when they don't have beer on tap. Both open wine bottles and beer growlers are kept in one location at the bar; a bartender must pick up each bottle in order to read the bottle label and identify the liquid to be served.
The restaurant and bar industry needs a system to quickly change beer tap fonts and quickly identify and organize opened wine bottles during restaurant operations.
The present disclosure provides an easily changed beer font and wine cork system that comprises easily changed standardized faceplates useful for quick identification.
Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
For a better understanding of the disclosure, and to show by way of example how the same may be carried into effect, reference is now made to the detailed description along with the accompanying figures in which corresponding numerals in the different figures refer to corresponding parts and in which the drawings show several embodiments:
DRAWING LEGEND: The following legend is useful for examination of the drawings:
11—Tap-Mounted Interchangeable Faceplate Assembly
13—Tap Stud
15—Male Mounting Threads
16—Female Mounting Threads
17—Font Body
19—Font-Body Faceplate Female Slide
21—Faceplate-Mounted Male Slide
23—Faceplate
25—Faceplate Magnet
27—Font Body Magnet
31—Cork-Mounted Interchangeable Faceplate Assembly
53—Stud-Equipped Cork
While the making and using of various embodiments of the present disclosure is given while considering a particular embodiment, it should be appreciated that the present disclosure provides an inventive concept that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The disclosure is primarily described and illustrated in conjunction with one embodiment of the presently-described systems and methods. The specific embodiments discussed herein are, however, merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the disclosure and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.
The invention has two main embodiments, one for use on beer taps and similar beverage dispensers, and the second for use on beer growlers, wine bottles and other containers.
Though the drawings include only a single faceplate; the invention anticipates that a similarly sized faceplate will be designed for each beverage to be served, but shaped to reflect its trademarked appearance.
As seen in
The first embodiment, for use on beer taps, is a Tap-Mounted Interchangeable Faceplate Assembly 11, comprising a Font Body 17 that connects to the industry-standard Tap Stud 13 by Female Threads 16 in the bottom of the Font Body 17, and a Faceplate 23 that connects to the Font Body 17.
In this first embodiment, the Faceplate 23 attachment is by means of a Female Slide affixed to the Font Body 17 and a matching Male Slide 21 affixed to the back of the Faceplate 23.
As seen in
Though the embodiments shown in this application include a slide mechanism, this disclosure and the invention are not limited to the described top-entry slide. Many other ways of attaching the Faceplate 23 to the Font Body 17 are possible, including snaps, a velco strap circling the Font Body 17, or a slide from a side position, or even a circular locking mechanism in which the Faceplate 23 is pushed onto a set of circular grooves at a 90° to vertical and rotated to a vertical position. The slide mechanism as described is a parallel edges so the slide has a consistent width, but the attachment means could include a V-shaped slide as well. One in the art could use any number of ways to affix the Faceplate 23 to the Font Body 17.
Thus, the embodiments and examples set forth herein are presented to best explain the present disclosure and its practical application and to thereby enable those skilled in the art to make and utilize the disclosure. As previously explained, those skilled in the art will recognize that the foregoing description and examples have been presented for the purpose of illustration and example only. The description as set forth is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims.
