A common step in cooking, baking, and brewing involves heating water to a specified temperature then adding ingredients over a period of time, typically one to two hours. An operator manually controls the temperature then waits patiently for the right time to add the specified ingredients and adjuncts according to the intended recipe. Adding the intended ingredients at the right time is essential for achieving a repeatable process. But this requires continuous attention from the operator to manage a timer or a series of timers to ensure that ingredients are added at the right time, and requires freedom from distraction during long periods when ingredients are not being added. Variance in timing when following a recipe can significantly change the intended outcome.
Timing the ingredients can be even more critical in a brewing process, in which times and temperatures are essential to producing quality beverages and reproducibility.
In a beer brewing process, a wort is a sweet infusion of ground malt or other grain before fermentation. Wort is generally produced by heating water to a precise temperature, steeping crushed grains in the water for a period of time, and then filtering the grains out after the sugars have been extracted. A brewer may turn wort into beer by adding yeast and waiting until some of the sugars have been converted to alcohol.
An adjunct is an ingredient added to wort or beer that is neither a grain nor a hop. The “brew kettle” is a pot, typically of stainless steel or aluminum, used to heat the wort in the production of beer. Heating methods may include a stove-top, an external burner, or an electric heat source.
For a description of an example brewing process, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0000530 to Hoang describes a device designed to automate the entire brewing process. The system uses a pump to draw fluid from a reservoir through one of several chambers containing ingredients.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,571 to Brous describes a device for automating an entire process of brewing, start to finish, which uses a complex assembly to add ingredients. The Brous system uses funnel-shaped ingredient-addition cups to fit a small opening in the lid of the brewing vessel. Such funnels are prone to ingredient blockage causing unreliable or absent ingredient addition. This requires the brewer to manually inspect the ingredient containers after each “add” to ensure success, thus decreasing the automaticity of the system.
An example assembly attaches to the side of a vessel and adds ingredients at programmed intervals. In an implementation, only that part of the assembly that adds the ingredients is located over the kettle or vessel. In an implementation, a microprocessor controls a stepper motor to precisely drive a rotary dispenser containing the ingredients to be added separately at time intervals. The example assembly may be preloaded with ingredients for a recipe, such as for mixing a batter, making a soup, or brewing a beer, for example. The assembly may be preprogrammed with one or more electronic recipes for instructing the microprocessor to create the intended food or drink item using ingredients, such as preloaded ingredients.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the same numbers are used for the same component or feature, when possible.
For this description, the devices and systems illustrated in the figures are shown as having a multiplicity of components. Various implementations of devices and systems, as described herein, may include fewer components and remain within the scope of the disclosure. Alternately, other implementations of devices and systems may include additional components, or various combinations of the described components, and remain within the scope of the disclosure.
This disclosure describes portable ingredients systems. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured.
In an implementation of the portable ingredients system, an example assembly attaches to the side of a kettle, mixing bowl, pot, vat, or vessel and adds ingredients at programmed intervals. In an implementation, only that part of the assembly that adds the ingredients is located over the kettle or vessel. In an implementation, a microprocessor controls a stepper motor to precisely drive a rotary dispenser containing the ingredients to be added separately at time intervals. The example assembly may be preloaded with ingredients for a recipe, such as for mixing a batter, making a soup, or brewing a beer, for example. The assembly may be preprogrammed with one or more electronic recipes for instructing the microprocessor to create the intended food or drink item using ingredients, such as preloaded ingredients.
The example portable ingredients system 100 is different from conventional solutions in that it does not seek to replace the chef, baker, or brewer's entire inventory of cooking, baking, or brewing tools by automating an entire process. Rather, the example portable ingredients system is a tool that augments the existing cooking, baking, or brewing system. In an implementation, a mechanical simplicity of the example portable ingredients system makes it more reliable and easier to manufacture than conventional designs, while still providing advantages, such as heavy-duty torque to move even heavy loads of ingredients.
As shown in
In an implementation, the example portable ingredients system 100 incorporates a stepper motor 110. The stepper motor 110 uses an external microcontroller to provide a specific signal that causes the motor to rotate each single step, which is a fixed angular rotation based on mechanical properties of the motor. The stepper motor 110 allows for precise, repeatable, and consistent rotation of ingredients for addition, using only a small motor.
As shown in
Conventionally rotating hardware, by comparison, uses complex bearing systems that increase cost and introduces complexity into the mechanism. Because conventional solutions are built around standard industrial machine designs, they generally have large center shafts with only radial shaft bearings on the shaft to reduce friction and ensure alignment of rotating assemblies. The example portable ingredients system 100, on the other hand, reduces friction by dramatically increasing the surface area of the bearing surface 500. Instead of a using a small shaft, the rotating assembly 104 of the example portable ingredients system 100 rides on a bearing ring of much greater radius. This reduces the overall component count and overall complexity of the hardware, while aligning rotating parts and carrying sufficiently low friction that a small motor can drive the entire assembly.
As shown in
The example controller 800 includes a processor 802 (or microcontroller), a memory 804, and data storage 806. In an implementation, the example controller includes a network interface 808, and may include a wireless (wifi) transceiver 810. The example controller 800 can control the motor 110, such as a stepper motor 110. The example controller 800 may also connect to one or more sensors 812 (e.g., temperature, stirring speed, external timer, etc.), and display sensor parameters on a user interface 814. The processor 802 may also time intervals from a starting time or between ingredient additions, and control the motor 110 to add ingredients based on input from the one or more sensors 812.
The user interface 814 may be used by an operator to program one or more recipes 816. The user interface may be aboard the example portable ingredients system 100, or may be remote, such as accessible on a browsed Internet web page, or available via an application on a mobile device, such as a cell phone.
Prepared recipes 816 may also be installed or downloaded into the example controller 800 via a port of the network interface 808 or via a wireless transmission received by the wifi transceiver 810. Once aboard, a recipe 816 may be stored in the data storage 806 (e.g., flash memory, and so forth) or as instructions in volatile memory 804.
In a beer brewing example, an example recipe 816 may include instructions for the controller 800, paraphrased, for example, as: one ounce of Zeus hops in a first ingredients container 108, 0.5 ounces of dried orange peel in the second ingredients container 108, 0.5 ounces of Cascade hops in the third ingredients container 108, one ounce of crushed coriander in the fourth ingredients container 108, a teaspoon of Irish Moss in the fifth ingredients container 108, and one ounce of Fuggle hops in the fifth ingredients container 108.
As shown in
When the wort reaches a boil, the brewer can press the “Start” button on the user interface 814 or web page 900 to activate the timer. Or, the controller 800 may start the process of adding ingredients. For example, the controller 800 may monitor temperature, and start a timer when a boil has been reached. The processor 802 monitors time elapsed. In an implementation, at each time step, the processor 802 (or microcontroller) compares the elapsed time to the next entered time; if the elapsed time is greater than or equal to the next time, the controller 800 activates the stepper motor 110 to rotate the rotating assembly 104 to the next container 108 for ingredient addition. The controller 800 can alert the user when the brew, or other recipe 816, is finished, so that brewer or other operator can remove, for example, the wort from heat and proceed to cool the batch in preparation for adding yeast. Optionally, the brewer may also pause the timer using a “Pause” button, or force the rotating assembly 104 to advance one container 108 by using the “Manual Advance” button.
In an implementation, a recipe 816 entered by the user or downloaded via the network interface 808 and/or wifi transceiver 810 runs everything concerning a food or drink production, including sensing and controlling external parameters such as heat source, temperature, and stirring speed, for example, in addition to sequentially adding the ingredients at correct time intervals.
In an implementation, the example portable ingredients system 100 comes prepackaged with a plurality of ingredients, and in one scenario each ingredient is already prepackaged in a respective container 108 attached to the rotating assembly 104 or turntable. A recipe 816 stored in the tangible data storage 806 is associated with the prepackaged ingredients and directs the addition of the ingredients to the vessel 102 at programmed intervals to execute the recipe 816. The recipe 816 may be for a soup, a pastry, a beer, etc., or other food or drink item.
The example portable ingredients system 100 may thus be a standalone kit, wrapped for marketing, that includes the hardware, recipes 816 as software or on paper, and ingredients for making the food or drink item.
Although only a few example embodiments have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the example embodiments without materially departing from the subject matter. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the following claims. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents, but also equivalent structures. It is the express intention of the applicant not to invoke 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6 for any limitations of any of the claims herein, except for those in which the claim expressly uses the words ‘means for’ together with an associated function.
This patent application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent No. 61/980,493 to McMath, filed Apr. 16, 2014 and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61980493 | Apr 2014 | US |