A dispensing unit for beverages comprising:
- a housing having an air-conditioned compartment and a utility compartment;
- a refrigeration assembly disposed in the utility compartment accessible through a utility compartment door for cooling the air-conditioned compartment;
- a pressurized gas container removably disposed in the utility compartment and removably connected to a manifold to delivery pressured gas to the manifold;
- a gas regulator disposed between the pressurized gas container and the manifold to control the pressure of gas delivered to the manifold;
- a one-way valve in fluid communications with the manifold to prevent fluid from back flowing from the manifold;
- a purge assembly carried by the housing and in fluid communication with the manifold;
- a removable cap removably attached to the purge assembly and removably attached to a beverage container, the removable cap having an inlet and an outlet;
- a purge actuator included in the purge assembly that, when actuated, opens a purge valve disposed between the manifold and the removable cap so that a predetermined amount of pressurized gas enters the beverage container so that pressurized gas from the purge assembly can be injected into the container to displace the existing gas in the headspace of the beverage container;
- a tray disposed in the air-conditioned compartment having a connection block removably connected to the removable cap and in fluid communications with the manifold so that the contents of the beverage container are pressurized;
- a tap attached to the housing and in fluid communications with the fluid in the beverage container so that when the tap is actuated, fluid in the beverage container is dispensed through the tap;
- a control unit carried by the housing connected to a display;
- a scale carried by the tray and connected to the control unit to determine the weight of the beverage container plus the fluid in the beverage container;
- a temperature sensor disposed in the air-conditioned compartment and connected to the control unit to determine the temperature in the air-conditioned compartment;
- a pressure sensor in fluid communication with the manifold for determining the pressure in the pressurized gas container and in communications with the control unit;
- a set of computer readable instructions included in the control unit for receiving beverage container information from an input assembly carried by the housing and connected to the control unit, receiving weight information from the scale, approximating the volume of fluid remaining in the container according to the beverage container information weight information, receiving the temperature from the temperature sensor, activating the refrigeration assembly when the temperature exceeds a pre-set temperature and deactivating the refrigeration assembly when the temperature fall below the pre-set temperature, receiving pressure information from the pressure sensor, displaying at least a portion of the beverage container information, approximate fluid remaining in the beverage container and temperature on the display, accessing an external database, retrieving additional beverage container information and displaying at least a portion of the additional beverage container information on the display, receiving purchase information from an external server and displaying purchase information on the display;
- and,
- a transceiver included in the control unit for transmitting the approximate fluid remaining in the beverage container, temperature in the air-conditioned compartment, pressure of the pressurized gas container, purchase information, at least a portion of the beverage container information and additional beverage container information to the remote computer device and transmitting the beverage container information and approximate fluid remaining in the beverage container to an aggregation database.