Beverage dispensing unit

A method of dispensing a beverage, comprising:

• receiving a recipe from a user, wherein the recipe indicates an amount of each ingredient from one or more ingredient sources;
• operating the one or more ingredient pumps to inject one or more of the ingredients into a holdup volume in a dispensing manifold according to the recipe;
• opening a dispensing valve to allow a volume of beverage from a beverage source to flow through the dispensing valve and into the dispensing manifold, allowing the volume of beverage to mix with the holdup volume in the dispensing manifold;
• and
• closing the dispensing valve based on a period of time or a detected volume of beverage.

A beverage dispensing system, comprising:

• a housing;
• a dispensing valve configured to be fluidly coupled to at least one beverage source;
• one or more ingredient pumps configured to be fluidly coupled to one or more ingredient sources, wherein each of the one or more ingredient pumps is mounted within the housing, and is configured to pump a corresponding ingredient from a corresponding ingredient source;
• a dispensing manifold fluidly coupled to the one or more ingredient pumps, the dispensing manifold having a first holdup volume;
• an output compensator fluidly coupled to the dispensing manifold;
• a dispensing nozzle;
• and
• a controller configured to:
• receive a recipe from a user, wherein the recipe indicates an amount of each ingredient of the one or more ingredient sources;
• operate the one or more ingredient pumps to inject one or more of the ingredients into the first holdup volume in the dispensing manifold according to the recipe;
• and
• open the dispensing valve to allow a volume of beverage from the beverage source to flow through the dispensing manifold, wherein the volume of beverage mixes with the first holdup volume in the manifold, flushes the first holdup volume out of the dispensing manifold, through the output compensator, and out of the dispensing nozzle, and leaves a second holdup volume in the dispensing manifold.