Multi-beverage brewer with on-demand variable brew water temperature and method

Abstract

A beverage brewer (10) having a brew basket (18) for holding ingredient to be brewed and a dispensing spray head (12) for passing water onto a top surface of a layer of ingredient supported within the brew basket (18) during a dispense period of a brew cycle is provided with a temperature selectable dispense system having an on-demand hot water heating chamber assembly (30) with a hot water chamber (86) having a volume substantially less than the volume of beverage brewed during a single brew cycle, an electrical heating element (98) of sufficient power to quickly and substantially alter the temperature of the water in the chamber during a single brew cycle and a microprocessor controller (38) for controlling the heating element in response to temperature sensors (40, 42) to control the heating element (98) to selectively change the temperature of the hot water dispensed to the brew basket (18) during a single brew cycle. The controller (38) selectively controls the brewer (10) to brew different types of beverages, such as green tea, black tea, an different types of coffee, with dispense water at different preselected temperatures in response to a manually actuatable switch (72, 74, 76 and 78). The temperature of the dispense water may also be changed from a hotter temperature at the beginning of a brew cycle and a lower temperature during an end portion of the same brew cycle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.