Beverage brewing apparatus
AssigneeBunn-O-Matic Corporation
InventorKenneth W. Stover
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Fully automatic brewing apparatus is disclosed for economically and efficiently making large quantities of beverage. Beverage concentrate is first brewed from a dry, beverage-making material, such as tea leaves contained in a brewing funnel which, in one embodiment may be pivoted for emptying the concentrate into a selected one of a pair of relatively large reservoirs. The concentrate is automatically diluted to acceptable strength and temperature by the timed addition of water to the reservoir in a stream which provides complete mixing of the concentrate with the diluting water.
Claims30
In beverage brewing apparatus comprising housing means including a base portion and an upper portion carried by and above said base portion, a hot water tank in said housing, water conduit means having an inlet adapted to be connected to a source of cold or cool water under pressure and a discharge end disposed in the lower portion of said hot water tank, a solenoid valve in said water conduit means, a timer switch electrically interconnected with said solenoid valve for opening the same for a predetermined period thereby allowing a predetermined quantity of cold or cool water to discharge into said hot water tank and displace an equal quantity of hot brewing water from the top thereof to a hot water dispensing port, and a beverage brewing receptacle carried by said upper portion beneath said dispensing port, the improvement comprising a pair of reservoirs carried by said base portion below and substantially on either side of said hot water dispensing port, said beverage brewing receptacle comprising an off-center liquid outlet and being pivotally mounted on said upper portion to permit the receptacle to be pivoted to position said outlet over either of said reservoirs to gravitationally discharge liquid beverage extract through said outlet into selected one of said reservoirs.
Beverage brewing apparatus comprising:
- a housing including means for supporting a brewing receptacle adapted to contain a quantity of dry beverage-making material;
- means carried by said housing for conducting a selected quantity of water to the receptacle to make a liquid beverage concentrate;
- a reservoir, including dispensing means, carried by said housing and disposed to receive beverage concentrate from the aforesaid receptacle, said reservoir having a volume substantially greater than said selected amount of water making the beverage concentrate;
- dilution means in communication with said reservoir for adding a selected quantity of water to dilute the beverage concentrate to provide a beverage product for dispensing;
- and
- flow control means operatively associated with said means for conducting said selected quantities of water to said receptacle and said reservoir, said flow control means comprising timer-controlled solenoid valve means.
Beverage brewing apparatus comprising:
- a housing including means for supporting a brewing receptacle adapted to contain a quantity of dry beverage-making material;
- means carried by said housing for conducting a selected quantity of water to the receptacle to make a liquid beverage concentrate;
- a reservoir, including dispensing means, carried by said housing and disposed to receive beverage concentrate from the aforesaid receptacle, said reservoir having a volume substantially greater than said selected amount of water making the beverage concentrate;
- dilution means in communication with said reservoir for adding a selected quantity of water to dilute the beverage concentrate to provide a beverage product for dispensing;
- and
- flow control means operatively associated with said means for conducting a selected quantity of water to said receptacle and operatively associated with said dilution means to control the addition of dilution water to said reservoir, said flow control means including a first time-controlled solenoid valve and a single-state timer switch therefor operatively associated with said means for conducting a selected quantity of water to said receptacle, and a second timer-controlled solenoid valve and a dual-stage timer switch therefor operatively associated with said dilution means, actuation of said dual-stage timer switch delaying the addition of dilution water until after liquid beverage concentrate has commenced to flow from said brewing receptacle into said reservoir.
Beverage brewing apparatus in accordance with 21 wherein said directing means is disposed to direct dilution water against a sidewall of said reservoir at an angle of less than or equal to 45.degree..
Beverage brewing apparatus comprising a housing including means for supporting a brewing receptacle having an off-center discharge port and being adapted to contain a quantity of dry beverage-making material;
- means carried by said housing for conducting a selected quantity of water to the receptacle to make a liquid beverage concentrate;
- and
- a pair of adjacent reservoirs, including dispensing means, carried by said housing below said support means and disposed to receive beverage concentrate by gravitational discharge from the aforesaid receptacle, said support means for the receptacle permitting rotation of the receptacle so that the receptacle may be pivoted for discharge into selected one of said reservoirs,
- each of said reservoirs having a volume substantially greater than said selected amount of water provided by the beverage concentrate, and said apparatus further comprising dilution means in communication with each of said reservoirs for adding water thereto to dilute the beverage concentrate to provide a beverage product for dispensing,
- said means for conducting a selected quantity of water to said brewing receptacle including a first timer-controlled solenoid valve and a single-stage timer switch therefor, and said dilution means including second and third timer-controlled solenoid valves and a dual-stage timer switch therefor and operative therewith to alternately activate one or the other of said second or third timer-controlled solenoid valves so as to add diluting water to whichever of said reservoirs is receiving liquid beverage concentrate from said brewing receptacle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.