GB2471193A

GB2471193A - Drinks barrel having separate compartments

Info

Publication number: GB2471193A
Application number: GB1009995A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael Stephen Andrews
Original assignee: QUICK QUENCH Ltd
Current assignee: QUICK QUENCH Ltd
Priority date: 2009-06-15
Filing date: 2010-06-15
Publication date: 2010-12-22
Also published as: GB2483611B; GB201200543D0; WO2010146345A1; GB2483611A; GB201009995D0

Abstract

A drinks barrel for cask beer has a cylindrical, slightly-bulging body 1 of shell-construction, with its interior divided into two compartments 6, 7 by a wall 4 extending transversely to the longitudinal axis 5 of the body 1. The compartments have individual sealed tap-couplings 8 that open through the external wall 3 of the body 1 within ring-form rims 2 at opposite ends of the barrel. They also have individual sealed couplings 9 that open through the wall 3 side by side with one another within a plate 10 that bridges external, circumferential rims 11, centrally of the cask-length. Beer is drawn off via the coupling 8 of only one compartment after air is admitted to that compartment via its coupling 9. The other compartment containing half the total beer content of the barrel, remains sealed to preserve its beer from deterioration by contact with air, until required following emptying of the open compartment. The barrel may be used similarly with other drinks, and with different drinks in the different compartments, and may be pressurised as for keg beer.

Description

Drinks Barrels This invention relates to drinks barrels, and is concerned especially, though not exclusively, with barrels for beer.

Beer is commonly supplied in quantity in a barrel of a kind referred to as a cask or keg depending on whether the beer is contained in the barrel substantially unpressurised or pressurised; the beer contained is correspondingly referred to as cask beer' or keg beer' Casks normally have two openings which after the cask has been filled are sealed until the contents of the barrel are required to be used, one of the openings being located in an end of the barrel for use in drawing off the beer via a tap or via a pipeline to a pump, and the other, located mid-way along the side of the barrel, being opened to admit air to the interior of the barrel in enabling the draw off to take place. However, contact of air with the remaining beer brings about deterioration of the beer-quality to the extent that it normally becomes unsatisfactory after exposure of a few days. lEn public houses and other similar establishments the cask often remains open for long periods in order that ready dispensing of the beer to customers may take place, and in such circumstances there needs to be a high rate of demand for the drink to ensure that the contents of the barrel are used before drink-quality is lost and wastage is avoided.

The smallest casks in most-common use for beer have a capacity of 9 gallons (approximately 41 litres) , and in circumstances where demand for cask beer is low, the full quantity of beer may not have been dispensed before its quality in the cask has deteriorated too far.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a form of barrel by which the quality of beer or other drink contained by it may be more readily maintained and wastage avoided or at least reduced.

According to the present invention there is provided a drinks barrel wherein the interior of the barrel is divided into a plurality of separate compartments each of which has its own individual openings to enable filling of the compartment and drawing off of drink from it.

The present invention has the significant advantage that it enables cask beer to continue to be supplied in barrels of standard size in common use without requiring the overall quantity of supply to be reduced. The problem of deterioration of cask beer when exposed to air and the consequential likelihood of wastage could be reduced by using smaller casks, but this would result in an increase in the number of casks required to provide the desired reserve. Increase in the number of casks needed, although each of smaller size, has economic and practical disadvantages of increased costs in provision of them, additional handling costs, and the requirement for larger storage capacity for the increased cask--numbers. The present invention accordingly has economic and practical advantages in that with the barrel of the present invention the quantity of cask beer that is required or desired to be in reserve can be maintained without resorting to smaller casks, and moreover, is ready to be drawn from without putting the whole of it at risk of deterioration. This is achieved simply by division of the reserve between the separate compartments and opening each to air only when the content of that compartment is to be made available to be drawn off. Thus, the, or each other compartment remains closed and its content kept fresh until it is required to be drawn off.

A drinks barrel in accordance with the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference tc the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of the barrel according to the invention; Figure 2 is an end elevation of the barrel of Figure 1, the section of Figure 1 being taken on the line I-I of Figure 2; and Figure 3 is a plan vlew of the barrel of Figure 1.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the barrel-container of this example is a beer cask having a generally-cylindrical, slightly-bulging body 1 of conventional shell-construction with chimbs or ring-form rims 2 at either end. The external wall 3 of the container-body 1 is of metal (normally stainless steel) or plastics, and its interior, in contrast to standard practice, is partitioned by a metal or plastics wall 4. The wall 4 extends transversely to the longitudinal axis 5 of the body 1 and divides the body 1 into two compartments 6 and 7 of equal volume that are sealed from one another.

The compartments 6 and 7 have their own individual, keystone bushes or sealed tap-couplings 8 that open through the external wall 3 within the two rims 2 respectively at opposite ends of the body 1. In addition, the compartments 6 and 7 have respective shives or sealed couplings 9 that open through the wall 3 side by side with one another within a shive plate 10 that is secured bridging external, circumferential rims 11 of the body 1 centrally of the cask-length. The two couplings 9 are positioned angularly about the axis 5 diametrically opposite the couplings 8.

When the barrel is to be brought into use, the two compartments 6 and 7 are filled with beer through the couplings 9. The couplings 9 are then re-sealed for transportation of the barrel to the site where dispensing is to take place. At that site, with the barrel supported horizontally and the couplings 9 uppermost, one of the compartments, for example the compartment 6, is breached to allow its contents to be drawn off while the other, the compartment 7 in this example, remains sealed. In this respect, beer is drawn off as required from compartment 6 via a tap (not shown) or a pump-pipeline (not shown) screwed or otherwise connected to the coupling 8 of the compartment 6. Air is admitted to the compartment 6 via its shive coupling 9 to enable the beer to be drawn off, but the other compartment, compartment 7, remains sealed throughout so as to retain its content fresh. Once the compartment 6 has been emptied and further supply of beer is required, the reserve of compartment 7 can then be made available by tap or other connection to its coupling 8 and admission of air via its coupling 9.

The overall capacity of the barrel-container may be a firkin (9 gallons or approximately 41 litres), which is a convenient and popular size for a cask-beer for many public houses where there is a moderate demand for that beer. The division of the cask 1 into the two compartments 6 and 7 accordingly in this case, provides two separate supplies of 4.5 gallons (approximately 20.5 litres) only one of which needs to be open to the atmosphere, and thereby subject to deterioration, at any time.

Although the invention has been described above in the context of cask beer and has been related to a specific size of barrel, it is to be understood that the barrel of the invention is applicable to storage and supply of drinks generally, and is not necessarily limited to beer casks or to a specific size of cask.

Furthermore, the interior of the barrel may be divided by other than a transverse partition and may be divided into more than two separate compartments by longitudinal, transverse or other division. Moreover, the same drink, or kind of drink, need not be contained in the different compartments. One or more of the compartments may contain non-alcoholic drink or drinks.

Furthermore, drinks barrels of the form described with reference to the drawings, may be used for pasteurised beer and lager which are stored under pressure. Because such beers are dispensed from a pressurised barrel and are not exposed to the atmosphere in the same way as cask beers, they are not as susceptible to deterioration in quality as those latter beers.

Nonetheless, the barrel according to the invention has advantage even when pressurised, especially in that it allows for two or more lagers or other keg beers to be stored in the one barrel, and thereby affords economy in the storage space required to make access to a wider selection of beer possible without increasing the overall quantity stored. Beer may be extracted selectively from either compartment 6 or 7 using two standard so-called siphon' connections through the respective couplings 9, each connection being controlled by a valve which when opened allows beer to be dispensed under pressure from the respective compartment.

Claims

Claints: 1. A drinks barrel wherein the interior of the barrel is divided into a plurality of separate compartments each of which has its own individual openings to enable filling of the compartment and drawing off of drink from it.
2, A drinks barrel according to Claim 1 wherein the barrel is substantially cylindrical.
3. A drinks barrel according to Claim 1 wherein the barrel is a beer cask
4. A drinks barrel according to Claim 2 or Claim 3 wherein each of the compartments has an opening in one or the other of the two ends of the barrel.
5. A drinks barrel according to any one of Claims 2 to 4 wherein each of the compartments has an opening in a side of the barrel.
6. A drinks barrel according to any one of Claims 2 to 5 wherein the division of the interior of the barrel is transversely to the longitudinal axis of the barrel.
7. A drinks barrel according to any one of Claims 2 to 6 including a single wall dividing the interior of the barrel into two compartments.
8. A drinks barrel according to Claim 7 wherein the wall extends transversely to the longitudinal axis of the barrel.
9. A drinks barrel according to Claim 8 wherein the two compartments have openings side by side with one another in the side of the barrel.
10. A drinks barrel according to Claim 8 or Claim 9 wherein the two compartments have openings in opposite ends of the barrel.
11. A drinks barrel according to any one Claims 1 to 10 wherein the compartments contain beer.
12. A drinks barrel according to Claim 11 wherein the compartments are substantially unpressurised.
13. A cask for beer substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.