JP2002068391A - Beer server - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sufficiently cool a beer even when the beer temperature, which is fed into a beer server, is higher than a normal temperature, and at the same time, discharge the beer of a temperature suitable for the drinking even if the beer temperature is low. SOLUTION: In this beer server having the same cooling structure as a conventional product, a quick cooling section 2 having a high cooling function is arranged in parallel. When the beer temperature is high, the beer is cooled by the quick cooling section 2 to a temperature which can be cooled by a normal cooling section 3. In the meantime, when the beer temperature is normal or low, the temperature of the over-cooled beer by the quick cooling section 2 is raised to the temperature of the cooling water by the normal cooling section 3. Therefore, the beer of the temperature suitable for the drinking can be always fed. Also, for the quick cooling section, a channel is formed on a metal plate having a high thermal conductivity, and in addition, the quick cooling section is replaceably attached. Thus, a high cooling function can be obtained by a simple and compact constitution, and the maintenance is easy as well.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a beer server which is connected to a beer tank, cools beer and pours the beer into a beer mug or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A beer server often found in restaurants and izakayas has a beer cooling function and a beer discharging function. Among them, the cooling function has been realized by the following structure. That is, in a conventional beer server, a beer passage provided from a beer tank is formed by a tube inside a box-shaped cooling box, and one of the passages is connected to an ejection nozzle, while the beer tube is cooled so as to be immersed. Cooling water is stored in the box so that it can be stored or circulated.

[0003] With this structure, the beer passing through the beer tube is cooled by heat exchange with cooling water, and beer at the time of drinking, which is generally said to be around 5 ° C, is discharged from a nozzle.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned general beer server, it is possible to cool a beer which reaches 30 ° C., which is assumed in a bad environment in summer, to a temperature suitable for drinking. Can not. In other words, beer servers and beer tanks are usually installed in appropriate places so that beer is not kept at an abnormally high temperature.For example, if a beer server is installed in a small kitchen in summer, Beer in a beer tank may exceed 30 ° C. due to hot air. Then, such a high-temperature beer cannot be effectively cooled by the beer server having the above-described structure.

[0005] On the other hand, there are beer servers that have a long beer tube length to increase the heat exchange amount, increase the speed of the cooling water circulation cycle, and have a very excellent cooling function. However, such a high-cooled beer server has a problem that the beer is cooled too much. In other words, the beer server is normally supplied with beer of about 20 ° C. by proper installation and management as described above. However, when the temperature is low in winter or in a cold region, the temperature of the beer in the beer tank decreases and the low temperature When the beer is supplied to the beer server, the beer may be cooled more than necessary by the high cooling function described above. At the same time,
A beer server having a high cooling function also has a cost disadvantage that it is expensive.

[0006] As described above, the conventional beer server has a problem of causing a phenomenon such as insufficient cooling or excessive cooling in spite of the fact that the beer drinking temperature is constant. In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a beer server that can always dispense beer having a good drinking temperature regardless of the beer temperature in the beer tank.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a beer server having a cooling structure for cooling beer from a beer tank with cooling water as in the prior art described above. A means of providing a quenching section having a higher cooling function than this is provided upstream. That is, in the present invention, the quenching section is provided in parallel with the conventional beer server, and the beer from the beer tank is first modified so as to pass through the quenching section. As a specific configuration, as shown in claim 4, a beer tube is immersed in a cooling box containing cooling water, and beer passing through the beer tube is cooled by heat exchange with the cooling water. And a beer tank that supplies beer to the stationary cooling unit, and a quenching unit having a higher cooling function than the stationary cooling unit is provided.

[0008] The beer server according to this means is roughly divided into two functions depending on the beer temperature. That is, when the temperature of the beer from the beer tank is high, the quenching section first cools the high temperature beer to an allowable temperature at which the downstream cooling structure can cool the beer to a temperature at which the beer can be drunk. This operation can be said to be a complementary preliminary cooling operation of the downstream cooling structure by the quenching section.

On the other hand, when the beer is at a normal temperature or a low temperature, such a low temperature beer is further cooled by the quenching section. However, the temperature of the beer that has become lower than the temperature at the time of drinking is raised to almost the temperature of the cooling water by heat exchange by the downstream cooling structure. Usually, the cooling water is set at about 5 ° C., a so-called beer drinking temperature. This action raises the temperature of the beer that is too cold by the downstream cooling structure.

[0010] In the second aspect of the present invention, as a specific means of the quenching section, means for forming a refrigerant flow and a beer flow path on a metal plate having a predetermined or higher thermal conductivity is used. According to this means, the beer passing through the beer flow path exchanges heat with the metal plate cooled by the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow path and is directly cooled. Therefore, beer can be cooled more rapidly than a normal cooling structure.

Further, in claim 3, means for making the quenching part replaceable is selectively used. According to this selective means, it is intended to adjust the heat exchange amount by replacing the quenching section. Further, when the quenching section is made of a metal plate as in claim 2, it is easy to replace the quenching section with a cartridge type.

[0012]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 and 2 are a plan view and a side view of a beer server according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a housing of a beer server, 2 denotes a quenching unit provided in the housing 1, 3 denotes a steady cooling unit provided in the housing 1, and the quenching unit 2 includes a beer tank (not shown). ) Is connected, and the beer passing therethrough is delivered to the stationary cooling unit. Reference numeral 4 denotes a nozzle for pouring beer that has passed through the stationary cooling unit 3, and reference numeral 5 denotes a table on which a container such as a beer mug is placed when pouring beer. Reference numeral 6 denotes an electrical unit that houses a compressor that sends a refrigerant to the quenching unit 2 and a chilled water device that generates cooling water for the steady cooling unit 3.

The quenching section 2 has a high heat exchange rate, has a function of rapidly cooling beer, and has a structure as shown in FIG. 3, for example. That is, a metal having high heat conductivity such as aluminum, stainless steel, or titanium is formed into a plate shape, and the inside of the metal plate is hollowed out so as to be independently formed so as not to cross the refrigerant flow path 2a and the beer flow path 2b. With this structure, beer passing through the beer flow path 2b exchanges heat with the metal plate cooled by the refrigerant passing through the refrigerant flow path 2a, thereby rapidly cooling the beer. As a refrigerant, for example, Freon gas is used,
The temperature is expected to be about 1 ° C.

Further, according to the quenching section 2 described above, a higher quenching effect can be obtained by increasing the number of metal plates. In addition, each channel 2a, 2b
It is effective to obtain the quenching function as long as possible, but as a specific structure, as shown in FIG. 3, the flow paths 2a and 2b are formed so as to be zigzag up and down. The flow paths 2a and 2b cannot be formed in a zigzag shape as shown in FIG. 3 by a single processing inside the metal plate. For example, as shown in FIG. The plate has a three-part structure consisting of the main body and the upper and lower lids, and the main body is formed with a flow path penetrating vertically, and the upper and lower lids are formed with grooves so that the adjacent flow paths communicate with each other. As shown in B), the metal plate is divided into two front and back surfaces, a desired flow path is formed on one surface of each of the divided plates, and the flow path forming surfaces of both the divided plates are bonded to each other, whereby the zigzag described above is performed. A flow path having a shape can be formed. In addition, since these structures are easily disassembled, maintenance such as cleaning of the flow path is also easy.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the steady cooling unit 3 has a beer pipe 3c disposed inside a box 3b filled with the cooling water 3a so as to be immersed in the cooling water. Also,
In this embodiment, in order to increase the amount of heat exchange with the cooling water, the beer pipe 3c is formed in a spiral shape, and the length of the pipe is lengthened to increase the chance of contact with the cooling water. The cooling water 3
a is scheduled to be about 5 ° C., and the temperature is kept constant by, for example, circulating with another cooling device. That is, in the present invention, the structure and function of the steady-state cooling unit 3 are the same as those of a conventional general beer server if only it is taken.

Next, the overall function of the beer server having the above structure will be described. First, the temperature of beer supplied from a beer tank or the like to this beer server is 30.
In the case of a high temperature such as around ℃, the beer is rapidly cooled by the quenching section 2. That is, the temperature of the high-temperature beer is about 20 ° C., which is the normal temperature. Then, the beer cooled to about 20 ° C. is further cooled by the steady cooling unit 3, and when reaching the nozzle 4, the beer can be cooled down to the point of drinking, ie, about 5 ° C. It is the same as the conventional beer server that the beer at about 20 ° C. is cooled to the drinking temperature in the steady cooling unit 3. The feature here is that the quenching unit 2 gradually cools the high temperature beer in two cycles in a manner that complements the steady cooling unit 3.

Next, the function of the case where the normal or low temperature beer is supplied to the beer server will be described. In the present invention, even when the relatively low-temperature beer is supplied, the quenching unit 2 rapidly cools the beer. That is, the low temperature beer may be cooled to 5 ° C. or less by the high cooling function of the quenching unit 2. However, the cooled further low-temperature beer rises to a temperature suitable for drinking by heat exchange with the steady cooling unit 3. That is, if the beer is 3 ° C.
If the beer is cooled down to a lower temperature than the cooling water in the steady-state cooling unit 3, the cooling water in the steady-state cooling unit 3 exerts not a cooling function but a heating function to bring beer to an appropriate temperature. It is raised to. This function can be reliably obtained by using water having the largest specific heat among the liquids as the refrigerant of the steady-state cooling unit 3.

The capacities of the quenching section 2 and the steady-state cooling section 3 are not limited to those shown. That is, in this embodiment, the heat exchange rate of the quenching unit 2 and the steady cooling unit 3 is balanced mainly by effectively cooling the relatively high-temperature beer having a temperature of 25 ° C. to less than 30 ° C. 2.
The capacity of No. 3 is changed as needed. Further, since the heat exchange amount may be changed without changing the capacity, when the capacity is fixed, the length of the flow paths 2a and 2b or the beer pipe 3c is changed. In particular, in this embodiment, since the metal plate in which each of the flow passages 2a and 2b is hollowed out is used as the structure of the quenching unit 2, if this metal plate is made into a cartridge type, the metal plate can be appropriately replaced and the beer server can be used. The flow path length, that is, the heat exchange amount of the quenching section 2 can be adjusted according to the environment and the like. In addition, since the quenching unit 2 generally has a smaller capacity than the steady-state cooling unit 3, the production cost of the beer server does not increase significantly.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a quenching section is provided in a beer server having a normal cooling function. Therefore, even if the temperature of the beer from the beer tank is high, normal cooling is performed by the quenching section. The beer temperature can be cooled to the permissible range of the function, and even if the beer temperature is low and further cooled by the quenching part, and the beer temperature falls below the temperature at the time of drinking, this low-temperature beer has a cooling structure on the downstream side. As a result of the heat exchange, the temperature is raised to the drinking temperature, so that the present invention can always provide a drinking beer regardless of the beer temperature from the beer tank.

Further, since the quenching part is made of a metal plate having a flow path formed therein, the quenching part can be easily removed, and thus the heat exchange amount of the quenching part can be changed, and the quenching part can be inspected and cleaned. Maintenance can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a transparent plan view of a beer server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the same side view.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a quenching unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an example of forming the quenching part.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of a steady cooling unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 2 Rapid cooling part 2a Refrigerant flow path 2b Beer flow path 3 Steady cooling part 3a Cooling water 3b Cooling box 3c Beer pipe 4 Nozzle 5 units 6 Electrical part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A beer server having a cooling structure for cooling beer from a beer tank with cooling water,
A beer server, wherein a quenching section having a higher cooling function is provided upstream of the cooling structure. 2. The beer server according to claim 1, wherein the quenching section has a coolant passage and a beer passage formed in a metal plate. 3. The beer server according to claim 1, wherein the quenching part is replaceable. 4. A steady cooling section in which a beer pipe is immersed in a cooling box containing cooling water to cool beer passing through the beer pipe by heat exchange with the cooling water, and beer is supplied to the steady cooling section. A beer tank provided with a quenching unit having a higher cooling function than the steady cooling unit.