System for aging beer

摘要

An insulated beer fridge stores and ages corked craft beer in a vertical orientation for a period of several months to years without degrading the cork stopper used to seal the bottle. Cork shrinkage is prevented by controlling the humidity within the beer fridge container within a range of 50% to 70% relative humidity. An optimal beer aging temperature in the range of 10° C. (50° F.) to 15.6° C. (60° F.) is maintained by a refrigeration system. Relative humidity within the beer fridge containment is actively maintained by a humidity replenishment mechanism. A controller calculates the amount of water needed to bring the relative humidity to 50% to 70% at the beer fridge temperature. Beers are stored in the beer fridge on trays, which can be pulled for removal of aged beer and addition of new corked craft beer.

主权项

1. An insulated beer refrigerator system, comprising
a. a beer refrigerator container having a sealed enclosure with a darkened green glass front door preventing exposure of stored beer to blue or ultraviolet rays or sunlight, which can degrade beer rapidly; b. said beer refrigerator system having a temperature maintaining subsystem keeping beer refrigerator interior temperature in the range of 10° C. (50° F.) to 15.6° C. (60° F.) and having a humidity maintaining subsystem, keeping beer refrigerator interior relative humidity in the range of 50% to 70%, said subsystems working in combination; c. said temperature maintaining subsystem comprising a thermal sensor and a knob for setting a temperature set point associated with a cooling system, for driving and circulating cooled air into the interior of the beer refrigerator; d. said humidity maintaining subsystem comprising a humidity sensor for measuring relative humidity of the beer refrigerator interior, and being operative when the relative humidity measured is less than 50% to cause the humidity maintaining subsystem to calculate, using an equation (A) with measured beer refrigerator temperature, an amount of water per cubic meter to be injected into the interior of the beer refrigerator by a humidity replacement means to bring the relative humidity in the range of 50% to 70%; e. said humidity replacement means delivering the calculated amount of water into the cooled air supply path of the beer refrigerator; f. said beer refrigerator having a plurality of corked craft beer bottles stored vertically on a plurality of sliding trays, wherein the sliding trays provide for removal of an aged beer or adding new beer; g. said beer refrigerator having an interior light with wavelength in the range of 510 nm to 650 nm, for illuminating the interior of the beer refrigerator when the front door is opened;whereby said beer refrigerator has an optimal beer aging temperature and the amount of relative humidity maintained in combination by a control system within the beer refrigerator inhibits cork shrinkage, which prevents ingress of air and spoilage of beer.