Beverage maker with average dispense rate and volume control

摘要

A beverage brewer (20) with a programmable dispenser cycle dispenser valve controller (36) for controlling a dispenser valve (34) to intermittently open and close during a plurality of control periods of an intermittent dispense period (88) to selectively control the quantity of hot water that is dispensed without changing the overall duration of the dispense period (88). Each of the control periods (CP1-CP20) has a duty portion during which the dispenser valve is open that is selectively varied to brew either greater or lesser amounts of beverage without varying the overall dispense period (88). Alternatively, the number of control periods is selectively changed to change the overall dispense period (88) without changing the quantity of beverage by appropriate changes to the duty portion. The quality of the resulting beverage is thereby optimized by controlling both the time of contact of the hot water with the beverage ingredient (70) and the amount of hot water that is mixed with a given amount of ingredient (70). Uniform contact of the hot water with the beverage ingredient (70) is enhanced by a uniform ingredient holder (24) that holds the ingredient in a tubular configuration beneath a uniform flow dispenser head (38) that pulses the top of the tubular configuration with a uniform spray.