In a process, a portion of a liquid mixture flow is vaporized to produce a vapor and a depleted flow of liquid. The vapor is introduced to a brine which is adapted to exothermically absorb one or more components therefrom, and heat is withdrawn, to produce at least a flow of heat and a flow of brine which is enriched in the one or more components. The heat previously withdrawn is transferred, to drive the vaporization. This transfer can be associated with the change of a working fluid from a gaseous into a liquid gate. In this case, the heat withdrawal involves the change of the working fluid from the liquid to the gaseous state. In the liquid state, the working thud flows only by one or more of gravity, convection and wicking. In the gaseous state, the working fluid flows only by one or more of diffusion and convection.

The present invention relates to a method of cleaning or filtering beer, having the following steps: applying beer onto an obliquely positioned filter (10), so that the beer runs down along the obliquely positioned filter (10) and liquid contained therein passes through openings of the filter (10) into a collecting space (20) beneath the filter (10) and solids contained in the beer slide downwards along the obliquely positioned filter (10), and routing the filtered beer out of the collecting space (20).

The invention also relates to a beer cleaning apparatus.

A user interface for a beer recipe creator may have a series of icons that may represent ingredients. A user may drag and drop or otherwise add the icons to containers on a display screen to add or remove ingredients to the recipe. With each added or removed ingredient, a set of descriptors may be updated. The descriptors may include numerical values of beer parameters as well as textual descriptions and visual descriptions. The system may allow a user to start with a desired beer style, and the parameters may show variances from the selected style. The system may generate an ingredients list, as well as a brewing recipe that may be transferred to a controller for a beer making machine. The system may adjust certain parameters that are controllable by the beer making machine to make flavor and other adjustments selected by a user.

A user interface for a beer recipe creator may have a series of icons that may represent ingredients. A user may drag and drop or otherwise add the icons to containers on a display screen to add or remove ingredients to the recipe. With each added or removed ingredient, a set of descriptors may be updated. The descriptors may include numerical values of beer parameters as well as textual descriptions and visual descriptions. The system may allow a user to start with a desired beer style, and the parameters may show variances from the selected style. The system may generate an ingredients list, as well as a brewing recipe that may be transferred to a controller for a beer making machine. The system may adjust certain parameters that are controllable by the beer making machine to make flavor and other adjustments selected by a user.

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for packaging a dispensable substance, including the steps of: placing a first product component into a container; adding a second product component into the container at an initial pressure of less than 1.31 atm, the container comprising a valve dispensing port; sealing the container; and increasing pressure in the container through a phase change of the second product component to a final pressure in the container, the final pressure at least 0.26 atm greater than the initial pressure. Optionally, the second product component warms in the container at least ten degrees Celsius and undergoes a phase change from a solid or liquid to a gas, which increases pressure in the container and functions as a propellant and/or as an expansion agent.

The present invention provides acidic or basic cleaning compositions for use in cleaning food and beverage industry processing equipment and pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry processing equipment wherein the compositions of the invention comprise a food-equipment-safe acidic or basic cleaning compound and a food-equipment-safe colorimetric indicator of pH to show the desired acid or basic conditions during storage prior to the start of a cleaning cycle and after storage and during a cleaning cycle. The cleaning compositions of the invention are particularly useful in, for example, CIP cleaning processes.

A robotic processing system and method are disclosed for processing materials using a series of containers stored in an automated storage and picking system. Each of the containers performs a specific function on the materials stored therein. The materials are passed from bin to bin via a suitable dispensing and transferring system. For example, a system is disclosed for delivering ingredients to a micro-brewery, as are methods for brewing small or test batches of beer according to customers' individual requirements.

The invention relates to a method for adding hops in beer manufacture, having the following process steps; a) separation of a sub-quantity (07a) of water and/or wort (07) and/or beer as an aqueous fluid, b) addition of hop extract (10) in liquid or pasty form to the separated aqueous fluid (07a), c) production of a macroemulsion (13) of the hop extract by emulsifying the hop extract (10) in the aqueous fluid (07a), d) increasing the pressure in the macroemulsion (13) of the hop extract to a feed pressure of in particular higher than 100 bar, e) production of a microemulsion (17) of the hop extract by feeding the pressurized macroemulsion (13) through a gap or a valve (16) or by feeding the pressurized macroemulsion against a baffle plate, f) at least partial return of the microemulsion (17) of the hop extract to the beer manufacturing process.

The invention relates to a method for adding hops in beer manufacture, having the following process steps; a) separation of a sub-quantity (07a) of water and/or wort (07) and/or beer as an aqueous fluid, b) addition of hop extract (10) in liquid or pasty form to the separated aqueous fluid (07a), c) production of a macroemulsion (13) of the hop extract by emulsifying the hop extract (10) in the aqueous fluid (07a), d) increasing the pressure in the macroemulsion (13) of the hop extract to a feed pressure of in particular higher than 100 bar, e) production of a microemulsion (17) of the hop extract by feeding the pressurized macroemulsion (13) through a gap or a valve (16) or by feeding the pressurized macroemulsion against a baffle plate, f) at least partial return of the microemulsion (17) of the hop extract to the beer manufacturing process.

A brewing system that includes bicycle-driven generators to offset, or supply, the electricity used in the brewing process. The brewing system includes at least one bicycle, a bicycle generator associated with each bicycle, and electrical components to store the electricity generators and/or feed the electricity back into a power grid. The electricity is then drawn on during the brewing process. There is also provided a data collector for receiving the electricity generated by each bicycle, a computer for monitoring and recording the electricity generated by each bicycle, and a video monitor that displays real-time statistics of the electricity produced by each bicycle.