The disclosure features various embodiments and aspects of a chest for quenching beverages. The chest can include a tank for holding a chilled mixture of ice and water, an ice maker adapted for making ice having an output for ejecting ice into a conduit in fluid communication with the tank, and a plurality of quench trays disposed above the tank for holding containers of beverages located in first and second positions. The trays can be filled with cold water by way of a conduit in fluid communication with the tank. The quench trays can include a compartment defined by a bottom and a plurality of walls, and defining therein a plurality of rows for aligning and containing a plurality of beverage containers. The drawers can further include at least one drain orifice configured to guide water out of the quench tray.

An apparatus for the rapid cooling of packaged beverages that includes a thermally insulated immersion tank capable of containing a liquid refrigerant and an evaporator coil placed within the tank, where the container will be submerged while held by gripping means connected to a vertical rotation axis mounted on a vertically movable cart, both driven by driving means under the control of a control unit that commands a series of sequential steps such as driving the rotation of said axial rotation axis within a predetermined speed range and period of time followed by slowing down of the rotation of said axial rotation axis at a predetermined speed with a simultaneous vertical reciprocating movement of the container by means of the vertically movable cart for a predetermined period of time as many times as established by the control unit.

A machine for brewing and cooling a beverage includes a housing, a refrigeration system, a first nest, a second nest, a fluid system, and a dispensing port. The first and second nests are arranged in the housing and include first and second recesses, respectively. The second nest has walls defining the second recess. The refrigeration system is located within the machine and is confirmed to cool the walls of the second nest. The fluid system is configured to transfer water to the first recess of the first nest. The dispensing port is fluidly connected with the recess of the first nest.

A blast cell system is provided with simple and scalable designs that prevent short cycling of air flow through any pallets in blast cells. The blast cell includes a plurality of suction channels that provide independent fluid pathways for directing the air drawn from different rows in the blast cell into the fan.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

A vehicle, a refrigerator for a vehicle, and a method for controlling a refrigerator for a vehicle are provided. The method for controlling the refrigerator for the vehicle includes turning on a switch of the refrigerator for the vehicle, measuring a temperature of an interior of the refrigerator for the vehicle a first time, measuring a temperature of the interior of the refrigerator for the vehicle again a second time after a predetermined time has elapsed from the first time, determining a temperature change of the interior of the refrigerator from the first time to the second time, and operating the refrigerator for the vehicle in a quench mode in which the temperature in the interior of the refrigerator is rapidly lowered, unlike a normal mode, if the temperature change in the interior of the refrigerator is in a positive direction.

A blast cell system is provided with simple and scalable designs that prevent short cycling of air flow through any pallets in blast cells. The blast cell includes a plurality of suction channels that provide independent fluid pathways for directing the air drawn from different rows in the blast cell into the fan.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

The invention is a cooling tunnel for rapidly cooling a food product (1). The cooling tunnel (10) includes a plurality of thermal zones (21, 31) within the tunnel, and a conveying means (14) for transporting the food product sequentially therethrough. In operation, circulating air and the food product within each thermal zone are in a heat exchange relationship whereby heat from the food product is transferred to the circulating air and a heat exchanger extracts heat from the circulating air and exhausts the heat from the thermal zone.