The present disclosure relates to a sealing unit (8, 8', 108) for sealing an opening in a wall of a container for storing, transporting, and serving a liquid, for instance a beverage, the sealing unit (8, 8', 108) comprising: - an outer housing and an inner housing (20,40) defining a gas flow passage (38') arranged between an outer surface of the inner housing and an inner surface of the outer housing. The inner housing (20) is movable in axial direction between a first axial position wherein the gas flow passage (38') is closed and gas is prevented from flowing into the container or out of the container and a second axial position wherein the gas flow passage (38') is open and gas is allowed to flow in a generally axial direction (P.sub.A1) into the container or out of the container, further comprising a biasing element arranged between the outer housing (20) and inner housing (40) and configured to urge the movable inner housing (20) to move to the first axial position. Inside the movable inner housing a liquid flow passage (37', 37", 37'") is defined, wherein the inside the liquid flow passage a liquid seal unit (65,65') is arranged.

An example method comprises receiving a control signal to open a first valve of a compressible liquid container within an airtight pressurized container, retrieving a first dispensing profile, each dispensing profile indicating at least one valve and, for each valve, a predetermined period of time for keeping a particular valve open, each of the valves controlling transport of contents a different compressible liquid container contained within the airtight pressurized container to a dispensing system, for each of the one or more valves identified in the first dispensing profile: opening the particular valve identified in the first dispensing profile for the particular predetermined period of time to transport contents over a first liquid transport conduit that is coupled to a particular releasable coupling and the particular valve, and closing the particular valve after the particular predetermined period of time to dispense an amount of contents of the particular compressible liquid container.

A self-propelling container having: a top; a bottom; a plurality of vertical walls extending between the bottom and the top; an inner bag for holding contents to be dispensed; a female coupling configured to receive and establish a friction seal with a male coupling of an external device for inserting or extracting the contents to or from the container after the friction seal is established between the female and male couplings; and at least one independent panel positioned inside the container; a compressible element associated with the at least one independent panel wherein during filling of the inner bag the compressible element is compressed, thus causing the at least one independent panel to exercise pressure onto the inner bag, and thus, helping to empty the inner bag.

A replaceable component for a beverage container to be attached to a beverage extraction pipe of the beverage container is provided. The replaceable component for a beverage container includes a tubular member slidable along a longitudinal direction of the beverage extraction pipe and capable of coming in annular contact with an outer circumferential surface of the beverage extraction pipe, and a bag, which is attached to the tubular member, for containing a beverage.

A system and method for dispensing fluids is introduced. A preferred embodiment comprises a sealed tank, a bag containing fluid inside the sealed tank, an outlet for dispensing the liquid in the bag, and a pressure generating device to create pressure in the sealed tank.

A container (1) supplied ready for filling with a liquid product such as beer includes a flexible bag (3) contained within a rigid outer body (2) with an outer space (4) in between, a first valve (6) for closing the bag (3) and a second valve (8) for closing the outer space (4). The first valve (6) is connected to a dip tube (7) which extends into the bag, and the first and second valves are contained within a neck fitting (5). The outer space (4) is pressurised to a first positive pressure relative to ambient atmospheric pressure and the bag (3) contains an oxygen-free gas such as nitrogen at a second positive pressure between the first positive pressure and atmospheric pressure.

A liquid mixing and dispensing system comprises a housing enclosing a chamber containing multiple containers, a flexible bag is in each of the containers. The flexible bags contain first liquids. Connecting conduits lead from the bags to a discharge conduit. A supply conduit is configured and arranged to supply a pressurized second liquid to the containers and to the discharge conduit. The pressurized second liquid serves to collapse the bags and eject the first liquids from the bags and via the connecting conduits into the discharge conduit for mixture with the first liquid.

A flow diverting device is provided at the lower end of the dip-tube (D) in a bag-in-keg container (C) which is filled top-side-down, e.g. with beer. The device directs the incoming flow to run smoothly back down the outside of the dip tube, gently into the already pooled beer thus minimising any fountain effect and associated turbulence. The device can also be used with single-wall metal or plastic kegs to reduce the dispensing of sediment and allow a greater volume of beer to be withdrawn without fobbing.

A bag-in-keg container for a carbonated beverage has a container body C, a flexible bag B within the container body, and a valve closure V attached to the container body. The valve closure includes a gas inlet port (11), a liquid dispensing port (12), and spring-loaded valve member (6) to sealably close the gas inlet and liquid dispensing ports. An adapter (20) sealingly attached to the flexible bag B incorporates a bag PRV (26) to vent gas pressure from within the flexible bag. A container PRV (40) vents gas pressure from between the container body C and the flexible bag B. The bag PRV has a valve shuttle with one side exposed to gas pressure within the flexible bag B and an opposite side exposed to gas pressure within a sealed plenum chamber (37). The bag PRV therefore operates at a fixed pressure independent of the differential pressure between the bag and the outer container. This solves the problem of venting excess pressure within the keg whilst still allowing the dispensing gas to achieve the equilibrium

A bag-in-keg container has a container body C, a flexible bag B within the container body, and a valve closure V attached to the container body. The valve closure includes a gas inlet port (11), a liquid dispensing port (12), and a spring-loaded valve member (6) to sealably close the gas inlet and liquid dispensing ports. An adapter (20) sealingly attached to the flexible bag B incorporates a bag PRV (26) to vent gas pressure from within the flexible bag. A container PRV (40) in the form of a flexible lip seal is operably associated with the valve member (6) to vent gas pressure from between the container body C and the flexible bag B. The lip seal is opened by a small positive pressure difference between inside and outside, but when the valve member (6) is opened to dispense liquid from the bag B the container PRV (40) is inoperative, allowing a relatively high internal gas pressure to be achieved when dispensing.