Keg Tapping Assembly

Abstract

A keg tapping assembly comprising a tavern unit having two prongs which are sleeve-like with tapered ends to unseat the two spring closed valves of a permanently attached keg unit detachably connected to the top central hole of a keg, upon insertion into the keg unit. The invention embodies an attachment having two bores through which said prongs are detachably fitted and having serrated terminal connections onto which hoses may be slip-fitted for attachment, respectively, to a tap rod insertable in the top center opening and to a valved outlet connection at the bottom of the keg. By simply unplugging the tavern unit from the keg unit and plugging it into said attachment it is selectively usable on either a conventional single connection tap or on the older double connection tap.

Description

This invention relates to an attachment for enabling the use of a conventional tapping attachment for application to two different tapping systems, namely, one in which a single tapping connection is made at the top (central) hole axially of the keg, or to one in which a connection is made not only at the top central hole, but also at a bottom side hole, which double connections have been used for many years in the industry.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,413 illustrates and describes the former, single type of connection, comprising a permanently mounted keg unit attached to the top central hole and having two, spring-biased one way valves which are normally closed but which are unseated by plugging in a two pronged plug-in tavern unit which is illustrated with some modification in FIG. 2 of the present application.

An outstanding disadvantage of such type of connection is that it cannot be used on beer keps involving a one way conventional air valve extending through the top central hole for introducing air and a secondary connection at the bottom side portion of the keg from which beer is drawn. While such double connection, which has been used for a very long time in the beer industry, involves some difficulty in installation, it still remains as a superior type from the standpoint of sanitation since it avoids contamination of the beer as often occurs from the plastic hose which is attached to the keg unit and extends through the beer along the entire axis of the barrel.

Therefore, taverns that have adopted the more modern single connection tapping device, described in the aforesaid patent, have often encountered the necessity of tapping a two connection keg in which event it has been necessary to completely disconnect and disassemble the abovementioned single connecting device and to become involved in the difficult and time consuming task of making entirely new air and beer connections, which may have to be disconnected perhaps on the succeeding keg, which may be of the single connection type made at only one opening at the top.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the abovenamed disadvantages by employing the more modern single connection attachment for selective use either as a sole attachment for a single connection at the top of the keg, as described in said patent, or for use for a double connection to kegs having one opening at the top and the other opening at the bottom side of the keg, so as to completely eliminate the time-consuming task of completely disassembling and changing the air and beer systems when going from a single connection keg to a double connection keg, or vice versa.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly broken away, of a system for a beer keg embodying the attachment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, elevational view of the tavern plug-in unit normally used for a single connection keg;

FIG. 3 shows an attachment embodying the present invention into which the prong elements of the device of FIG. 2 may be plugged in;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the attachment shown in FIG. 3; and,

FIG. 5 shows a single connection keg unit into which the unit of FIG. 2 is plugged.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, showing a double connection key, numeral 1 denotes a keg of wood or metal containing beer or any other liquid. A conventional tap unit has a handle 2 and a built-in spring-closed valve (not shown). By turning handle 2, the unit is sealed and the valve is opened to introduce compressed air into the keg through a hose 3. A second connection 4 is made at the side of the bottom of the keg, through which connection beer under pressure is extracted from the keg and flows upwardly through flexible hose 5. The top end of hoses 3 and 5 are slip-fitted to serrated connecting sleeves 6 and 7, which sleeves have external screw threads at the top ends which are threadedly connected to internally threaded boxres 13 and 14 formed at the bottom of an attachment, generally denoted by numeral 8, embodying the present invention. Sleeves 6 and 7 are off center relative to bores 11 and 12. Shut-off valve 4a is provided.

Portions of the outer surface 9 of the attachment are preferably knurled, as shown in FIG. 1, and the top outer surface thereof is externally threaded at 10 so that it may be screw threadedly connected to the internal threads of a connecting ring 15.

FIG. 2 shows a tavern plug-in unit of a single connection keg tapping device, generally of the construction described in detail in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,413 for plugging into a keg unit shown in FIG. 5 of different construction to that in FIG. 1. Generally stated, the tavern plug-in unit of FIG. 2 comprises tubular prongs 16 and 17 which are beveled at the bottom ends to make substantially a point connection with two one-way valves 25, 26 (FIG. 5) biased closed by springs 27 in valve body 24 attached to the keg unit plugged into the central top opening 23 of the keg, in the case of a single connection tapping device, so that when the connecting device of FIG. 2 is used in its normal way as a single connecting device, it is inserted in such keg unit and, in so doing, prongs 16 and 17 will unseat the two spring biased valves 25, 26 so as to permit introduction of compressed air through terminal 20 and hollow sleeve, prong 16 and valve 26 to allow beer to flow from the keg upwardly through hose 28, sleeve 17, valve body 18 and threaded beer outlet connection 19 to which may be connected a flexible hose 22 leading to the beer dispensing spigot (not shown).

In operation, assume that the keg tapping device of FIG. 2 is connected directly to the single connection keg unit of FIG. 5 in the normal manner as described in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,413. If the tavern keeper now wishes to dispense beer by a two connection method, which includes a tapping unit and handle 2 as shown in FIG. 1, as conventionally used for many years in the beer industry, he simply unscrews the knurled nut or ring 15, and withdraws the tavern unit shown in FIG. 2 from the keg unit, withdrawing prongs 16 and 17 from the keg unit and plugs such prongs into the attachment 8 of the present invention (FIG. 3) by inserting prongs 16 and 17 through closely fitting bores 11 and 12 to provide an assembly as shown in FIG. 1, so that upon connecting hoses 3 and 5 to terminals 6 and 7, a complete dispensing system is provided.

Now compressed air is introduced through hose 21, terminal connection 20, prong 16, bore 11, terminal connection 6, hose 3 connected to the conventional tapping unit having handle 2 (FIG. 1) in the top central opening of the barrel (instead of that of FIG. 5) so as to introduce compressed air in the top of the barrel.

Beer, or other liquid, under pressure will flow through outlet connection 4, hose 5, terminal connection 7, bore 12, prong 17, valve body 18 and outlet connection 19 through hose 22 and the beer dispensing spigot (not shown).

Of course, if the next keg to be dispensed should have the single connection keg unit of FIG. 5 employing only the tavern unit of FIG. 2, the tavern keeper simply unscrews ring 15 from the threads 10 and inserts prongs 16 and 17 into the two valved keg unit of FIG. 5 and then tightens ring 15 screw threaded to the keg unit which is permanently attached to the top of the keg as it arrives from the brewery.

In short, all the tavern keeper need do when changing from a single tap connection keg to a double tap connection keg is simply to plug the prongs 16 and 17 of the tavern unit to attachment 8, as shown in FIG. 1, to convert the system for use on a double tap connection keg, as shown in FIG. 1.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a novel, highly efficient and extremely inexpensive attachment, for easily and quickly converting beer dispensing systems, that is, from the conventional keg having a single tapping device to one for use on a keg having two tap connections, simply by plugging in an attachment of the present invention and making the double connection through a pair of detachable hoses.

While I have illustrated and described a single specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only and that various changes and modifications may be contemplated within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. An assembly for selective tapping of kegs having either single or double valve keg units for sealing the liquid contents under pressure, comprising a tavern unit including a valve body having air inlet and liquid outlet connections leading into a pair of parallel sleeves having prong-like pointed ends and having an internally threaded, ring closure element; in combination with an attachment having a pair of parallel bores into which said prongs are closely and detachably fitted, said attachment having external threads at one end onto which said internal threads of said ring closure element may be screwed to form an airtight seal, and a pair of terminal connections at the other end of said attachment, said terminal connections being laterally offset from the centers of said bores to provide greater spacing between the terminal connections, a tap unit detachably connected to the top central opening of the keg along its longitudinal axis, which unit includes a single one-way valve for introducing air under pressure into said keg, and an outlet connection and valve at the bottom side opening of said keg for drawing the pressurized liquid contents out of the keg, a conduit connecting one of said terminal connections of said attachment to said tavern unit, and a flexible conduit connecting the other of said terminal connections to said outlet connection, whereby said attachment, conduits and tap unit may be selectively removed from the assembly as a single unit when it is desired to plug said tavern unit directly into a two valved type of keg unit instead of said single valve type.