User Interface Components to Change Brewing Recipes

Abstract

An automated or semi-automated beer brewing system may adjust recipes using a computer interface. The computer interface may present different characteristics of a beer and may allow a user to adjust the characteristics of the resulting beer. In many cases, the characteristics of the final product may be changed while keeping the original ingredients and their measurements the same. Characteristics such as mouthfeel may be adjusted from thick to thin by adjusting a mashing schedule to change the alpha amylase extraction. In another example, a characteristic of dry to malty may be adjusted by changing the amount of simple sugars that may be extracted during the mashing phase. A computer interface may present the characteristics in an interactive form, such as a slider, where a user may adjust the recipe prior to use.

We claim: 
     
         1 . An automated recipe creation system comprising:
 a computer hardware platform comprising a computer processor and a user interface;   a performance model of an automated mashing system, said being a statistical model derived from a plurality of said brewing sessions, each of said plurality of brewing sessions executed on a different brewing system;   a control system operating on said computer hardware platform and configured to:
 receive said performance model of said automated mashing system; 
 receiving a first recipe, said first recipe comprising a series of brewing steps, each of said brewing steps comprising a time parameter and a temperature parameter, at least one of said brewing steps being part of a mashing schedule, said recipe having a predefined set of measured ingredients; 
 calculating a first taste parameter for said first recipe to generate a predicted taste component; 
 displaying a user input component on said user interface, said user input component: displaying said first predicted taste component on a scale;
 capable of receiving a first user input to increase said predicted taste component; 
 capable of receiving a second user input to decrease said predicted taste component; 
 
 receiving one of said first user input or said second user input; 
 calculating a changed recipe based on said first recipe and said one of said first user input or said second user input, said changed recipe using said predefined set of measured ingredients as said first recipe; 
 updating said first predicted taste component to generate an updated taste component; 
 displaying an updated user input component displaying said updated taste component; 
 transmitting said changed recipe to said automated mashing system. 
   
     
     
         2 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 1 , said predicted taste component being mouthfeel. 
     
     
         3 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 2 , said mouthfeel being displayed from thin to full. 
     
     
         4 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 3 , said changed recipe having changed portions of a mashing schedule. 
     
     
         5 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 4 , said changed recipe having changed alpha amylase extraction over said first recipe. 
     
     
         6 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 1 , said predicted taste component being taste being displayed from dry to malty. 
     
     
         7 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 6 , said changed recipe having changed portions of a mashing schedule. 
     
     
         8 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 7 , said changed recipe having changed simple sugars in said mashing schedule. 
     
     
         9 . The automated recipe creation system of  claim 1 , said user input component being a slider user interface component.