Abstract: Carbonated beverages are dispensed by an apparatus that includes a tank mounted for holding the beverage at atmospheric pressure. An inlet tube is provided to supply beverage beneath the surface of the beverage already in said tank. An nozzle projects from said tank for a length at least as great as the depth of a serving container into which beverage will be dispensed. A valve member movably located in an outlet of the nozzle and has a conical shape. The valve member is moved by an actuator between a closed position in which the outlet of the nozzle is sealed against beverage flow, and an open position in which beverage can flow from the nozzle. The conical shape of said valve member disperses the beverage in a 360 degree pattern around the outlet to reduce beverage foaming. A shell encloses the tank and forms a cavity therebetween through which chilled air circulates to maintain the beverage in the tank at a desired serving temperature.

Abstract: A beverage dispenser fills a container with a beverage by controlling beverage flow through a nozzle with a valve. A mechanism reads an indicia printed on the container which identifies a volume for that container. The volume information is sent to a controller which responses by activating the valve to dispense a quantity of beverage that corresponds to the volume indicated by the indicia. Thus the beverage dispenser is able to automatically fill containers of different sizes by reading each containers volume indicating indicia. The indicia also may indicate a unique serial number assigned to each container. In that case, the controller stores data in memory which identify serial numbers of containers into which beverage has been dispensed previously and the dispensing is inhibited if the server attempts to refill one of those containers.