# Soda Water?



## gjhansford

If Soda Water is just carbonated water can I gas up a keg of water and have one of my beer taps dispensing soda water?

Has anyone done this? How long does it take ... what pressure etc? Will a standard Perlick or Micromatic tap do the job?

Now before I get flamed for dedicating one of my beer taps to Soda Water let me 'justify' by explaining that a couple of our regular Friday Night patrons are on a bit of a cleansing diet for about 10 weeks and they've been bring their own bottle of commercial soda water. I's like to 'suprise' them with water in tap.

:icon_cheers: (with soda) ghhb


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## Goofinder

Fill keg with water. Add gas. Pour from tap into glass. Drink.

I (and many others on here) have a keg of soda water on tap all the time. It's good stuff, especially with cordial.

I just hook it up to the gas and leave it at serving pressure these days and it takes about a week to carb up. In the past I used to haul the keg out of the freezer and use the Ross method. The tap I use is the same micromatic as all the beer taps.


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## gjhansford

Goofinder said:


> Fill keg with water. Add gas. Pour from tap into glass. Drink.
> 
> I (and many others on here) have a keg of soda water on tap all the time. It's good stuff, especially with cordial.
> 
> I just hook it up to the gas and leave it at serving pressure these days and it takes about a week to carb up. In the past I used to haul the keg out of the freezer and use the Ross method. The tap I use is the same micromatic as all the beer taps.



Thanks ...

I have no idea why I didn't think of it before?

I found this on good ol' wikipedia:

Commercial soda water in siphons is made by chilling filtered plain water to 8 degrees Celsius, adding a sodium or potassium based alkaline compound such as sodium bicarbonate to reduce acidity, and then pressurising the water with carbon dioxide, known as Carbonation. The gas dissolves in the water, and a top-off fill of carbon dioxide is added to finally pressurise the siphon to approximately 120 psi (pounds per square inch), some 30 or 40 psi higher than is present in fermenting champagne bottles.

In most modern restaurants and drinking establishments soda water is often manufactured on-site using devices known as carbonators. Carbonators utilise filtered water and pressurise it to approximately 100 psi using mechanical pumps. The pressurized water is stored in stainless steel vessels and CO2 is injected into the water producing carbonated water.

Toowomba's tap water's not the best ... and even though I have a whole of house filter system I'd like to make my soda water a bit 'special'. Does anyone have a 'recipe' for adding mineral salts to say RO water to make it taste nice?


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## Airgead

ghhb said:


> Toowomba's tap water's not the best ... and even though I have a whole of house filter system I'd like to make my soda water a bit 'special'. Does anyone have a 'recipe' for adding mineral salts to say RO water to make it taste nice?



If you take a look at the label of very expensive, imported mineral water there is a panel with a mineral breakdown. If you took those figures and put them in as the target in the promash water calculator...


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## Screwtop

ghhb said:


> Toowomba's tap water's not the best ... and even though I have a whole of house filter system I'd like to make my soda water a bit 'special'. Does anyone have a 'recipe' for adding mineral salts to say RO water to make it taste nice?



Just take a drive out Herries St to where some very famous spring water is bottled and fill up a container from their tap :lol:


I fill a keg (leaving about 50mm below the gas in dip tube to allow good compressed gas volume) with Gympie town water which has a fairly high sodium content (30ppm) and hit it with 300KPA. Every time I am near the keg fridge I give it another hit at 300. After a couple of days it is sitting at around 120Kpa so I give it another burst of 300Kpa and decant off a few 1.5L bottles and pop them into the fridge. Bottles are filled until the gas level has dropped off then the keg is topped up (usually around 10L required) again and regassed. Having some carbonated water in the keg reduces the time it takes to bring the keg up in absorbed gas pressure again.

Cheers,

Screwy


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## Fourstar

Airgead said:


> If you take a look at the label of very expensive, imported mineral water there is a panel with a mineral breakdown. If you took those figures and put them in as the target in the promash water calculator...



best of all, chalk dissolves when you add CO2 to it due to the carbonic acid! Almost any posh mineral water at your fingertips!


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## drsmurto

Goofinder said:


> Fill keg with water. Add gas. Pour from tap into glass. Drink.
> 
> I (and many others on here) have a keg of soda water on tap all the time. It's good stuff, especially with cordial.
> 
> I just hook it up to the gas and leave it at serving pressure these days and it takes about a week to carb up. In the past I used to haul the keg out of the freezer and use the Ross method. The tap I use is the same micromatic as all the beer taps.



What pressure do you pour at?

I would have thought you would need at least 140kPa (20psi), probably a lot more as its quite highly carbonated. Far more so than beer.


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## Cortez The Killer

I usually force carb via the beer out post 

90-120 seconds of rocking

Cheers


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## Tony M

I put only about 15 litre of water in the keg and force carbonate at 400kpa for a couple of minutes then leave it disconnected from the gas manifold. It is necessary to top up the gas when (a) the dispense pressure has dropped below what you desire and (b) if you would like more gas in your water. Once the water has reached the desired level of carbonation and the dispense pressure has dropped to an approximation of that in your manifold, you can just hook up and let it run as normal. Once the water has been saturated with CO2, it seems to retain the gas pretty well, regardless of the head pressure.

edit; That smiley thing wont go away. Its supposed to be a "b"
PoMo edit: fixed that for you.


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## Frank

DrSmurto said:


> What pressure do you pour at?
> 
> I would have thought you would need at least 140kPa (20psi), probably a lot more as its quite highly carbonated. Far more so than beer.


I run my beer and soda both at 100kPa @ 5C. I have Celli rip off taps on my eBay kegorator so can control the beer flow if necessary.


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## gjhansford

You guys have been great ... working on the minerals tonight ... should havea keg ready to go for Friday. I love this forum. Thanks.

And with 150 posts I've just earned my 6th keg! Yee har!!


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## LLoyd

...then add some sodastream tonic water syrup and a couple bottles of gin.... :beerbang:


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## Airgead

LloydieP said:


> ...then add some sodastream tonic water syrup and a couple bottles of gin.... :beerbang:



Soda stream don't make the tonic any more. Discontinued. Along with the dry ginger.


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## komodo

^ WTF? really? thats balls


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## Airgead

Komodo said:


> ^ WTF? really? thats balls



No.. I told a lie.. just checked their website and its back!

Was completely unavailable and disappeared from the site for about a year but its back now.

Cool.


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## Bribie G

I've got a keg of lemonade on, at the moment, just water, a bottle of Sodastream concentrate and a few cheap diet lemonade PETs from Woolies to make up the volume. Very refreshing, but it's taking ages to carb up as opposed to the beer in the other two kegs. Strange because they were all kegged on the same day. I'll try the rocking method next time.


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## gjhansford

LloydieP said:


> ...then add some sodastream tonic water syrup and a couple bottles of gin.... :beerbang:


I've still got a 1 litre bottle of Bombay Saphire from my last trip OS ... mmmm ... I can see one big 19 litre keg of G&T coming up!


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## Pollux

Ohhh, sodastream do a tonic concentrate????

So going to K-mart tomorrow.....That said to make an 18L keg of G+T at the normal mixing rate of 30ml nip to a 7oz (210ml) glass it would take 75 nips of gin, which equates to 3 * 750ml bottles.........


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## Bribie G

Haven't had gin for ages, ah yes the good old days :icon_drunk:


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## gjhansford

Pollux said:


> Ohhh, sodastream do a tonic concentrate????
> 
> So going to K-mart tomorrow.....That said to make an 18L keg of G+T at the normal mixing rate of 30ml nip to a 7oz (210ml) glass it would take 75 nips of gin, which equates to 3 * 750ml bottles.........



Okay ... maybe not 19 liters ... I think I'd get sick of that! :icon_drunk: 

Anyway ... who really wants a keg of alcopops ... let's be MEN and go back to mixing it in the glass ... do I hear "shaken ... not stirred!"


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## jakester

I have been thinking of what i can do with some spare kegs for my kids birthday party at the end of the month. After reading this i might put on a keg of soda water and red cordial, i'm sure they will love it. All the men will be drinking my beer from the taps so it will give the kids a bit of fun also. I might even look into doing something for the ladies, has anyone tried anything like a cruiser or lemon rusky? If it can be done i will have everyone at the party covered! Will do a search and see what can be done.


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## komodo

Yep. A few guys have made alcoholic / hard lemonade - ie two dogs lemonage

Other wise you can make a soda stream lemonade / club squash type mix and add vodka for a lemon ruski type drink


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## Tony M

ghhb said:


> Thanks ...
> 
> 
> Commercial soda water in siphons is made by chilling filtered plain water to 8 degrees Celsius, adding a sodium or potassium based alkaline compound such as sodium bicarbonate to reduce acidity, and then pressurising the water with carbon dioxide, known as Carbonation. The gas dissolves in the water, and a top-off fill of carbon dioxide is added to finally pressurise the siphon to approximately 120 psi (pounds per square inch), some 30 or 40 psi higher than is present in fermenting champagne bottles.
> 
> 
> Toowomba's tap water's not the best ... and even though I have a whole of house filter system I'd like to make my soda water a bit 'special'. Does anyone have a 'recipe' for adding mineral salts to say RO water to make it taste nice?


I have dragged this post out as I'm looking for guidance in adding salts to soda water. I drink a lot of this and the Ph is around 4.7 and I have enough trouble with gastric acidity without drinking gallons of the stuff. My old teeth will be disappearing next.


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## Vlad the Pale Aler

The current keg of soda water was mineralised, a level teaspoon of everything in the brewing cupboard, tastes good too.

Do a search for the mineral profile of Perrier water then run it through your water profiler in Beersmith or Promash, posh water for nout.


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## JonnyAnchovy

in my very limited experience of making soda water in corny kegs (i.e. one keg) I got massive carbonic bite from the carbination. It make the water perceptibly more acidic than any commercial soda water, and not nearly as bubbly.

I guess mineral additions would buffer this, but has anyone else had similar experiences?


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## Bribie G

Ivesy: For some reason my keg of lemonade took 3 weeks to gas up acceptably at normal serving pressure (I have a 3 keg setup with a three way splitter so I couldn't force carb it, as it had to be at the same pressure as the 2 beers on tap). It's come real good, as good as a Sprite etc. However if you are doing it for the end of the month and it's going to be sitting on the same gas as your beers, then do it in the next couple of days.


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## brettprevans

use a one way valve on the line that way you can carb up 1 keg to a higher pressure and keep it at that pressure after you dial the pressure down on the reg. cheap way of getting around a dual pressure reg.


edit: the mineral water thread is here
I used PoMo's recipe and it came out nice once the salts had completely dissolved and dispursed through the keg. its was pretty hard core whilst the salts just sat at the bottom of the keg. actually i'd tone it back a touch on all of it.


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## Edgewater

For a clone of "Kirk's" style ginger beer use three 750ml cordial ginger beer bottles from the supermarket and then top up the keg with water. Turns out great after about three days under pressure in the fridge. Costs about $10. When I followed the instructions I found it too sweet (one to four) thus diluting it more to fill the whole keg for my taste was better.


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## Tony M

Tony M said:


> I have dragged this post out as I'm looking for guidance in adding salts to soda water. I drink a lot of this and the Ph is around 4.7 and I have enough trouble with gastric acidity without drinking gallons of the stuff. My old teeth will be disappearing next.


I made another batch of 15 litres with 20gm soda bi-carb and 2gm epsom salts into the keg. the Ph is up from 4.7 t0 5.9 and TDS from 400 to 1490ppm. It tastes more neutral now, presumably because a lot of the acidic bite has disappeared. It is certainly easier to drink, but is lacking in character. I suppose it is only water after all.


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## Pogierob

I had a spare keg and only just put something in the fermenter so I thought, why not throw a soda water in.....

Soda water is now going to be a permanent... so so good
it also gives me that non alcoholic choice and even though I have a keg o' beer on the other tap I find myself hitting the soda as a substitute on school nights,
The other half is pretty happy too as I have been wandering out with all sorts of soda water bevvies and just passing her a glass. (of course this is all part of the plan) to increase my tap numbers.

Any way, if you find yourself with a keg spare and no beer ready I recommend throwing one on... even if you ditch it once your beer needs the keg.


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## Ciderman

I'm in the middle of a keezer build and will be having soda water on tap. I was looking at getting perlick 650ss taps for beer, should I get the same tap for soda water or something cheaper?


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## DU99

i would get a cheaper tap like this...thats my 2cents


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## themonkeysback

Ciderman said:


> I'm in the middle of a keezer build and will be having soda water on tap. I was looking at getting perlick 650ss taps for beer, should I get the same tap for soda water or something cheaper?


I use perlick flow control taps for my beers, but found I preferred my soda water keg from a non flow control tap (perlick 525ss), it poured more easily and the carbonation was better. So I agree with Du99, and would go either a non flow control perlick, or a cheaper tap.

Adam.


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## Ciderman

themonkeysback said:


> I use perlick flow control taps for my beers, but found I preferred my soda water keg from a non flow control tap (perlick 525ss), it poured more easily and the carbonation was better. So I agree with Du99, and would go either a non flow control perlick, or a cheaper tap.
> 
> Adam.


Great that's what I thought.


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## kevinj

I cycle the soda water through my taps to help keep them clean. 
It can take a while to get rid of that yucky beer taste from the tap.


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## navarau

What a great topic and timely too.

I'm just starting the mods on my keezer to include a lemonade dispenser for the kids. I picked up an old Schweppes mixing head from a swap meet. It has 6 heads so I can run 6 different flavour. The intention is to have a common keg for the soda water and then have each cordial in an aluminium drink bottle under about 5 psi co2 pressure. The mixing head is where the magic happens and can be adjusted to get the perfect ratio of cordial to soda water.

I,m on holidays at the moment but when I get home I will upload some pics to make it a bit clearer as to what I'm doing.

If anybody knows where I can get a second hand "gun" type despenser like they use In Pubs now I would be very keen to know.


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## waggastew

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORNELIUS-8-BUTTON-BAR-GUN-WUNDER-BAR-PEPSI-COKE-4-/311198566357?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4874e147d5

Bout cheapest I saw on fleabay


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## navarau

Thanks Waggastew I really appreciate your reply. I had seen them but being a tight arse home brewer I didn't like the idea of the $62.95 US postage. 

Given all the cafe's, restaurants and pubs we have here in Australia and all the refurbs that go on there must be a place that these things go to die. 

Sorry for the post hijack, I'll ask the question in the buy and sell section.


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## barls

http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=361_74


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## stux

When carbonating the soda water I find it takes forever at 100kpa serving pressure. I connect it up over night at 350 kpa and give it a few minutes shaking the next day when it's chilled, then I can dial my reg back to standard pressure. The soda keg is on a non return valve. 

I fill it with filtered water

Soda water has been a permanent addition to my keg fridge for so long now that Swmbo even refills it!

We tend to take a 1-2L jug with a serving of soda stream syrup (got dozens now) and mix it at the tap. Pour a few hundred mls, swirl swirl then fill up. 

Great at parties too


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## Florian

We drink way more soda water than beer in our house hold so I have 2 soda kegs and one beer keg in the kegerator. One soda water for drinking and the other one is carbing so there is a seamless supply when a keg blows.

I can also just fit two 2.6kg MKOL Co2 bottles into the kegerator, one at 200 kPa for the soda water and the other one at whatever I serve the beer at.

Like Stux I used to carb at about 400 kPa for a while to speed things up. When I was doing that I greatly appreciated having a flow control tap for soda water so you could still dispense while it was carbing.

I wouldn't skimp getting a cheap tap for soda water and if it's only for looks, but each to their own.


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## stuartf

Hey guys sorry to revive this thread but looking for some advice on running a soda water keg in my kegerator. Having trouble with serving once I have carbed it. Thinking it may be the length of beer line I am using? Basically I cant get a decent flow out of the tap unless I have the pressure up quite high, what length beer line do people use for their soda water kegs? I'm using 5mm id lines btw.
Thanks for any advice


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## Tony M

When I make up my soda keg, I leave a good gap at the top, probably 3 or 4 litres of space. I charge this up to 300 kilopickles and keep topping it up for 3 or 4 days until the water is saturated. U will find that with a three atmosphere kick behind it, you will get lots of super bubbly soda.

I forgot to mention that I keep the soda keg disconnected from the rest of the CO2 plumbing. An occasional topup with gas will keep things flowing.


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## stuartf

So you don't worry about lone length at all? I was having problems with the tap leaking a bit with the higher pressure but that's because I kept the keg connected. Do you disconnect your beer kegs before reconnecting the soda keg then?


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## Tony M

My CO2 bottle is connected to the system with a standard corny keg coupling so I can unplug it from the kegerator and connect to the soda keg direct. That way I don't upset the peace, tranquility and balance of the system or operator.


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