Carbonating Fruit Juice

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PostModern

Iron Wolf Brewery
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A while ago I was in a thread about carbonating some apple juice in kegs for the kids/non-drinkers but I can't find it now. This week the Mrs bought a bunch of apple juice for me to carb up, so I'll be putting the juice in a freshly reconditioned 18L keg and turning on the gas. Anyone with experience in this? Is it pretty much the same process as carbonating a keg of beer? Would appreciate any tips from those who have done it in the past.

For reference, my usual kegging process is to fill keg with cold beer, attach gas, burp head space and carbonate at 14-16psi (either shake for immediate gratification or leave on the gas for a few days to a week). I serve at the same pressure with a 2m beer line.
 
PostModern said:
A while ago I was in a thread about carbonating some apple juice in kegs for the kids/non-drinkers but I can't find it now. This week the Mrs bought a bunch of apple juice for me to carb up, so I'll be putting the juice in a freshly reconditioned 18L keg and turning on the gas. Anyone with experience in this? Is it pretty much the same process as carbonating a keg of beer? Would appreciate any tips from those who have done it in the past.

For reference, my usual kegging process is to fill keg with cold beer, attach gas, burp head space and carbonate at 14-16psi (either shake for immediate gratification or leave on the gas for a few days to a week). I serve at the same pressure with a 2m beer line.
[post="81676"][/post]​
I would have thought identical except you might want a higher level of carbonation.
 
That is what I was thinking.
I'll pick the pressure by trial and error.

Cheers.
 
Thanks halfinch, that's the thread I was looking for.

LHBS reckons 40psi for 48 hours. My kids can't wait 48 hours :) so I set it to 40psi and shook the hell out of it for 5 mins or so (could not hear any more gas going in). I plan to burp it down to my dispensing pressure (14psi), then remove the gas line for dispensing.

Will report back on how it goes.
 
I want one of them caps, I made a dogdey one but it leaks! anyway if any adelaide brewers are ordering in any gear add one of these for me.

PoMo, the easiest way would be just buy a soda stream and the kids can do it themselves. Having a empty keg you can lend to the kids is something you shouldn't have mentioned :lol:


'The trooper'
Jayse
 
Home made is good (just like beer):

BottleFillerQD.jpg
 
sosman said:
Home made is good (just like beer):

BottleFillerQD.jpg

[post="81878"][/post]​

What pressure & for how long to carbonate using that setup Sosman?
 
jayse said:
PoMo, the easiest way would be just buy a soda stream and the kids can do it themselves. Having a empty keg you can lend to the kids is something you shouldn't have mentioned
[post="81820"][/post]​

Nah. 18 litres of the stuff on tap gives them much better bragging rights in the school yard :)

I've never had a need for more than 2 kegs before (I had 2 in circulation and 2 in the shed waiting for reconditioning) but now that I've given one over to the kids, I need it back :) Luckily (??:eek:??) one of my brews is borderline chuckable :(, so I will have enough space for all of us shortly. It also gave me the opportunity to reco all of my spare kegs. (Freakily, the previous owner had "repaired" one of the pressure relief valves with a mild steel screw and some plumbers tape. The inside of that one was very red... grrr. All good now with a new valve).

Anyway, I carbed the juice at 40 psi and it's really fizzy. Apple juice doesn't hold the gas as well as beer, but it comes out very sparkling. Now I'll have to teach the Mrs how to burp the keg and lower pressure for dispensing so she can serve them "apple sparkle" after school.
 
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