Kegging Coke & Whisky

[hrforever]

Last night we tried kegging coke and whisky with a reasonable amount of success.

Purchased 4 litres of coke and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red, poured into a keg, put gas on at 11kpa and dispensed.The result was drinkable but a bit flat to look at but the taste suggested some carbonation was there.

Has anyone done this with better results (ie more bubbles). Is the method of pouring the coke from the bottles into the keg the trick or does the pressure need to be higher.

Am prepared to try again as last nights trial sample is all gone.

Cheers

 

[Sammus]

11kpa isnt much, and coke is usually super carbonated - I would say you would need at least 100kpa to get anywhere near the carbonation levels of coke (I'm assuming it lost some/alot in the transfer).
Then to make it pour at a decent speed you would either need a flow restrictor on your tap line or a long high resistance (read small ID) beer line.

Dunno how correct that is, would probably be the first thing I'd try though...

 

[hrforever]

Sammus

Sorry, I meant 11 psi or 110 kpa.

Are you suggesting a faster flow rate through the tap to keep the carbonation up. I've got Celli taps so adjusting the flow is easy. Unfortunately I didn't play to much with this last night but perhaps it works in reverse to pouring a good beer.

 

[kook]

I know for soda water you need more like 300kpa. I'd imagine that coke would be similar.

 

[Guest Lurker]

You do need about 300 kPa to match coke. And coke on its own will pour with full gas at 300 kPa. But when you add alcohol, it seems to do bad things to the surface tension, and it will do the degas on pour thing, giving you flat coke. So through a normal beer tap, about 200kPa makes it taste gassed if a little flat, but you can get it out the tap.

 

[Sammus]

Sammus

Sorry, I meant 11 psi or 110 kpa.

Are you suggesting a faster flow rate through the tap to keep the carbonation up. I've got Celli taps so adjusting the flow is easy. Unfortunately I didn't play to much with this last night but perhaps it works in reverse to pouring a good beer.

I wasn't sure of the exact pressure needed, the point i was making is that to get the carb up you would need much more pressure - but that can do bad things for pouring, so you need to restrict the speed somehow post keg - your celli tap will do this fine. My guess is that in the transfer to the keg you lost a lot of the carb - something which isnt really instantly recoverable. Maybe if you could crank the pressure to 300kpa or more and set the restrictor to get a decent pour- then leave it for a while to absorb some more CO2 - it could be better. but really I'm just talkin out my *** - these are just things I would probably try, nothing properly tested

 

[paul]

Ive done it a few times. You will never get it to pour like like out of a can. Once you add spirit to it it looses a fair bit of carbonation.

Have a think of premixed scotch cans and the level of carbonation that they have got. This is the best that you will get it. Or if youve have Bundy draught of Johnnie draught you wouldve noticed that its not overly fizzy.

 

[Jazzafish]

I have done this a fair bit with cordial or soda stream coke. Simply carbonated like the ross method...

Adding the spirit does play with the carbonation, but I found force carbonating it to absorb more gass worked a treat.

Last time I did it I decided to just have the soft drink on tap and mix own spirits into the glass. I found friends liked different amounts of spirit in their drinks. Also kept the drivers happy.

Cheers,
Jarrad

 

[Geeza]

I know for soda water you need more like 300kpa. I'd imagine that coke would be similar.

Is that for carbonating the water or pouring

 

[MHB]

Coke in a can has around 6g/L of dissolved CO2.
If you go to a good carbonation table (I like this one on Braukaiser) measure the temperature of your fridge, then set the pressure to get the amount of fizz you want.
Say your fridge is at 4oC, follow accross from the temperature (4oC) untill you find the Disolved CO2 you want (6.1g/L) then look up, you get 1.2 (*100) or 120kPa.
Personally I like a bit more fizz, around 9g/L works for me, so around 230kPa (I usually set at ~250kPa)
Remember it takes time to balance out, usually a couple of days. If you can chill your coke down to close to zero before you pour it into the keg, you will loose less gas, as will puting some hose on a funnel, put the hose down to the bottom of the keg and pour gently, a gentle pour helps stop foaming and loss of CO2.
Mark