Making soda water

[Black Devil Dog]

Has anyone made soda water using CO2 from their keg set up?

I love cold soda water in summer and don't always have any in the fridge.

 

[adryargument]

I have done one keg,
I found 16-18 psi to high, quite a bite.

 

[robbo5253]

I used rain water and gassed to 300kpa for 3 days then just took the gas off and just charged as required to dispense.
Worth having a keg in the fridge over the hot months.
Cheers
Robbo

 

[Florian]

We go through a keg of soda water about every three days.

At the moment I have two gas bottles hooked up to a kegerator in the kitchen, one at 'normal' beer pressure and the other at 200 kpa for soda water.

As I wanted to keep two of the three available taps for beer but also a new keg of cold and carbed soda water ready when the old one blows I have an old bar fridge in the garage which cools and carbs soda water at 200 kpa. So basically two kegs constantly in rotation.

I use RO water, there is also some sort of 'alkaline remineralization' cartridge hooked up to give it a bit more life back.

I've tried the San Pellegrino recipe that's floating around the forum here a few times but we agree that the straight RO tastes much nicer. But I know others apparently had good success with it.
I'm currently experimenting with different salt additions to try and find a balance but haven't found anything that beats straight RO yet.

Anyway, soda water on tap is one of the best things I've ever done I reckon and the wife is forever grateful.

 

[benno1973]

We always have a keg of soda water on tap. Good for mixing with cordial for the kids, or vodka/lime/sodas (also for the kids).

Filtered water carbed to about 180-200 kpa.

It's the reason why I upgraded my kegerator to 5 taps.

BTW, there's a couple of threads here and here on soda water, discussing 'recipes', carb pressure, etc.

 

[barls]

straight carbon filtered here force carbed at my normal serving pressure works fine

 

[stux]

I fill the same keg with filtered water then carbonate for 3 days or so at 300kpa. Soon as it blows... fill it up again.

I just connect it at standard dispensing pressure... if we go through the soda slowly it sometimes goes a bit flat and needs a bit more pressure.

I don't recommend sanitizing with starsan... i find the flavour comes through... or at least it makes a sudsy drop!


Looking at mineral salts to simulate san pelegrino

 

[Florian]

Yep, have never cleaned or sanitised my soda kegs except before the first fill.

 

[stux]

Yep, have never cleaned or sanitised my soda kegs except before the first fill.

I used the boiling water trick on it last time it blew, seems to have improved it. Probably a good idea every few fills.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll do it, there's nothing quite as refreshing on a hot day.

 

[Amber Fluid]

I always have a soda water on tap... as mentioned previously, great for the kids but it is also nice and easy to run through the beer taps after a session. Saves faffing about and keeps them clean.