Soada Stream Co2

[Spartan 117]

Hey Guys

Bought myself a fridge during the week as I'm gonna move from bottling to kegging. Just wondering if the soda stream bottles with an adaptor are worth the effort or is renting a bottle the way to go(not interested in buying one atm). I only go through a brew(23L) a month, don't get much time these days. Also I've heard of swapping soda stream bottles in places like kmart etc. wondering who cal tell me how that works.

Cheers

Aaron

 

[bum]

You just take your empty up to the service desk and swap for a new one - much like lpg bottles at most servos these days.

 

[clarkey7]

Hey Guys

Bought myself a fridge during the week as I'm gonna move from bottling to kegging. Just wondering if the soda stream bottles with an adaptor are worth the effort or is renting a bottle the way to go(not interested in buying one atm). I only go through a brew(23L) a month, don't get much time these days. Also I've heard of swapping soda stream bottles in places like kmart etc. wondering who cal tell me how that works.

Cheers

Aaron

Aaron ,

I think you can only carbonate and dispense 2 kegs from these bottles (I only dispense when I'm mobile) and they cost about $11 bucks to swap.

That's assuming you don't have any leaks which might catch you out...Got me once...

Anyway, do the numbers on all the options and go for it.

PB

 

[Greg Lawrence]

Wow, so people actually use soda stream bottles as their main gas supply. Mindblowing!
That would explain those who are concerned about wasting a bit of gas (gassing up 1/2 full kegs etc).
I always thought that they were just cheapskates worried about a bit of gas. Maybe I was right after all, they are cheapskates, not wanting to fork out (bugger all) for gas cylinder rental or actually buy a cylinder.
I havent done the sums, but cylinder rental is not that much (around 30c/day from memory) and it only costs me about $50 to fill up/swap a bottle which lasts me roughly 35-40 kegs.

 

[mika]

Bugger renting them, too cheap to buy. Last cylinder lasted me better than 2yrs, 2yrs rental is about the same as the cost to purchase, as soon as it's empty, it's going back to BOC and they can stick it.

 

[Barramundi]

how many soda stream bottles do ya have spartan ? i have facility to fill them rather than pay the $10-15 to swap each one

 

[daemon]

I started off with the sodastream adaptor and go through roughly on keg a month. It was cheaper than renting and at the time I didn't have enough (well, didn't want to spend!) to buy a cylinder outright. I could carbonate and dispense two kegs with it, meaning that it was costing ~$6 a month for CO2. I've since bought a 2.6KG cylinder off eBay, which was $199 delivered and full of gas. It's dispensed quite a few kegs already and still very portable so I'm happy.

 

[Spartan 117]

how many soda stream bottles do ya have spartan ? i have facility to fill them rather than pay the $10-15 to swap each one

dont have any mate, just weighing up my options.

Aaron

 

[Leigh]

I naturally carbonate in the keg and use the soda stream canisters to push the beer out. Apparently it will last 11 kegs doing it this way (which is about 6 months).

Just remember, if you intend naturally carbing in kegs, priming rates are about half that for bottles.

 

[Spartan 117]

Just remember, if you intend naturally carbing in kegs, priming rates are about half that for bottles.

Any idea wy that is ?

Aaron

 

[scott_penno]

I do the same as Leigh - prime the keg and then use the CO2 from a Soda Stream cylinder to dispense. Lasts quite a while (~6 months with 1 to 2 kegs a month). Only thing to be mindful of is that from time to time your local Kmart might be out of stock of full cylinders so you will have to a) shop around or B) wait a while.
I use both bottles and kegs and the choice to use a the soda stream cylinder was about both cost and portability.
Re priming calculation. No idea why it is but Beersmith has a calculation for bulk priming kegs and it is roughly half what you'd use for bottling...

sap.

 

[absinthe]

i have 2 soda stream bottles and i only use then for CO2 powered spud guns, for the cost of swapping 6 of them (1.5kg of CO2) i fill my F size bottle (10 kg??)

i also fill my soda bottles from my large tank...

although i am toying with the idea of keeping the big tank in the shed and filling 2 soda bottles to use with my cellar reg panel

 

[white.grant]

Re priming calculation. No idea why it is but Beersmith has a calculation for bulk priming kegs and it is roughly half what you'd use for bottling...

sap.

Really? Just looking at the carbonation tool in beersmith now and it doesn't specify what type of container is being used, just desired CO2 volume, beer temp and beer volume.

Am I missing something?

cheers

grant

 

[gunbrew]

I use the soda stream cylinders.
They are available at the main checkout from my local woolworths or K-mart.
Sometimes the people at either shop do not know what they are, that they sell them or how the 1 for 1 exchange system works when I asked.
I used one such opportunity to get 2 tanks when only exchanging one....

They only carb up 2 kegs if your lucky but a few more than that if you natural carb.

Natural carbing in the keg I use 4g of dextrose per litre.
In the bottle I use 7g of destrose.

Hope that helps.
And do move to kegging as it's a whole new world of homebrewing goodness.
Cheers.

 

[scott_penno]

Really? Just looking at the carbonation tool in beersmith now and it doesn't specify what type of container is being used, just desired CO2 volume, beer temp and beer volume.

Am I missing something?

cheers

grant

Hi Grant,

Have a look at 'Type'. You can specify 'Corn Sugar' which most people would use for priming bottles with cane sugar and then further down there is 'Kegged (Corn Sugar)' which can be used if you prime your keg with cane sugar...

sap.

 

[white.grant]

Hi Grant,

Have a look at 'Type'. You can specify 'Corn Sugar' which most people would use for priming bottles with cane sugar and then further down there is 'Kegged (Corn Sugar)' which can be used if you prime your keg with cane sugar...

sap.

Thanks sappas,

It's always a good day when I learn something. :icon_cheers:

cheers

grant