Sodastream Cylinder In The Fridge?

[Bulmershe]

Hi guys,
I am an absolute newbie to home brewing. Great Forum!
I am gradually buying a kegging setup. Due to limited funds, I have bought a sodastream bottle to gas the keg. I still need to get a regulator, tap and lines. With 3 very young kids in the house, I am wondering when I have it all set up if there would be a problem if the sodastream cylinder was stored in the fridge with the keg instead of outside it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ross]

Hi guys,
I am an absolute newbie to home brewing. Great Forum!
I am gradually buying a kegging setup. Due to limited funds, I have bought a sodastream bottle to gas the keg. I still need to get a regulator, tap and lines. With 3 very young kids in the house, I am wondering when I have it all set up if there would be a problem if the sodastream cylinder was stored in the fridge with the keg instead of outside it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

welcome to the forum bulmershe,

Inside the fridge will be fine. sodastream bottles will work out pretty expensive unless your consumption is very low...

cheers Ross

 

[Bulmershe]

welcome to the forum bulmershe,

Inside the fridge will be fine. sodastream bottles will work out pretty expensive unless your consumption is very low...

cheers Ross

Thanks Ross for the quick reply.
My consumption is quite low. I just wanted to break my way into kegging with minimal outlay. Later on I would like to get one of the nitro / CO2 blend cylinders from kegs on legs to be able to produce a nice Caffreys or similar style of beer.

PS After I posted my first message, found your slick party keg setup. Very nice.

Cheers.

 

[ausdb]

Hi guys,
I am an absolute newbie to home brewing. Great Forum!
I am gradually buying a kegging setup. Due to limited funds, I have bought a sodastream bottle to gas the keg. I still need to get a regulator, tap and lines. With 3 very young kids in the house, I am wondering when I have it all set up if there would be a problem if the sodastream cylinder was stored in the fridge with the keg instead of outside it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you are trying to keg the cheap way then cut your dip tubes 1/2" short and suagr prime your kegs to naturally carbonate then just use the soadstream to apply top pressure to dispense. It will take longer to get beer drinking (approx 2 weeks) but will save a lot of gas. I started kegging using a sodstream to carbonate but quickly got tired of getting the sodstream refilled so got a fire extinguisher instead.

 

[Bulmershe]

If you are trying to keg the cheap way then cut your dip tubes 1/2" short and suagr prime your kegs to naturally carbonate then just use the soadstream to apply top pressure to dispense. It will take longer to get beer drinking (approx 2 weeks) but will save a lot of gas.

Thanks Ausdb for the great tip. Cutting the dip tubes and sugar priming sounds like a plan :super: .

 

[shotduck]

I take it your reason for wanting to keep the cylinder and reg inside the fridge is to keep the gauge away from little fingers? If this is the case you may want to check out the allbar brand regulators. They have a safety key which you can remove so that the pressure cannot be accidentally changed, whether by bumping it or the kids playing "brewer". I'm not certain who sells them... I know TCB used to when I worked there, but it might be worth ringing around. You could even try Lancer-Pacific direct - if they won't sell to the public, they could at least point you in the direction of a retailer who stocks them.

Cheers,
TSD



P.S. - they are a little more expensive than other regulators, but in my mind the quality is worth the extra cost.

 

[BrissyBrew]

The sodastream bottle will not not change in performance between inside the fridge and outside, however i can be an expensive way to buy gas.

 

[Ross]

I take it your reason for wanting to keep the cylinder and reg inside the fridge is to keep the gauge away from little fingers? If this is the case you may want to check out the allbar brand regulators. They have a safety key which you can remove so that the pressure cannot be accidentally changed, whether by bumping it or the kids playing "brewer". I'm not certain who sells them... I know TCB used to when I worked there, but it might be worth ringing around. You could even try Lancer-Pacific direct - if they won't sell to the public, they could at least point you in the direction of a retailer who stocks them.

Cheers,
TSD



P.S. - they are a little more expensive than other regulators, but in my mind the quality is worth the extra cost.

the Micromatic regs have the same safety feature

cheers Ross

 

[Wortgames]

I reckon I can dispense about 4 or 5 pre-carbonated kegs with a single sodastream cylinder - so at $11 a refill it probably isn't unfeasible to use it as your main dispensing system, especially if your only CO2 options are $100 a year BOC rental or a couple of hundred dollars cylinder purchase. I just use mine for 'touring' though.

You would probably be able to purge, carbonate and dispense a keg from a single cylinder, maybe with a bit left over (anyone?), so that would put your total cost per keg dispensed at around $10. This might still be acceptable if you don't get through a lot, and if you factor in the hour or two that you save washing and filling bottles.

It's also worth mentioning that SodaStream do (or at least, used to do) a 100L bottle as well as the standard 40L - although these need to be exchanged by mail rather than a quick visit to K-Mart.

The biggest issue that I could see would be having enough bottles 'in reserve' to make it convenient - you could probably get away with 2 bottles, if you get into K-Mart regularly enough, otherwise you might want to get yourself 4 or 5 - which at $30-odd a pop will soon add up.

 

[Bulmershe]

The sodastream bottle will not not change in performance between inside the fridge and outside

Thanks for letting me know about the performance.

Being completely new to brewing and kegging, I am glad putting the sodastream bottle in the fridge won't wreck my brew or the performance of the cylinder.

Thanks to all the others too that have passed on their knowledge on this matter.

 

[randyrob]

Hey Guys,

i also keep my sodastream bottle in the fridge at this stage and i notice when its in the fridge
the harris 601 regualtor shows an incorrect reading on the amount of gas left in the bottle
but when i pull it out the frigde the needle goes back to where it should be.

Rob.

 

[randyrob]

oh yeah also make sure you stand it up, as when you lay them down liquid c02 gets into the reg and messes it up.

 

[frogman]

The biggest issue that I could see would be having enough bottles 'in reserve' to make it convenient - you could probably get away with 2 bottles, if you get into K-Mart regularly enough, otherwise you might want to get yourself 4 or 5 - which at $30-odd a pop will soon add up.

The rental aggreement when purchasing a soda stream cylinder is only on the outer cardboard box. So if you are shopping and happen to "see" one on the shelf which is no longer in its box it will only cost you the swap price.

Damien.

 

[ausdb]

Hey Guys,

i also keep my sodastream bottle in the fridge at this stage and i notice when its in the fridge
the harris 601 regualtor shows an incorrect reading on the amount of gas left in the bottle
but when i pull it out the frigde the needle goes back to where it should be.

Rob.

It's not Incorrect just showing the saturation pressure relative to the bottle temp, which will be lower when its cold. :blink:

 

[randyrob]

It's not Incorrect just showing the saturation pressure relative to the bottle temp, which will be lower when its cold. :blink:

hehe yeah thats the more technical term i was looking for, the first time it happened to me i thought perhaps i had a leak then i weighed the bottle and it appeared to have gas in it still. so as long as your
aware its not a problem. tho i am saving my pennies for a fire extinguisher from john @ eversafe.

Rob.

 

[Wortgames]

The rental aggreement when purchasing a soda stream cylinder is only on the outer cardboard box. So if you are shopping and happen to "see" one on the shelf which is no longer in its box it will only cost you the swap price.

Are you sure about that? It sounds a bit suss to me. When I got mine from K-Mart there were no boxes (they keep them in a crate behind the service desk), but they had the yellow agreement sticker attached to the cylinder. I bought 6 of them for the refill price (in good faith, the rumour was that that was the new deal - that was when they had just introduced the new ali cylinders). When I went back later they wanted $36 or something without an exchange.

Haven't tried anywhere else.

Are you saying that the bar code on the bottle is for a refill only? If that's the case I could see some checkout staff making the mistake...

 

[frogman]

Are you saying that the bar code on the bottle is for a refill only? If that's the case I could see some checkout staff making the mistake...

That is exactly what I'm saying and it has been tested.

 

[Wortgames]

That's interesting - I'm not sure it would work every time though, you get some wily old crows on the checkout sometimes...