Soft Drink On Tap? Will It Work?

[Darren]

Im drinking carbed water with lemon cordial at the moment (believe it or not). I just gas the keg of water, fill glass then add cordial. Works a treat and you can change flavours when ever you like (kids like red cordial)

cheers

Darren

PS: Adding the flavour to the kegs is likely to "taint" the poppets. Not something you want in beer down the track.

 

[clean brewer]

For soft drinks made from cordial, is there any particular mixture that should be used, or just however sweet the cordial would normally be used if it were not being carbed up?

I seem to have an idea that it perhaps needs to be a tad on the stronger side to counteract what I perceive to be a 'bite' that carbed water on its own has. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Crundle

I did a keg(19ltr) of Cordial(apple and raspberry) for the kids(their special drink) and used a whole bottle of Cottees Cordial and filled the rest with water, force carbed and just set to 70kpa and it come out really nice, I found I was drinking it a fair bit aswell. The other good thing is that it has half the sugar of softdrink, which is much better for them. I just served from a Bronco Tap and all was good.

I also did a 9ltr keg of Vodka, Lime and Soda. For that I just used a 1125ml Smirnoff Vodka and 6 bottles Schweppes Lime and Soda. Just Chilled it all down first and put in the keg and topped up with co2. I worked it out that to get a good mix, you need 1400ml of spirit but hey it still went down nice and is much cheaper and nicer than pre-mix cans..

CB

 

[crundle]

Good idea about carbing the water only and then adding the flavour after, as the kids like their red cordial while I would rather have ginger beer or lemon flavour, and I can only fit four kegs in the kegerator at one time.

Mmm, I have a keg about to become empty, might be time to try it.....

Crundle

 

[pb unleaded]

I have a dedicated keg for this purpose and make soft drink in it all the time. I use 2 x 2lt cordial or 750ml soda stream (1 1/2 bottles) for 19 lt keg. This gives normal strength. I mix cordial and water, then chill/carbonate, no problems serving with pluto gun.

arthr

 

[anc001]

As I wait to get a new kettle I've been low on beer, and have made up a keg of lemonade.
Sodastream concentrate, some bickfords lemon tea cordial and the juice squeezed from some strange sour yellow fruits I found at the supermarket.

Next time I'll use a dozen or more lemons, 6 was good in a half batch but not enough in the full batch.
Also next time I'll sieve better so I don't have to dismantle my SS Celi to remove pulp.


I've taken to a G&T or two at dusk, I mix 1/3 gin, 2/3 tonic, slice of lime, squeezed, couple of ice cubes.
That's a lot of Bombay Saphire to make up a full keg of G&Ts.
I did just get a copy of How to make Gin and Vodka, but obviously since distilling is illegal in Aus I'm only interested in how they get the flavours form the botanicals. Hmmmm botanicals! :icon_drool2:

 

[jeremy]

I have also made soft drink (via soda stream mix) and poured from the keg without problems.

HOWEVER, I tend to carb it MUCH higher than my beer, and it is worth noting that I pour at a much higher pressure also (cant remember how high). One possible problem with pouring all foam might be carbing up big, then trying to pour it at a much lower pressure.

 

[brettprevans]

SJW - sorry i misread your post and thought you were putting in bought ginger beer (ie already carbed). You should have any issues with it. Ive got mineral water and it needs a lot more carbonation than my beers, but the celli taps take care of the extra carbing.

TB- no idea where you can get Quinnine bark from. Ive been looking but with no luck. Theres a Tonic water thread on AHB that a few of us discussed it but didnt get anywhere. IT you find something let me know.


Darren is right about softdrink cordial etc 'tainting' Orings, seals poppets etc. Thats why whewn you buy 2nd hand kegs that have been used for softdrink its recomended that you reaplce the seals cause you can ever get rid of the tainting. So good idea to make sure you reuse the same keg for softdrink.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

CM2 - I was just looking at the soda stream website...you can get Tonic flavoured syrup. That might be the best we can do

 

[adraine]

I have just been reading this thread because i am keen to do a Bourbon and coke on tap for a bucks show im putting on.
I can see alott about soft drinks and g&t's but nothing on Bourbon and coke.
Has anyone tried this yet? ( Stupid question i imagine) & can someone please post a recipe & directions if poss.

Cheers Adam :beer:

 

[Adamt]

I've read plenty about bourbon/whisky/scotch and coke mixes on these forums... a search for "bourbon" would probably find it.

Having said that it's pretty straight forward: Figure out how much bourbon you want per volume of coke and scale up to 19L.

3 bottles would give you approximately 3 shots per litre of mix.

 

[adraine]

the original search gave me this and another soft drink link. I was more after carbing and pouring pressures and if it changes between soft drinks and spirits with soft drinks.

 

[buttersd70]

Shouldn't be too hard to work it out....given that a standard spirit mix is (and correct me if I'm wrong) 30mL to a 200mL glass....which makes 30mL + 170mL.....
19L/200mL = 95 standard drinks to a keg.....= 95x 30mL bourbon, + 95x170mL coke
= 2850mL bourbon + 16.15L coke.

so you work out how much soda stream syrup is needed for 16.15L of coke.....
500mL of syrup = 12L (according to soda stream)

so, 673mL (round up to 675) of syrup is required for 16.15L of coke....
16.15-0.675 = 15.475L (round up to 15.5) of water + 675mL of syrup + 2.85L of bourbon = 19L of bourbon and coke, at a dilution of 30mL per 200mL.......

Bingo.

Having said that, haven't done it.....but thats how the numbers work out.

Edit...can't help with the charging amounts....but I would suspect that you would need slightly higher than for regular soft drink. The serving pressure can be whatever the carb rate is, as long as the line is long enough for the pressure.

 

[adraine]

All that just off the top of your head ay butters?
Respect. B)

might just mix a batch and play it by ear. the boys will drink anything on the night if believe.

Cheers Adam :beer:

 

[RetsamHsam]

Has anyone ever given any thought to making a lolly water??

I have my wifes 21st coming up and was toying with the idea of making up a batch of dextrose and water, fermenting it at a lowish temp (say 16-17deg) with a neutral yeast like US-05 and then adding red cordial to it..

Has anyone got any experience with this sort of thing? Am I flogging a dead horse? Should I just get a bottle of Vodka and mix it up with cordial and water/lemonade in the keg?

 

[adraine]

leave the horse alone and go buy some vodka and cordial

 

[buttersd70]

All that just off the top of your head ay butters?

Aye, worked through it as I was typing.....which is why my post doesn't flow very well from a grammatical perspective. :lol:
Thats also why the numbers are a bit 'precise', cos it was straight from the calculations....I think that over the course of a 19L batch, if you were to 'rough up' the numbers, noone would know....

And lollywater? god, that brings back memories....haven't even heard of it for 20 odd years....other than the incorrect (but rather humourous) usage attributed to weak beers....

Main problem I see is the lack of nutrients in a dex/water mix....what about one of those yeasts that are used for the unmentionable essential oil process ?
Do they have their own nutrient source? Lie the TurboYeast, or whatever its called?

 

[komodo]

I've considered this extensively as I have a few friends who aren't big drinkers and my brother who is "straight edge".
I've actually found that in some areas of the states its fairly common to have postmix guns in ones kitchen! (and they wonder why they become obese!)

my reading suggest that a few people buy 99c discount store cola and pour that into kegs with their bourbon making a cheap easily made up mix. I would assume that it should be served colder than beer also.

I understand the whole soda water then add flavouring - but thats more like soda stream and I never liked soda stream as a kid and don't imagine I'd like it much now.
I think if you are going to do it you need to seriously consider having a dedicated keg (or kegs)

 

[BOG]

Easier still.

Buy a couple of boxes of coke cans from a service station. Cheapest place for Coke.

1 can of coke, in a pint glass and top up with burbon. Easy !


Brian

 

[seravitae]

When i get my kegs i was planning on dedicating one to ginger beer and one to cola, for drinking with spirits. i am glad to see other AHB'ers using their kegs for other cool things.



I am going to attempt to make (and improve) the opencola recepie. For those who want cheap cola, OpenCola is an open-source recepie that has been tweaked by many people. It is insanely cheap as it uses essential oils, a few small bottles of the oils goes a very very long way. Look it up if you're interested.



Personally i find coca-cola to be way too carbonated and acidic. Thats why i want to make my own, because when i buy store-bought coca-cola i flatten it before drinking.



There's a brand that i think comes from new zealand in glass bottles, Phoenix cola i think ? They also make real ginger beer with floaties at the bottom. It's fantastic stuff. if you ever see it try some (and then find me a recepie!)

cheers

 

[Thunderlips]

There's a brand that i think comes from new zealand in glass bottles, Phoenix cola i think ? They also make real ginger beer with floaties at the bottom. It's fantastic stuff. if you ever see it try some (and then find me a recepie!)

This stuff?
http://www.phoenixorganics.co.nz/WhatWeDo/...cts/Browse/ID/2

A few good ones there. Would love to try the Creaming Soda.

Edit: It seems they even tell you how to make the Ginger Beer.
http://www.phoenixorganics.co.nz/files/Con...eer_project.pdf