Can i carbonate water

One of the first things I tried to carbonate at home is orange juice. There are two things to know about adding bubbles to your OJ:. When removing the carbonated orange juice from the machine, expect quite a bit of pressure.

You'll want to take it slow and release the pressure as carefully as possible. If you don't, you will be in for quite a mess. Carbonated orange juice isn't something I would drink every morning, but it's definitely worth trying for the experience. It's just like a more frothy orange juice than what you're used to, with a hint of throat burn from the carbonation. You can also find Coffee Soda at World Market, and people have been adding espresso or coffee to various types of soda for years.

To try your own carbonated coffee, fill the SodaStream bottle roughly halfway with cold brew coffee or hot brewed coffee that has been chilled.

If the coffee isn't cold, it won't carbonate well. Slowly begin carbonating with the SodaStream, and once fully carbonated, remove the bottle from the machine. Like the orange juice, it will be very bubbly far more so than filtered water , so take it slow. I should note that while I love coffee, I don't love it carbonated. The pH level after carbonation changes the flavor quite a bit.

The first few sips are always interesting, but as the carbon dioxide is released from the coffee, the flavor begins to turn sour.

Tea is actually quite enjoyable when carbonated and doesn't fizz nearly as much as coffee or orange juice. Once again, fill the SodaStream bottle a little over halfway with chilled tea the colder, the better , and slowly charge the tea. Once done, slowly remove the bottle from the machine. Air competes with carbon dioxide for room in water. The bottle will inflate once you turn the gas on and the headspace will give you room to shake the carbon dioxide into the liquid.

Leave room for foam. Some liquids, like wine or beer, will produce a lot of foam during carbonation. For these situations, try filling your bottle just half or a quarter full to leave room for the foam to grow. Also, don't forget to release the pressure from the bottle as slowly as possible. Shake it like a bartender. Carbon dioxide doesn't just magically dissolve into water: you have to shake the bottle while you're adding gas don't detach it!

Pretend like you're shaking a cocktail and give it a good thirty seconds to a minute. You'll hear the regulator slowly release more gas with every shake—a good indicator that you're doing it right. Carbonate at least twice. Water or cocktails will have some amount of air dissolved in them by default. After your first shake with carbon dioxide, vent the bottle by unscrewing it from the carbonator cap quickly.

The rapid release of pressure causes lots of bubbles to form, releasing both CO2 and other dissolved gases from the water. Sure, most of the carbonation will boil off, but so will any other gases dissolved in the liquid. Once the bubbles settle, recharge the bottle and carbonate again. This is another reason why I don't like carbonators that use cartridges: to do it right, you should be using two cartridges every time you carbonate, which can get expensive.

Avoid using cloudy juices. Or really anything that isn't crystal clear, like a homemade syrup. Particles in your liquid act as nucleation points spots where bubbles are likely to form. This means it's more likely that dissolved carbon dioxide will turn into bubbles and bubble off from the liquid, making your carbonation less strong. If you have to use a cloudy syrup to make a drink, I recommend making seltzer water and mixing it with the syrup just before serving the drink.

Rebottle for storage. Although you'll want to leave plenty of headroom to actually carbonate your water or cocktail, you won't want to store the finished product with that much headspace. Instead, either top off your bottle with a second batch of carbonated drink, or carbonate in a larger container and then store in smaller bottles.

Let's address the elephant in the room: is rigging your own soda-carbonation system safe? To look into the issue of whether the carbon dioxide you can buy is safe to consume, I scoured a bunch of homebrew and SodaStream-hacking forums, and most people's arguments fell into two basic camps:. Neither side is entirely correct.

The FDA does not, in fact, regulate the quality of carbon dioxide in foods. Instead, the FDA simply requires that any gas use in food be of "suitable purity" as defined by " good manufacturing practice.

But, there is a definition for food-grade carbon dioxide. The International Society of Beverage Technologists defines food-grade carbon dioxide as a But how valid are these claims?

Does carbonation increase calcium loss in bones? Does carbonated water cause tooth decay? Does carbonated water cause IBS?

Can carbonated water make you gain weight? How to keep it healthy. Read this next. Carbonated Sparkling Water: Good or Bad? Medically reviewed by Natalie Butler, R. Medically reviewed by Peggy Pletcher, M. Medically reviewed by Amy Richter, RD.

Freshly: A Dietitian's Honest Comparison. Check my latest update, those re-mineralizing filters are fantastic and make RO water taste very, very good. I have two five gal kegs that I pressurize at the same time at about psi. My kegerator is also at a temp of around degrees. I thought the gas ran out or it had a leak, but not the case.

Keg was pressurized and still had gas. Nothing seemed off. Checked again in the morning and still the same. I switched to the other keg and same issue. Any thoughts on what maybe going on? Hi John, that is very strange.

But there should a very simple explanation to it. First, make sure that all the valves along the line are fully open. I know, this sounds stupid but stranger things have happened to me. Took me a while to figure that out. There can be a leak along the line somewhere. Finally, the CO2 regulator may have malfunctioned. Hi Victor, so I checked the lines, connections and valve.

Everything looks good and normal. I disconnected one of the ball locks and turned the gas on, and it was flowing. I then purged one of the tanks and reconnected it and will wait 48 hours or so to see if it has good carbonation. Besides I had it in there last winter. Anyway will see what happens after a couple of days. Totally possible. Improperly seated connector maybe. The temp drop in the garage will have a negligible effect on the carbonation level in your case.

At room temp, the pressure inside the CO2 cylinder is about psi. What WILL have a significant impact on the carbonation level is the water temp inside the keg… but that did not change. Updated the article scroll to the bottom with some exciting taste test results. Quite interesting how an alkaline filter can make RO water either incredibly good or barely drinkable.

Thanks for the very insightful post. I was seeking alternatives to Sodastream and Drinkmate and found your post. I use 5-gallon tanks and a 20lb CO2 tank.

Have you tried to flavor the water? Hi Hannah, yes I tried flavoring water but quickly stopped that as we go through kegs quickly and they need cleaning and sanitization if using certain flavorings… too much work. I find it easier to just add flavourings in the glass. I was wondering if the Kegerator solution would work with a water line feeding into the kegs?

Maybe have Keg A receive water from the source, receive carbonation from the tank, feed carbonated water into tank B, tank B receive carbonation, and tank B provide carbonated water to the user. Doable or no? What you need is Big Mac motor carbonator system. This will give you exactly what you need.

I am going to upgrade my setup to include the Big Mac motor carbonator system in the near future and will update the post on how it goes and what results I get. I have no idea what a Big Mac is needed. Pic shows my single, permanent 9L tank in main kitchen fridge, water line straight in without any pump, just mains pressure. CO2 also going in, tap coming out. Continuous carbonation, tank refills automatically.

Easily dispenses my 4L per day and likely could do double that. But how is your carbonation? My assumption has always been that a carbonation level can only be maintained in a closed system.

I never tested this though but I will as I am intrigued. Definitely look into a commercial style system like the Big Mac. You can get rid of the tanks, and just run the carbonator pump with small storage tank. Probably would be cheaper than the kegs were. You only need to keep the hose cold.

I had a summer job back in where we installed these systems and serviced them. Back then, I put together a home beer dispensing system, now, I am looking to do fizzy water.

Oh, I am:- already planning to get one. I want to put it in a very small bar fridge. I am quite impressed but this little device. You need to add the Big Mac motor carbonator system, I just installed one in my kitchen, best thing ever, Seltzer on tap unlimited amounts. Took me around a week to find all the parts and fittings, really worth it.

Hi Alejandro, thanks for this valuable piece of information. I am definitely going to investigate and hopefully test it out. Not having to deal with refilling water tanks is a welcome upgrade. Besides, you can get away with a much smaller fridge to keep the water cold. Single line out to dispensing tap sitting outside the fridge.

Easily keeps up with my 4L a day, I suspect I could even do 6 or 8L. So not the sacrifice of fridge space, but still cupboard space. Would be cheaper to run though than keeping 9L cold — not sure if trivial though. Plus I can detach the 9L keg in seconds, take it straight to a party with the dispensing tap with some 16g CO2 cartridges to dispense. Is there a problem with getting the water to mix in time? My SodaStream carbonates in 2s so it seems like it should be possible?

A C02 carbonation system is a closed system. In it, you have a balance between CO2 gas pressure and the amount of CO2 dissolved in water, which is also a function of temperature. As soon as you open up the tank to a water source, you will be making it a part of the system. It will affect the temperature inside the keg and the carbonation. In essence, you will be carbonating your water source as well. I am not an engineer so I may be wrong about this, but what you are looking for is not technically possible.

Not easily anyway. Hi, thanks again for your detailed instructions on making carbonated water. I finally got started on my and decided to buy a kegerator instead of making my own. Have a couple questions though. Will it hold its carbonation for awhile? I was wondering because I have a double tap, and may want to put a keg of beer in there sometimes. You see, when you let some water out of the keg, the extra headroom will have to be filled by gas.

It will come from either the CO2 tank, or from the water. If no CO2 is supplied at 40 PSI, the more water you draw, the more CO2 will leave the water to fill headspace, the less carbonated water will become. Yes, you can. Will it hold the same level of carbonation? No, if the room is warmer than the fridge. Carbonation level measured in volumes or grams per liter is a function of pressure PSI and temperature. If you carbonate your water to 5 volumes at 40F and move the keg to 70F warm room, over time the carbonation level will drop to what it would have been if you carbonated at 40 PSI and 70F, roughly 3.

How quickly will it happen? About as quickly as it carbonates. So, if you carbonate over 48 hours, it will take about 2 days to decarbonate to the point wheRE the carbonation stabilizes. I once fully carbonated a keg of cold water in 25 or so minutes by shaking it and rolling it around.

Would this keg system work outside of a fridge? Stephanie, yes, this system will work outside of a fridge. However, you need to keep a few things in mind. You are correct to suspect that water may not effectively carbonate. It depends on your ambient temperature and the level of carbonation you want to achieve. But you can design the system with that in mind, so it will. For example, we carbonate our water at 40F and 45 PSI. This results in about 5. We settled on this temperature and carbonation level after some experimenting and consider this ideal for our taste.

On the other hand, Perrier, favorite carbonated water of many I used to love it too , carbonate their water to 3. To get 3. To get 5. If you go the high pressure regulator way, make sure that the C02 hose is also rated to support that pressure.

Unfortunately it is difficult to find components that allow a CO2 tank to be hooked up to the sodastream refills. The paintball containers are too small and need to be refilled too often. Has anyone found a reliable attachment for the Sodastream cylinders to be able to fill them from a CO2 food grade tank? Thank you so much for this thorough write up. I just purchased 2 new corny kegs and all the supplies I needed to set up a home carbonation system.

Very excited. ONe thing you did not mention that I am now wondering about. How do you initially clean the new corny kegs and also, once your keg is empty again, do you first clean and sanitize it before you refill with water? Thank you so much.

You prepare the solution as per the instructions on the container, fill up the keg, let it sit for 30 minutes then rinse with water several times. I push the solution and later the water out with CO2 to make sure the tubing gets cleaned up too. The same cleaner is commonly used to clean kegs later on, especially if you use them for beers, ciders, etc. This is what I do. Though, my kegs new, Italian made came pretty clean and I did not detect any oil residue inside or outside.

Never used it but heard a lot of good feedback. After the initial cleaning and sanitizing I repeat the process very infrequently, maybe once a year or even longer. The reason is that we use RO filtered re-mineralized water, without any flavorings. There are no sediments or residue as a result. Both kegs and the water stay cold in the fridge. Carbonation drops pH.

All of this pretty much prevents any bacteria growth. Joel, no, there is no min or max length requirement unlike when dispensing beer but keep in mind that whatever length you plan on having outside of the kegerator the water in it will get warm. So, does this sparkling water keg have to be plumbed to a water line?

Or do you fill the water tanks individually when need? Tyler, this is an interesting question and I think someone already asked me about the same thing a while ago. The simple answer is that you have to fill the tanks then pressurize them with compressed C The cold plate will need a source of ice as well. This is what feeds commercial soda fountains, soda guns at bars, etc. Thanks for the info, Jason.

Where exactly in the Danby 4. My beer tower will be located on a quartz countertop above the fridge. Hi Brian, apologies for the later response, your comment was lost in the pile of spam comments. If your tower will be raised above the fridge, you might as well drill a smaller perhaps 1 inch hole in the top of the fridge similar to where I did and run both gas and water lines through it.

Plug any remaining open space with some insulating material. Alternatively, run the water line through the top and the gas line through the bottom, making holes just big enough for the lines to fit through, then cover any cracks with silicone. You can see what I did on the picture under Update on July 3, You can also see more details in my kegerator build post. Lots of good info. I too was considering making my own carbonation system and like a lot of my projects — my wife got fed up with waiting for it and bought a Soda Stream.

Now that we have one I was wondering about how it works. On the Soda stream the bottle is removed after pressurizing and is open to atmosphere until you put the cap on it. Perhaps for safety reasons? Maybe having a lot of CO2 escaping in the process was better than dealing with a pressurized caps? One other thing I noticed. Is a paint ball CO2 beverage grade? Hi Wentworth, the reason for that two-fold.

For big companies like Soda Stream, saving even a penny per unit adds up to a large sum at the end of the day. Think of CO2 gas as another soluble ingredient, like salt. Put a bunch of salt in water, stir — and it will get dissolved. Let the salted water stand for a while, and some of that salt will solidify again and become a sediment. The same is true with CO2 gas. It will get dissolved in water, much like salt. To reverse, it will take time. The higher the pressure, the colder the water, the larger the area of contact between the water and the CO2 gas, the higher the rate of carbonation will be.

The reverse is true too. In reality, you are only decreasing the pressure to the level of atmospheric pressure. It will take hours for the water to loose all that carbonation in those conditions. Put a cap on the bottle right after carbonation and little of it will be lost. Refrigerate the bottle and even less will be lost.

Leave no head space, cap on, refrigerate, an barely any carbonation will be lost. I do know that many people use conversion kits and refill at those places. You need to ask at those places. The purity of CO2 gas they use will likely vary from place to place. You bring up a very good point though. When refilling soda stream or other gas tanks, one must always inquire about the quality of the supplied CO2 gas.

Have you ever carbonated directly to glass? Seems like carbonating into a glass San Pellegrino container should be safe, no? Is it possible using the carbonator system to bottle quickly enough to preserve the carbonation and then be able to store it at room temp.