First Soda Attempt - Advice

pnh2atl · 05-06-2011, 01:42 PM

I'm going to take a whack at making root beer and orange soda for my kids end of the school year party. I have two little bottles of extract that make 4 gallons each. I plan on force carbonating it in a corney keg and serving it out of my mobile keggerator at the party. Any advice? Do you guys boil the water/sugar first? Do I need to keep everything as clean as I do when I brew? Do I need more than the 10' of beer line I have? What psi do you carb at and serve?

Thanks!

KevinM · 05-06-2011, 03:30 PM

I boil at least some of the water (enough to dissolve the sugar) then add the additional water. About half a gallon of water seemed to work for me the one time I did this. I then got lazy and started doing smaller amounts.
Sanitation... It kind of depends. I mean, yes, you want to keep it as clean because
1) You're serving food
2) children & elderly are more susceptible to diseases
3) Sugar+water will want to try to ferment
On the other hand, if you're doing this the morning of, you won't have time for bacteria to get a real good hold, so as long as you wash the keg beforehand (like you would wash dishes sometime before eating or drinking), you should be fine.

It might be best to have 15 or so feet, or one of the keg mixing thingies that's posted around here several times that allow a shorter hose because the common psi that's used for soda is around 30psi, give or take. Plus, they're kids and it's rootbeer. Belching contests!

MrFoodScientist · 05-06-2011, 05:47 PM

Be prepared to change your o-rings and line, as they will soak up flavors from the root beer. Some actually dedicate an entire keg and line to just soda.

If you only use this keg for root beer once and get through it fairly quickly, it shouldn't be a big issue, but if you let it sit for more than probably a day or two, then the flavor is going to stick.

I did about a half keg of root beer once for a small party. The stuff was in there for about 8 hours or so. My next keg tasted like root beer, so I flushed it a couple of times with sanitizer and it was mostly gone. A full keg of carbonated water went through it and it was completely gone. The challenge is going to be leaving it in long enough to fully carb, but not long enough that it will be a permanant flavoring for the keg.

NWMOBrewer · 05-08-2011, 06:11 AM

I'm kinda hacking this, but I bought a big freezer and am planning on building a keezer and want a keg of root beer. If I deticate one keg to root beer, then swich back, change the O-ring, and line, the metal of the keg will be alright? If not, no root beer keg, but I don't see any reason the metal would soak up a flavor. My fiance also wants an orange pop keg, should I change the stuff if she ever gives that up too? Thanks for the help!!

marzsit · 05-08-2011, 10:00 AM

corny kegs are soda kegs. that's what they were originally designed for, not beer.....

the rubber and plastic parts will absorb soda flavors, but the metal won't.