single beer brewing anyone? carbonation volume question

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shlegminitism

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Ok, the desire to carbonate fruit juices and teas came to mind first, which is what led me to a website that had purchasable instructions for a cheaply made carbonation system that uses baking soda and vinegar to produce the co2. But what the hay, why not single beers? Say the LHBS is down to the bottom of the barrel due to the impending zombie apocalypse (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/?test=latestnews), and all i can scrounge up is a few tbs of 2 row and a few hops cones.

First, i guess i would have to know the amount of co2 that can be produced by an amount of baking soda/vinegar so i would know how much to use per volume of liquid i'm carbonating. If i had 2 containers (container A is holds the baking soda and vinegar and is connected to container B which will hold the liquid to be carbonated) and container b held 20 fl oz, i would need enough co2 to fill container A completely, fill the lines, and an adequate amount to carbonate 20oz of liquid. So my question is, how much co2 can a liquid absorb? Is it a percentage of the total volume of the liquid? Does it depend on the liquid? Thanks to anyone who can help.
:mug: here's to hopefully not having to start making 1 beer at a time.
Chris
 
The amount of CO2 that a liquid holds is mostly dependent on temperature and pressure. Low temperature, high (CO2) pressure = more dissolved CO2.

The problem with using that carbonation system for beer is that it's infinitely easier AND cheaper just to add a bit more sugar, cap the bottle, and let the yeast do their work for you.
 
Indeed, but for fruit juices and teas, this seems that it would be the most economical and easiest way to carbonate on a small scale without having to buy co2 tanks. I would imagine that even if pressure was high and temperature was low, there would still only be so much co2 that a liquid could hold based on its mass or volume or something. I'm not sure. i need a physics major.
 
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