New low in patience

I just received my kegerator kit in the mail today. I have been looking forward to kegging for some time now and it is finally here. Well, sort of. Turns out that co2 isn't easy to get around here so i have to wait and drive a bit. In light of that, when i was racking i hit a new low for my personal patience. I racked one liter of my IPA into a soda stream bottle and carbed it up. Now it's in the fridge chilling. I guess i was just wondering if anyone else has done anything like that.

phrinda said:

I just received my kegerator kit in the mail today. I have been looking forward to kegging for some time now and it is finally here. Well, sort of. Turns out that co2 isn't easy to get around here so i have to wait and drive a bit. In light of that, when i was racking i hit a new low for my personal patience. I racked one liter of my IPA into a soda stream bottle and carbed it up. Now it's in the fridge chilling. I guess i was just wondering if anyone else has done anything like that.

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Nice! How did it turn out?

Replace your soda stream with a carbonator cap now that you have a CO2 tank and you'll save a ton in CO2 costs (those soda streams are a rip off). Also, MANY places sell CO2, not just the local homebrew shops. You can get refills from companies that maintenance soda machines, fire extinguishers, and even some sporting good stores (paintball supplies). Basically, if there's a commercial zone near you, there will be somewhere to refill your CO2. If in doubt, ask a restaurant in your area where they get the CO2 for their soda machines from, or who inspects their fire extinguishers. I'm sure it'll be close.

Well, the ipa was good. The soda stream was definitely not designed for beer. But even though it didn't carb properly, it was like a good preview. I would be interested in finding a way to use my co2 container for the soda bottles. As for my area, it looks like I've got a welding shop in town, but I haven't been able to talk to them. And when they aren't open it's about 25 miles to the next shop.

A welding shop will almost certainly have CO2 refills available, but make sure you get an aluminum for your swap out; you don't want the possible rusting of a steel tank and the aluminum is lighter as well, but a lot of old salts like steel and swear by it, usually welders. Also, you can carbonate in a 2 liter with a carbonator cap, either soda water for mixing with syrups later or the whole beverage (it's what I do with my brews, too impatient for bottle carbing, and IPAs are better fresh anyway). There's also a fitting available online to convert your soda stream's connection to a CO2 tank. Links below including product and guide...

http://co2doctor.com/freedomoonespec.htm
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/modding-your-sodastream-with-a-larger-co2-tank-2012074/

Thanks for the tips. I will check those out.

The last thing to mention about carbonation is that a soda stream can barely carb water properly because it carbs it too fast, at too low of a pressure, and there's no agitation, so it only absorbs a small amount of gas and the rest is forced to erupt out when the pressure is relieved, which is why anything with sugar in it will foam up and create a mess. That's also why anything carbed with a soda stream is intensely carbed for only a few minutes then it goes really flat, really fast. I carb in 2 liter bottles between 20-45 psi depending on what I'm carbing, and agitate it which makes it absorb a lot more gas and stay carbonated for MUCH longer. The soda stream only carbs to 15 psi and you can't shake it, which is why it didn't work on that beer you tried. If you chilled that beer in a 1 or 2 liter bottle topped with a carbonator cap then carbed it to 20-25 psi, shaking it and refilling the gas a few times, it would have been perfect. It's what I do because I'm too impatient to bottle carb.

I was noticing that the stuff always went flat quickly. now that I've learned a bit more through carbing a keg, I can see the shortcomings of the ss. Thanks for the info