first soda

I have some cream soda mix on the way and I was just curious... I hear root beer stinks up the lines forever, does cream soda?

I think so, just a little. Nothing like root beer, but when I put a light beer on tap after a cream soda last summer, it tasted "tingly" with a hint of tartness that was in the first pour or anytime beer sat in the lines. Lemon lime soda was worse then the cream soda, so I bought separate lines for the ginger ale and root beer after that (and dispensed with picnic taps).

So you would recommend a separate serving line for this soda or did your cream soda off flavor dissipate after a few pours of beer?

H-ost said:

So you would recommend a separate serving line for this soda or did your cream soda off flavor dissipate after a few pours of beer?

Click to expand...

I ended up replacing the line once that keg was empty. It was "tingly" tart, almost like I imagine star-san would taste. But the other lines didn't have that flavor, so I knew it was from the soda.

I bought my soda line from McMaster-Carr, as I use 25' and it was cheaper (plus it was more rigid) so I use that for soda now, and the picnic taps. The line was $.15/cents a foot.

Awesome, thanks for the advice and preventing a troubleshooting problem in the future when I would reuse the line for beer. I will be grab a line dedicated to soda.

Woot just checked the mail and my soda is here! My mouth is watering thinking of some delicious cream soda from my kegs... oh gosh....

Should I carb to the same level I do for most of my beers (10-12 PSI)? Or should soda be more or less?

H-ost said:

Woot just checked the mail and my soda is here! My mouth is watering thinking of some delicious cream soda from my kegs... oh gosh....

Should I carb to the same level I do for most of my beers (10-12 PSI)? Or should soda be more or less?

Click to expand...

Soda is way more- that's why the 25-30' serving lines (3/16")! Usually, 30 psi at 40 degrees is about right, while my beer is at 12 psi.

Well dang, I'm glad I asked. I DEFINITELY need to get a longer line. I'm still using 5 feet for my beer lines heh.

H-ost said:

Well dang, I'm glad I asked. I DEFINITELY need to get a longer line. I'm still using 5 feet for my beer lines heh.

Click to expand...

Yes, you can get away with short lines for beer, especially if you keep them cold. But soda will come shooting out like a firehouse since it's more like 4.0+ volumes of co2!

Not just lines, seals too. I keep a keg/line/tap just for soda.