Soda Stream?

Good question. I just saw a commercial for that thing and thought it looked pretty interesting.

Never heard of it, did a google search - it looks like a seltzer type of thing, with syrup for sodas, is that right?

I say try it, MW! Put on your lab coat, your mad scientist wig, goggles and give it a try!

While I haven't tested with the Sodastream, I was going to do the same thing. (instead, I got a keg setup instead of waiting). I've carbed sodas and beers so far, not my mead or cider yet, and I expect that Sodastream should be able to do the same. I think though, that its somewhere that says Sodastream says to carb only water and to add syrup after. I think it's their generic usage clause so that if anything else is carbed it's not their responsibility. Not that it couldn't be done of course.

I have the soda stream. I think it will only carb water. I have not tried to carb up any of my ciders or beer yet because one time I had one of my sodas go flat and I tried to recarb it. Not a good idea, It spewed soda all over the kitchen. I assume the sugars in the syrup is was caused my mess. It does work great as advertised however.

davejr said:

I have the soda stream. I think it will only carb water. I have not tried to carb up any of my ciders or beer yet because one time I had one of my sodas go flat and I tried to recarb it. Not a good idea, It spewed soda all over the kitchen. I assume the sugars in the syrup is was caused my mess. It does work great as advertised however.

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Not cool, not cool at all!

My roommate got a Sodastream for Christmas this year and out of morbid curiosity we tried it on my Hefeweizen, which I bottled tonight. It worked well. It wasn't quite the same as a nice bottle conditioned or kegged home brew, but it beats the hell out of tasting the un-carbonated leftovers from your FG measurement. We filled one of the plastic bottles with the beer and gave it three charges of CO2 (same as the recommended dose for soda which, incidentally, seems to leave the soda a bit flat ), then capped it and chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes or so. I don't know if I would consider it as a permanent carbonation tool, but it provides some instant gratification on nearly finished beers. Also, we discovered that the thread on the soda bottles appears to be the same as the thread on 1/2 gallon and 1 gallon growlers. With the SodaStream fully assembled, neither growler size fits under the machine (the bottles are too tall), but with some modification we could make it work. I think we will probably come up with a solution for the next beer I make. As was mentioned in an earlier post, disconnecting the bottle from the machine after carbonation requires some finesse to avoid an explosion, but with a bit of care we spilled less than an ounce of foam.

The only issue I would think might be different for cider is acidity. If the internal workings are brass, cider or highly acidic beverages willeventually leech out lead (though I am not sure how much, just try to keep my lead consumption to a minimum ). If the internal workings are stainless, or plastic then you are good to go.

I have a sodastream, and have heard of it working to carb beer. I was told that it takes awhile, but it works. You have to just give it very short bursts. I've also heard of water/syrup spewing it's load all over a counter. I think if you take is slow and give it very short bursts, it will carb up fine. But this isn't a solution for kegging or bottling. I'd say if you're in a pinch and want to taste a brew, or you're having a party, give it a go. You have to use their bottles, though....they're special threads.