Sodastream

Anyone ever use a soda stream to carb beer? Seems like an inexpensive way to carb beer...just wondering what people think about it

My LHBS sells them. They tried with a flat beer one day. The result was everyone in the room wearing beer after they pressurized the bottle and twisted off the lid. YMMV.

My fiance is all about the sodastream and once she gets another carb can I will give it a try on my next brew just to see what it turns out like.

I think a CO2 bottle, regulator and carbonator cap would be cheaper and more useful in your brewery in the long run.

The instructions specifically say to only carb water. Even the soda mixtures they have are added after the water is carbed. I've always wondered why the instructions say that. I figure it's one of two things: It will get some internal piece dirty that is hard to clean which will cause longterm problems, or the pressure with a denser liquid will cause a mess...

I've never tried it, mainly because we use it so much for water I don't want to break it and have to buy another one...

Dahoov said:

My LHBS sells them. They tried with a flat beer one day. The result was everyone in the room wearing beer after they pressurized the bottle and twisted off the lid. YMMV.

Click to expand...

Yep.. tried this once..
Beer all over the kitchen.

I received a soda stream as a gift before I started brewing and loved it. Only really used it for water. Then I made a my first fermented beverage, a wild fermented mead. After a month or so, I tried it still and thought, "Hey, let's carb this stuff up and try it!" It was much better but made a bit of a mess. Nothing crazy, just some foam overage.

After my first home brew came out of the secondary, I used the soda stream plastic bottle to carbonate a liter right away to test out the final product. It worked great! The trick is to let out the pressure slowly. It takes about a minute to release the pressure without a huge foam up. I have washed out the whole device after a foam up with no problems or beer favored water later on.

Take your time and it will be fine.

I tried it only about 3 days ago, carbed up 4 bottles this way and it worked fantastic.

Lots of Co2, BUT the beer was still green so not that good.

(i pushed the sodastream button once every 5 minutes, 3 times total. got good carb that way)