Swmbo wants regular selzer water. Can I make this with normal brewing equipment?

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mickaweapon
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My pregant wife really enjoys selzer water but buying it costs $1 or more per liter. I would like to know if I could make her decent selzer water with my brewing equipment and if so could I keg this or should i bottle it?

Sorry if this is such a noob questions but I have not had any experience with making soda yet (as far as beer goes I hit the 400+ gallon stage last week)

Thanks for any advice you might have
 
My pregant wife really enjoys selzer water but buying it costs $1 or more per liter. I would like to know if I could make her decent selzer water with my brewing equipment and if so could I keg this or should i bottle it?

Sorry if this is such a noob questions but I have not had any experience with making soda yet (as far as beer goes I hit the 400+ gallon stage last week)

Thanks for any advice you might have

Do you currently keg?... if so then just fill a keg and put CO2 on it. I do it all the time.
 
Is there anything I need to do to the water pre-kegging?

Should it be boiled and then cooled to remove O2?

Do you use tap water or RO water?

Can you recommend any small amount of flavoring I might add to improve the taste?

What psi level do you set you keg at for the selzer water?

Thanks for such a quick reply.
 
Is there anything I need to do to the water pre-kegging?

Should it be boiled and then cooled to remove O2?

Do you use tap water or RO water?

Can you recommend any small amount of flavoring I might add to improve the taste?

What psi level do you set you keg at for the selzer water?

Thanks for such a quick reply.

1) Pre-Kegging - I do nothing to my water. Right out of the tap.
2) You could boil it first I suppose, but the only reason I see to do that is if you live somewhere where you are concerned about Giardia.
3) I use Tap.
4) Actually been looking for flavorings myself. My wife likes the Vintage flavored seltzers. It is on my to do list to investigate a little more what exactly they use.
5) Seltzer and soda in general should be around 30 PSI (depending on the temperature of your fridge and the vols of CO2 you want). Also take note that 30PSI on a normal hose will come out really fast. You are going to need more resistance to dispense it (longer hose, smaller diameter, etc.). A lot of people use 15 to 30 feet of 3/16 line.
 
5) Seltzer and soda in general should be around 30 PSI (depending on the temperature of your fridge and the vols of CO2 you want). Also take note that 30PSI on a normal hose will come out really fast. You are going to need more resistance to dispense it (longer hose, smaller diameter, etc.). A lot of people use 15 to 30 feet of 3/16 line.

And if you don't have hose clamps on your barb fittings you will want to, 30 PSI is about where hoses start to pop off by themselves if not clamped on ;)
 
Alternatively, you can either put together, or use a carbonating cap, to carbonate smaller amounts of water (2 liter bottles, 16 oz bottles, 12 oz bottles and I've seen smaller, but what's the point, its' just water).

This way, you don't use up a keg, you can use fresh water each time and you don't have to deal with hoses. It's ready within a minute (but you gotta shake it for a minute until it stops hissing-carbonating) but it's better to use ice cold water and carbonate it then.

Choose your water source. I like filtered (simple brita or Pur), but 90% of the time I just fill it with tap water, sometimes removing the airator first if I'm not too lazy. RO's fine too. It all depends on what you think of your water sources. (You know, as long as you're not on a boil alert or anything)

What you add to the water is up to you. Some people add minerals of various kinds to create different sparkling mineral waters (Pierrier), or you can add various flavor extracts like the kind you find in the grocery store. (McCormick peppermint). Just a drop. You can add flavored syrups (Torani... Bacon!). Or anything else you may want to mix.
 
And if you don't have hose clamps on your barb fittings you will want to, 30 PSI is about where hoses start to pop off by themselves if not clamped on ;)

Good call....

Alternatively, you can either put together, or use a carbonating cap, to carbonate smaller amounts of water (2 liter bottles, 16 oz bottles, 12 oz bottles and I've seen smaller, but what's the point, its' just water).

This way, you don't use up a keg, you can use fresh water each time and you don't have to deal with hoses. It's ready within a minute (but you gotta shake it for a minute until it stops hissing-carbonating) but it's better to use ice cold water and carbonate it then.

Choose your water source. I like filtered (simple brita or Pur), but 90% of the time I just fill it with tap water, sometimes removing the airator first if I'm not too lazy. RO's fine too. It all depends on what you think of your water sources. (You know, as long as you're not on a boil alert or anything)

What you add to the water is up to you. Some people add minerals of various kinds to create different sparkling mineral waters (Pierrier), or you can add various flavor extracts like the kind you find in the grocery store. (McCormick peppermint). Just a drop. You can add flavored syrups (Torani... Bacon!). Or anything else you may want to mix.

This is also an option... I have a carbonator cap and it works well. But my wife drinks a lot of seltzer, so I forgot to mention it. :mug:
 
Yeah, I was thinking of posting https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/carbonator-co2-chiller-etc-home-seltzer-tap-250351/ where we discussed that. It's really going to depend on how much is needed of course.

Since the op says someone who really loves seltzer water, I'd probably consider keg if they expect to go through a gallon a day. As for me, I don't have seltzer every day and when I do it's not too much. Its easier for me to shake up an 8 ounce bottle whenever I want one, cause even a 2 liter is too much sometimes and it goes flat if I open it every other day without refilling or recarbonating. Though if I have company, I make sure I have two ready to charge.
 
Yeah, I was thinking of posting https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/carbonator-co2-chiller-etc-home-seltzer-tap-250351/ where we discussed that. It's really going to depend on how much is needed of course.

Since the op says someone who really loves seltzer water, I'd probably consider keg if they expect to go through a gallon a day. As for me, I don't have seltzer every day and when I do it's not too much. Its easier for me to shake up an 8 ounce bottle whenever I want one, cause even a 2 liter is too much sometimes and it goes flat if I open it every other day without refilling or recarbonating. Though if I have company, I make sure I have two ready to charge.

Very true.... I actually use the carbonator cap method for doing test batches of sodas, etc. Or at least I did before I got my 1 gallon corny.

But yeah... to summarize for the op there are three basic methods, from smallest quantity to largest.

1) Use the carbonator cap..
2) Use a keg..
3) Use a carbonator, chiller, etc (see referenced thread).

Carbonator cap and keg are basically the same process just more volume. The carbonator, chiller, etc is more complex and is how fountain machines make the seltzer to mix with the syrup... they work more real time, but can produce immense amounts of cold seltzer quickly.

As for water, you can really use whatever you want. It's really personal preference. I use tap because it's cheap and tastes fine around here... if yours doesn't taste great you can filter it, etc.

For pressures... at most fridge temps you should be around 30PSI which means you need 15 to 30 feet of hose to slow down the pour. Or use a flow control of some sort.

Any other questions? :mug: There are quite a few of us around here that do seltzer and each method has its upsides (personally I keg because the wife goes through a bit of seltzer... that and it was part of the deal for building the kegerator).
 
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