DIY force carbing, will it work?

I have an idea and I need your advice whether it may work or no. Is is possible to carb a flat soda using an external bottle of yeast+sugar (using 2 DIY Carbonator cap)?

Here's a quick schematic:

I don't see why not! Give it a go, just keep a close eye on the progress or put a 30-40 psi relief valve on it.

It'll work even better if you can keep the bottle of soda chilled while keeping the yeast mixture at room temp.

What Yuri said above, but why?? I would be afraid that your soda would have the scent and slight taste of your fermentation sugar??

Fun project, no harm. Possible mess... why the heck not?
And with a good blow-off, you'll be adding some (cellular) Vitamin B to the soda.

It will definitely carb the soda.

and it will definitely be a funky tasting soda. Use a Belgian yeast for the most interesting results and keep a Sham Wow handy in case of a mishap.

This sounds like a cool DIY experiment....Keep us posted.

Hey I wonder if you could carb one small 2 liter batch of beer with the excess co2 from fermenting another one? Maybe OlllO could then have a contiuous feed of carbing fermenting in his hidden office fermentation experiment.

Catt22 said:

and it will definitely be a funky tasting soda. Use a Belgian yeast for the most interesting results and keep a Sham Wow handy in case of a mishap.

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If you are using a shamwow i suggest you use some sort of yeast from Germany, so you know it's good

ya know, them Germans make good stuff and beer too!

This has the potential for the fun thread of the month award (If there was such a thing!)

Catt22 said:

ya know, them Germans make good stuff and beer too!

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With a last name Winterbauer I ain't Irish.
I like my suds, hell my grand parents made bier
in crock pots with poecelain topped bottles (I still have) thru the
Prohibition era. Dad as a kid telling then it was not legal
to do this and remembers their reply in a heavy German accent
as "Buoy Chit" as they brewed thruout Prohibition.
They brewed from 1924 until the 1950's. Old school.
I'll give ya many +++pluses on their BMW bikes and cars
in my collection.

Bobby_M said:

It will definitely carb the soda.

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My worry, if you use non-diet soda, is yeast gets into the soda, and starts fermenting the soda, and your rig explodes.

Synovia said:

My worry, if you use non-diet soda, is yeast gets into the soda, and starts fermenting the soda, and your rig explodes.

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Good point, yet another reason to keep the soda cold and the yeast/sugar/water warm.

If it is a DIY carbonator cap made with a tire valve stem remove the valve stem core from the fermenting bottle otherwise I don't think the CO2 will exit that bottle. Additionally, if you want to remove the possibility of blowoff getting into the soda add an additional bottle between to catch the blowoff. Also, near the beginning of the process you may need to purge air out of the soda bottle (and the middle bottle if you go that route) otherwise as the fermenting bottle creates CO2 the lighter air in the top of the bottle will be what goes to the soda bottle first.

Good luck

I think it's time to stop with the sensible advice. I just want to see what happens!


PS... Last advice:- shake it often and have a camera handy

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

PS... Last advice:- shake it often and have a camera handy

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[ame=http://r.youtube.com/watch?v=sN0j8KS3rgk]YouTube - Mentos 'n Coke[/ame]

Squeeze the air out of the soda bottle and use a carbonator cap on it. On the yeast bottle, no carb cap--just a release valve or straight opening to the tube. It should work, though yeast contamination of the soda is a real threat--you might stuff some pieces of a clean cotton ball (pack loosely so the CO2 can flow) in the tube to try to lower the odds of that.