My Kegerator is turning into an Italian Soda Fountain

In an effort to help my SWMBO to embrace my homebrewing hobby. I dedicated one keg to only hold carbonated water. I also picked up several flavors of the Italian syrups. The syrups come in sugar free options as well. It seems to be working so far.

Both my wife and son make regular trips to the kegerator every day. Not being a huge soda fan myself, I have been surprised to find out how much I like them as well.

Just curious if anyone else has tried this route?

We have a four-tap kegerator and I save the fourth tap for a non-alcoholic offering. Usually that means root beer but we do seltzer from time to time as well. I'm a big fan of orange and vanilla syrup plus a dollop of cream... it's like a creamsicle! If you do a little digging around you can find some old soda fountain recipes which are fun to mess around with.

Ive been thinking about that. I got the room its a six keg 19 sq ft refer could easley pop another tap in it.

That is a great idea! Thanks for posting Richabt

I've dedicated one tap to soda. I have been messing around with a light lemon/lime type soda but have considered going the route you went too. There are so many varieties of flavors out there you can't really go wrong.

Ive been thinking about doing this. Do you guys generally do a second regulator to hold you soda at a higher carbonation level?

cedar_lake said:

Ive been thinking about doing this. Do you guys generally do a second regulator to hold you soda at a higher carbonation level?

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Here's what I do. I carb at around 40 PSI for a couple days. After that, I just throw it on tap at the same pressure as my beer (12 PSI). I know theoretically it's losing carbonation over time but it's never lost enough for me to notice.

Now I posted this once before and immediately somebody else posted that you HAVE to get a second regulator. If you've got nothing better to do with your money, then by all means go out and buy another one. But if you want to potentially save a few bucks, try it my way first. If that doesn't work for you, THEN go out and buy another regulator. Just my two cents...

Windigstadt said:

Here's what I do. I carb at around 40 PSI for a couple days. After that, I just throw it on tap at the same pressure as my beer (12 PSI). I know theoretically it's losing carbonation over time but it's never lost enough for me to notice.

Now I posted this once before and immediately somebody else posted that you HAVE to get a second regulator. If you've got nothing better to do with your money, then by all means go out and buy another one. But if you want to potentially save a few bucks, try it my way first. If that doesn't work for you, THEN go out and buy another regulator. Just my two cents...

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How long do you usually have a keg of soda around? I'm trying to think through how often we would go through 5 gallons- My wife and I are big seltzer/Pellegrino fans as it is some if we could get a couple of weeks out of it it would probably be fine...

cedar_lake said:

How long do you usually have a keg of soda around? I'm trying to think through how often we would go through 5 gallons- My wife and I are big seltzer/Pellegrino fans as it is some if we could get a couple of weeks out of it it would probably be fine...

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I would say it takes us at least a month to go through five gallons. And by the way, if you like mineral water, you can mess with adding salts/gypsum to taste.

I more or less do mine the same way as Windigstadt. I force carb it at 35 to 40 and than drop it to 10-12. Right now I am using a 3gal corny, but will need to switch to a 5 gal. Between the wife, kids, and myself, the 3 gal corny last about a week and a half.

Wow this is a really awesome idea. I didn't even think about Italian Sodas. I've been looking online how to make them, so do do yours like this?

1. Fill cup with ice
2. Pour 1" of syrup
3. Fill with carbonated water
4. Pour half & half
5. Mix

Also I was looking for syrups and found Torani, do you know if these are pretty good?

I just had a BBQ to break in my kegerator, so I had all four kegs full of beer. For day-to-day use though, I think I'm going to have soda/root beer on the fourth tap

What a great idea! I'm sanitizing a 3 gallon keg right now to try this. Should save us a lot on lime seltzer.

Goblet said:

What a great idea! I'm sanitizing a 3 gallon keg right now to try this. Should save us a lot on lime seltzer.

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Right now I'm using one for a light lemon/lime soda I made. I'm thinking I might go the seltzer water and flavoring route next though for variety.

Been doing it for years. I have a keg in the kegger and a second one re-filling. I have a water line with a check valve that I connect to the "empty". Since it is actually full of CO2, after a couple days, I have another keg full of soda water. Only 2.5 volumes, but that's 70% of the way to serving carbonation. Saves CO2 and speeds up the process.

Teromous said:

Wow this is a really awesome idea. I didn't even think about Italian Sodas. I've been looking online how to make them, so do do yours like this?

1. Fill cup with ice
2. Pour 1" of syrup
3. Fill with carbonated water
4. Pour half & half
5. Mix

Also I was looking for syrups and found Torani, do you know if these are pretty good?

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Torani is what we have been using, but I know there are others.
I've seen the same recipe, but haven't done the half & half part yet. It sounds great though.

Teromous said:

Wow this is a really awesome idea. I didn't even think about Italian Sodas. I've been looking online how to make them, so do do yours like this?

1. Fill cup with ice
2. Pour 1" of syrup
3. Fill with carbonated water
4. Pour half & half
5. Mix

Also I was looking for syrups and found Torani, do you know if these are pretty good?

Click to expand...

Torrani is what most coffee shops use for their Italian Soda's and Lattes. They have alot of flavors and most are very good.

Ordered six concentrates (Cola, Black Cherry, Lemon Lime, Vanilla, Root Beer, Sarsaparilla) from Prairie Moon along with bottles and pump tops. I did them all with a sugar substitute (generic splenda) which changes the flavor quite a bit but I'm used to it so that is no biggie.

Still working on the concentrations but the root beer is pretty damn good and once I get the mix right I can see the black cherry + cola being a favorite. I do really like having options though now that I only have carbed water in the keg instead of a lemon/lime soda.

Oh and I got a card for 5% off if you do order from them... Save5 is the code.

Can I make my own soda and bottle them up using a kegarator? Do they go flat? Do they ferment? Etc...thanks for all the advice!