Carbonated water questions

[homeygomey]

I have a double tap and instead of running two beers I changed 1 to plain carbonated water.

Is there anything that can be done to make the water 'more carbonated'? It works well but feels like just tiny bubbles. I've tried different PSI and hose lengths after reading throughout the forum and doesnt change much. But is there something that can be added to the water, maybe baking soda? Has anyone tried

Also why can a restaurant or bar shoot out carbonated water on demand, what would they have that I wouldn't with my typical kegerator setup?

 

[homeygomey]

I have well water, on a iron backwashing filter and water softener - In case that could be the culprit?

 

[kev211]

This probably wont be the answer you're looking for, as its not a very inexpensive option, but I have been getting great results...

I manage the 3 tap kegerator at my office and obviously at home and I have sparkling water on each. Due to my very thirsty coworkers going through a corny of carb'd water every week I bought a blichmann quick carb and it has been amazing. 30 minutes at 25 psi followed by ~8 hours on just co2 and I get very carbonated, very effervescent water. Highly recommend, although might not be worth the cash in your case. You could always do a carb stone in the lid of the keg. heard that can get good carbonation and relatively fast as well.

I dont think that soft water would affect it, but maybe the lack of minerals affects co2 from binding to anything (not a scientist in the slightest, so Im just guessing).

One other question, how cold is the water that you're carbonating and how long did you leave on pressure? What pressure are you running to carbonate the water? Cold liquid accepts carbonation better, so if the water isnt super cold (shoot for 37* F) then it wont carb well. If you're not using a stone, carbonator, etc you shoult be setting your pressure to 30ish psi for 3-4 days then reduce to serving pressure (i find that my carbonated water serves better at higher psi than my beer, so i usually serve water around 15psi with 7 foot lines)

 

[Bobby_M]

I have a double tap and instead of running two beers I changed 1 to plain carbonated water.

Is there anything that can be done to make the water 'more carbonated'?

Yes, just raise the pressure. Sparkling water needs about 25 to 35psi of CO2. Run your regulator at 35psi and then tee it off. Run the beer supply through a Kegland inline regulator to bring that back down to 10psi.