Dr. Pepper Tap

[Nic0]

My wife loves Dr. Pepper. She loves it so much, in fact, that a can or bottle is often not good enough...it has to be from a fountain, and the convenience store 1/4 mile away from the house is sadly a frequent destination for the sole purpose of buying a 79 cent cup of fountain Dr. Pepper.

So I wonder... how likely am I to encounter a disaster or major disappointment if I just dump 9 two liter bottles into a 5 gal keg and set up a tap at home specifically for the Dr. P? Obviously I'd want to clean and sanitize the keg and figure out what pressure at which to serve. It would be a little different I guess since the soda fountains mix the water and the syrup at the time it is served. But maybe it would be good enough.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Nic

 

[bberg]

Sorry - I have no clue how that'd work... but why don't you buy the syrup? Mix with water.. and bam! Just need to find a cheap place for the syrup..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/soda-soda-keg-37388/
^^ they talk about dumping bottles and buying syrup

 

[Jason1345]

have you checked out this thread? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/dr-pepper-soda-syrup-bag-361364/

 

[LovesIPA]

It might be wise to think about the long-term health effects of drinking that much soda. You have to assume that her consumption is going to go up when it's so readily available. That much sugar is not good for a person at all. Weight gain and diabetes are two serious problems that come to mind.

 

[Nic0]

Good point. But I'll have a look at those threads.

Thanks!


Nic

 

[ajwillys]

Yeah, the soda forum might be more help but I sometimes have soda water and have had other sodas on in the past. I use about 30 psi and a 25 foot 3/16" beer line to slow down the flow. You need the high psi to get the desired carbonation and the long line to increase the resistance so it doesn't come out like a pressure washer.

As for making it and dispensing it, you can buy the syrup and pre-mix it with the water. You could also just put soda water on tap and mix it later (this would allow other soda's to be mixed) but that might not be precise enough for your tastes.

 

[hunter_le five]

Cornelius kegs were originally designed to dispense soda, before the "bag-in-a-box" syrup method caught on. You should have no problem rigging it up to dispense soda.

The two main issues I see are with the serving pressure and line length specifically in regards to your current kegging setup.

Soda is generally carbonated to a much higher level than beer. This means you will need to keep the pressure on your DP keg set to a much higher serving pressure than your beer kegs. Otherwise you will slowly lose carbonation. This is fine if you have a multi-pressure setup, but if you're like me and have a single regulator setup, this can become an issue.

Consequently, because the serving pressure for soda is so much higher than beer, you will need to compensate with much longer beverage lines, which means modifying your setup with an ungodly length of line. Otherwise, your soda will come out in a big foamy mess. If you've got ample room in your fridge/kegerator/keezer, this may not be an issue, but I know in my setup space is a commodity, and I would not have enough room for all that extra vinyl tubing AND other kegs of beer.