force carbonating a bottle with a small CO2 charger?

[AndyHannas]

im bottling a double IPA today and i wanted to bring a small (7oz) sample bottle to a party with me tonight. i have a portable CO2 charger with a short length of hose on it that i use for purging carboys and i was thinking maybe i could use that to at least lightly force carbonate one bottle of this beer to drink tonight. im sure it wont work great, but it would probably be better than sampling a flat bottle. any thoughts or tips?

 

[bernerbrau]

If you could get an airtight seal on the bottle with the CO2 hooked up, you could shake the bottle to force CO2 into solution. Just make sure you leave it under pressure for a while after shaking so it doesn't explode.

 

[Shooter]

Are you going to use a Carbonator cap?!?!? In order to quickly force carb, you need the vessel to be sealed and then you pressurize it and shake it to force the CO2 into solution.

 

[Bobby_M]

A carbonator cap on a 1 liter soda bottle is really the only safe way to do it.

 

[Yooper]

What Bobby said. A glass bottle would be a disaster. Those co2 chargers shoot an unregulated amount of co2- in fact, they tell you to not pull the trigger on it until it's fully hooked up because it's under so much pressure that you will actually blow off the quick disconnect! Can you imagine what that would do to a glass bottle possibly? Don't risk it!

 

[Shooter]

Yeah, good point, I was picturing you using a plastic bottle in my head, but I notice you aren't specific about it in your post. Do NOT use a glass bottle for this!

 

[kpr121]

It would be cool if you did that in one of those 8 oz Coca Cola christmas ball bottles. Of course you might want to take off the labeling this time of year.