Need help with soda kegerator for wife!

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Ben Karbin

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Hi! I don’t know anything about kegerators but have been researching a lot can someone please help me figure out everything I need for at home Diet Coke kegerator:

Actual kegerator

Cornelius Keg - would I fill with carbonated water or regular? In hopes of not needing a water line

Bag in box syrup

CO2 tank

***do I need a regulator to mix syrup with water? Would a soda gun suffice?

***are there any other lines or things I need to connect syrup to water before going to tap?

***could i make this happen in my current fridge? My thought is no because the co2 tank connection would need to be drilled through the back of the fridge and we are not able to modify our fridge (renting).

I was originally going to do a 128 oz growler but my wife really likes her Diet Coke so I would like to adhere to post mix system if possible?

Is there a better way to do this for at home?

Thank you!
Ben
 
This may sound a bit odd coming from a homebrewer but isn't it so much easier to just buy diet coke? If you do not already have the equipment for homebrewing I can't see why you would want to invest in everything for something that is readily available for a really low price. I get it if you are trying to imitate diet coke and it's the challenge of it then you can customize to your wife's taste but Im just at a loss as to why you would do this for the exact product that is like a dollar for 2 liters.

Edit. I do not mean the above to come off as being mean in any way. I make at home seltzer water and love having it on tap, but I already owned a way oversized kegerator, too many kegs and room on the co2 distribution block so the cost is water and co2. My point is you will invest way more than you will make back for an identical product.
 
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She prefers soda fountain taste and it’s her birthday.





This may sound a bit odd coming from a homebrewer but isn't it so much easier to just buy diet coke? If you do not already have the equipment for homebrewing I can't see why you would want to invest in everything for something that is readily available for a really low price. I get it if you are trying to imitate diet coke and it's the challenge of it then you can customize to your wife's taste but Im just at a loss as to why you would do this for the exact product that is like a dollar for 2 liters.
 
Okay then now this is making some sense to me. You need a mini fridge, corny keg, 5lb co2 tank, regulator, co2 line, beverage line, some disconnects (ball lock or pin depending on keg style), faucet (perlick or intertap).

If I were you I'd consider one of those nostalgia kegerator, change out the faucet for better one, change Sankey connection to ball or pin lock and buy a keg.

You will fill the keg with plain water and the concentrate then carbonate (use filtered, spring or RO water)
 
Thank you very much for your help!

I’m thinking I’ll get the nostalgia kegerator and sankey to ball lock coupler and then a keg.

The nostalgia kegerator comes with a 2.5 lb co2 tank will that suffice?

Do you think changing the faucet is necessary and if so why/which should I get?


Is there anyway that I can mix with concentrate after carbonated as a post mix using this set up?

Thanks,
Ben






Okay then now this is making some sense to me. You need a mini fridge, corny keg, 5lb co2 tank, regulator, co2 line, beverage line, some disconnects (ball lock or pin depending on keg style), faucet (perlick or intertap).

If I were you I'd consider one of those nostalgia kegerator, change out the faucet for better one, change Sankey connection to ball or pin lock and buy a keg.

You will fill the keg with plain water and the concentrate then carbonate (use filtered, spring or RO water)
 
2.5 lb tank is fine, you will just be refilling more often, not a big deal.

I have no idea how you would set up a post mix. No matter what you need to carbonate the water so no reason not to do it all at once in the keg.

You don't have to change the tap but I suspect you will want to eventually, but try it out as is and judge for yourself
 
Before you go buying things...

Post mix doesn't use kegs. Period. Pre-mix used kegs. That's where all of us got our used kegs from. Pre-mix doesn't exist any longer, as far as I'm aware.

http://chicompany.net/ probably sells everything you need. At the very least, get in contact with them, and ask them exactly what it is you need to do. They know their stuff, and they've always been super helpful to me.
 
This is going to be hard to do with a beer faucet. On a soda machine the syrup from the BIB is mixed with the carbonated water at the dispensing head. Diet coke is mixed at a 5:1 ratio. Screws behind the faceplate of the despenser are adjusted to give you the proper ratio. To set the proper ratio you use a brix cup. To use one you attach a special nozzle to the dispenser head that separates the water and the syrup into a divided cup. The level of the water the syrup should be equal in the cup. If you go into an convenience store to get a diet coke and watch it pouring into a cup you will see of light and dark areas in the stream going into the cup. The final mixture of syrup and water happens in the cup. I don't know any you could what you want with beer dispensing equipment.

One option might be to make your own premix using a Cornelius Keg and syrup from your BIB. This is what is often done when people make root beer to serve in their kegerator. However diet Coke will cause additional problems. Diet Coke is served at an higher pressure than root beer. This will cause excessive foaming if the lines are not kept near freezing. In commercial dispensing machines the lines run through a chill plate in the ice bin to keep the product as cold as possible. A refrigeration unit by itself would not likely be able to keep the lines as cold as required to produce a satisfactory product. Diet Coke is very difficult to get everything mixed correctly to get the proper taste. This is why it often tastes bad when ordered in restaurants.

This link shows a home soda fountain. It is somewhat expensive but it does provide a lot of good information. You might be able to find a used one for a reasonable price.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009T1Z5UG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I hope this information will help you understand some of what will be required to dispense Diet Coke.
 
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[...]Post mix doesn't use kegs. Period. [...]

Well...I don't know if it's still commonly performed but in fact even after BiB gained momentum cornelius style kegs were in fact used as post-mix containers, a paradigm that existed for many years, well suited to small events and the like...

Cheers!
 
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