Questions about corny system for making sparkling water?

[Woodbrews]

I'm carbonating a 3-gallon corny keg of filtered water to make plain sparkling water. I've been using a carbonator cap and 2-liter bottles, but they have been leaking and costing me in gas refills. I'd like to move to a corny-based system with a tap. I already have a 5-gallon beer corny in my kegerator and this would sit next to it and use its own dedicated tap.

So, some questions:

1. How long will it take to carbonate a 3-gallon corny to 30psi?
2. How long a line do I need for dispensing by tap? I've read 1 foot for each PSI, but that seems excessive.
3. Can I use regular beer taps? Is any type of tap better than another?
4. Is there any way to refill the keg on the fly, without losing all carbonation?

Thanks!

 

[fosaisu]

I've only made sodas, not plain sparkling water, but for what it's worth here's my conjecture:

1) Should be a quick carbonation job. Chill the water, hook up the CO2 and roll the keg back and forth on the floor for 5 mins (or until you stop hearing the CO2 entering the water). That should get you pretty close to your target PSI.

2) You'll want a longer line but because it's just water, foaming shouldn't be a huge deal (unlike with beer or soda, the bubbles will disipate quickly). I'd recommend going with a higher quality beverage line to minimize plastic flavors from the line, which would likely be more apparent in sparkling water than in beer. I don't use regular beer line myself but if you go that route, people seem to recommend 25-30 feet for soda at 30 PSI, so I'd say start with 30 feet and if it's pouring too slow, trim it down a foot or two at a time until you find the sweet spot. [For what it's worth I've been very happy with Accuflex Bev-Seal on all my beer and soda taps. I use ~15-20 feet lengths for beer (depending on the PSI) and a ~45 ft length for soda served at 35 PSI -- this stuff is great because it doesn't absorb any flavors at all from whatever you run through it, but it's ultra-smooth so you need longer lines than you would with standard beverage tubing]

3) Yes you can use regular beer taps to serve sparkling water.

4) You should be able to a) kill the CO2, b) vent the keg, c) top off with water, and d) repeat the rolling on the floor technique. With this approach you'll lose the gaseous CO2 in the headspace when you vent the keg, but shouldn't lose much of the CO2 that's in suspension in the water. Given how quickly you should be able to get a fresh keg carbed up though, I wouldn't bother with this and would just suggest making a new batch when the old one runs out. If you do try to "top off", be aware that when you dump still water into the remaining sparkling water it will probably foam up a bunch, so pour carefully!

 

[arcticz1]

I have been doing this for 3 years now with a 5 gallon corny. I put the keg in the kegerator at 30-40 psi and I am usually drinking it by day 3. If it needs more co2 I just leave it at 30-40 psi until I am happy with the level of co2. I use a Perlick 575SS faucet with about 5' of 3/16 bevlex beer line. I can warn you that you will find every co2 leak in the kegerator at these pressures. I had no problems at 10-15 psi but when I turned up to 40 I lost a 5lb tank in 2 days. Use a spray bottle to check for leaks after you turn up the pressure. When I run out I refill the same keg and don't have any water for a couple of days.

 

[AnOldUR]

My solution.

 

[fosaisu]

My solution.

That is pretty sweet! Is your system still holding up well under heavy summer usage?

 

[AnOldUR]

Going on two months and have never noticed the change in the level of carbonation.

 

[bcrawfo2]

A few ideas from my experience

Get a carbonation stone

Also to increase my pipeline/prevent outages...i put two kegs in series. I have one keg in my keezer and another one outside. The outside keg has the carb stone on the gas port and a jumper from the beer port to the gas port of the keg in my keezer.
As I drink from the keg in the freezer, it gets automatically refilled. When the outside keg is empty, I can refill and still have a lot left inside the keezer



Sent from my iPad using Home Brew