Soda water for carbonation?

[eogaard]

At the moment I only make 1 gallon batches and don't have the means to force carb my mead. Being that you can't carbonate mead without a keg system unless you allow it to be extremely dry or very high alcohol (and relying on the yeast to die out at a certain %, which hasn't been too reliable in my experience) I've wondered about other means of adding some carbonation. Would adding a little bit of soda water just before bottling be a reliable method? Would the carbonation stick around and would the flavor be diminished noticeably? I'm only looking for a little bit of carbonation to add that extra kick, not a whole lot, so it doesn't seem like a terrible idea. Thoughts?

 

[MindenMan]

What kind of bottles are you using? It would be fairly easy to attach a schrader valve to the lid of a PET bottle and charge using an "emergency" CO2 bicycle tire inflater. If the mead were very cold, you could over saturate the CO2 and when the "charge" cap is replaced with the storage cap, there will be some sparkle left without a doubt. I don't know if this is a feasible idea for you or not, but I wanted to throw it out there anyway.

 

[skadalajara]

Make sure it's a stainless steel Schrader valve with a Vito gasjet, or you might get unwanted flavor added. Go to your local tire shop and take a big whiff.

 

[Bellybuster]

The shader is a great idea. I've been doing it for years with standard valves off the shelf.
There are also carbonator caps for 2 litre bottles.

 

[eogaard]

I use clear 12oz beer bottles. Would this work with those?

 

[The_Glue]

I force carb my beer in soda syphon/seltzer bottles with good results.

 

[eogaard]

I force carb my beer in soda syphon/seltzer bottles with good results.

How much does this setup cost, and how does it work? I'm unfamiliar with it

 

[The_Glue]

How much does this setup cost, and how does it work? I'm unfamiliar with it

It works kinda like this:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWNhYCL2h84[/ame]

My method for beer is a bit different. I dont shake the bottle and i put it in the freezer for at least 6 hours. (or more if i want more carb)
Also i can't shoot out the beer like at the end of the video because it just shoots out foam. I screw off the head and pour out the beer from the bottle.

I use two 2 liter bottles for my 1 gallon batches.
These things were highly popular in my country since the 19th century then they started to decline in the 2000s due to the cheap and highly marketed mineral waters.

Nowadays the bottle and the head/device costs between 20-70$ depending on size and material.
A single CO2 cartridge costs like 0.1-0.2$ here.

 

[eogaard]

It works kinda like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWNhYCL2h84

My method for beer is a bit different. I dont shake the bottle and i put it in the freezer for at least 6 hours. (or more if i want more carb)
Also i can't shoot out the beer like at the end of the video because it just shoots out foam. I screw off the head and pour out the beer from the bottle.

I use two 2 liter bottles for my 1 gallon batches.
These things were highly popular in my country since the 19th century then they started to decline in the 2000s due to the cheap and highly marketed mineral waters.

Nowadays the bottle and the head/device costs between 20-70$ depending on size and material.
A single CO2 cartridge costs like 0.1-0.2$ here.

Thanks! I'll definitely look into this. Is one CO2 cartridge good enough to carbonate the entire liter?

 

[The_Glue]

Thanks! I'll definitely look into this. Is one CO2 cartridge good enough to carbonate the entire liter?

I've seen somewhere that 2.0 volumes of carb (that is what i shoot for with bottle carbing) is ~0.39% of the beer weight in CO2 which is around 3.9g in case of 1 liter beer. My cartridges say they contain at least 6g of CO2 which is probably a standard.
I don't know how many of that gets absorbed though, i guess that depends on fridge time. I use one cartridge only.
I just started using this method but the foam was much more impressive from my bottle carbed beers. On the other hand i havn't kept my soda bottles in the fridge for more than 6 hours and i usually keep my bottles in there for at least 12 hours.