The Carbonator Cap?

Pakawa · Jul 5, 2010

Has anyone ever had any experience with the carbonator cap? (shown here http://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-carbonater.html) I was wondering if I could use this to force carbonate my homebrew in a two liter and then siphon it into individual glass bottles or would it lose its carbonation?

drunkatuw · Jul 5, 2010

That would work, but it's a lot of effort to bottle. I typically use my carbonator cap for two purposes. To take 2L of beer with me, just fill a 2L bottle from the tap and then fill the head space with co2 to the beer doesn't lose any carbonation. Or the second use is to get an early sample of a beer. If I can't fit all the beer in a keg and I have 0.5-1gal extra, I'll put it in a 2L bottle, chill it in the fridge for a couple hours and then hook it up to 30psi with the carbonator cap and shake it, so the beer carbs really quickly.

Pakawa · Jul 5, 2010

If you force carbonated and put them in sealed glass bottles, would the head space without co2 ruin the taste of the beer or the amount of carbonation? Or would it be a reasonable alternative to natural carbonation with yeast?

a10t2 · Jul 5, 2010

That's how I bottle my beers for competitions. I fill a 1 L or 2 L bottle, then connect it to CO2 for a few days to over-carbonate it by about 0.5 vol, since the beer will lose some CO2 in the process. Then I shove a length of racking cane into a picnic tap, connect it to the gas-out QD on the carbonator cap, and turn the bottle upside down. After slowly filling each bottle I cap on foam. The key is to do everything very slowly to avoid degassing the beer.

It takes at least half an hour to bottle a six-pack this way though. I can't imagine doing a whole batch.

Pakawa · Jul 5, 2010

Hmmm, what about something like coopers carbonation drops or muntons carbonation tablets? Are those literally just sugar pellets that still require yeast or could those fully carbonate anything without adding any yeast? Thanks for the quick responses!

drunkatuw · Jul 5, 2010

I've used cooper carbonation drops. They work great, but you need to leave the bottles at 70 degrees for 2-3 weeks for them to fully carbonate. That's on advantage of the carbonator cap...you can have carbonated beer in 2-3 hours.