Housemade Sparkling Water

[Mussina]

Has anyone made their own sparkling water? We are thinking of doing this on a small commercial scale and I would welcome any input/advice. I found a device called a Penguin but I am not sure it will do the trick.

Edited February 8, 2008 by Mussina (log)

[cdh]

Very easily and inexpensively done on the 5-gallon scale. Just invest in:

1) Some 5-gallon steel pressure vessels (which have been phased out of the soft drink industry in recent years and are available used inexpensively).

2) A CO2 tank and the hardware to provide the gas a way into the keg, and the liquid a way out.

3) Water filters to prepare the water you're going to fill the kegs with.

(see http://morebeer.com/view_product/18190/102298 for a sample system)

Voila- For maybe $200, you've got the capacity to produce fizzy water. There are temperature and time considerations, so it isn't instant, but can be done pretty quickly if you maximize the variables towards dissolving CO2 into the water.

I've dedicated a keg to seltzer, and have run a tap line from the basement at home where the keg is kept into the kitchen, so I have running seltzer. It's very nice.

[Joe Blowe]

Everything you've ever wanted to know about home carbonation:

http://truetex.com/carbonation.htm

[Mayhaw Man]

It's really not that hard.

Get a some old containers for soft drink syrup

Tons of them on ebay or you might have a local supplier. There are tons of them around and they aren't expensive.

Fill them with water that you want to carbonate, put pressure on them (alot).

Put them in the refrigerator

Add co2 pressure over a couple of days. The colder the better.

Voila! Carbonated Water.

I've been doing this for years for various projects (right now, as I type, I have a ginger drink (fresh ginger juice, rum, water, secret ingredients) that I am working on perfecting) and it works great. In a couple of days (depending on your personal carbonation needs/tastes) you will have plenty of bubbly h2o.

Good luck.

[Mayhaw Man]

It's really not that hard.

Get a some old containers for soft drink syrup

Tons of them on ebay or you might have a local supplier. There are tons of them around and they aren't expensive.

Fill them with water that you want to carbonate, put pressure on them (alot).

Put them in the refrigerator

Add co2 pressure over a couple of days. The colder the better.

Voila! Carbonated Water.

I've been doing this for years for various projects (right now, as I type, I have a ginger drink (fresh ginger juice, rum, water, secret ingredients) that I am working on perfecting) and it works great. In a couple of days (depending on your personal carbonation needs/tastes) you will have plenty of bubbly h2o.

Good luck.

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Ummm, like they said.... (gotta learn to type faster)

[cdh]

Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Which is the keg in the basement.

and

Which is the cobra tap hanging from a U magnet on the side of the fridge.

The astute might notice that no gas line is hooked up to the keg. I find that I don't need to keep one connected, so I don't.

My preferred technique is to add about 3 gallons of water and ice to the keg, seal it, and then apply 50 PSI while shaking it furiously for about 3 minutes, and then let it rest for 10 minutes, then remove the gas in line. It's sufficiently carbed for my tastes, and has enough pressure to dispense everything in there without another shot of gas.

Reasoning behind my method: 1) cold water absorbs and dissolves CO2 better than warm water... the colder it is, the more gas get in there and 2) shaking a not-full keg under pressure increases the amount of surface area exposed to the gas, which increases the rate the gas gets into the water, as does the high (50PSI) pressure.

Edited February 8, 2008 by cdh (log)

[pounce]

Has anyone made their own sparkling water?  We are thinking of doing this on a small commercial scale and I would welcome any input/advice.  I found a device called a Penguin but I am not sure it will do the trick.

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The sodaclub penguin is not something you could use for any commercial scale.

I use one of their edition one product at home to make seltzer and am extremely happy with the value and functionality. Love it and buy them for friends now.

You can partner with many bottling companies if you want to do a private label. You would be surprised at how cheap you can get private label water in bottles. The distribution is the costly part of beverages.