PureFizz vs SodaStream: your take?

[rotuts]

the following Post is rated Many XX's  it should not be viewed by anyone who enjoys Champagne'ish  Bubbly.

 

I like champagne.  I like it bone dry, small bubbles etc.  FR in the past  ( I used to drink veuve clicquot a zillion years ago

 

on occasion, well before they expanded and it became not so good. )  I like a hint of yeast in the bubbly and understand these days

 

that costs quite a few buck, which seems a bit much for me. )

 

here is my report on the PF making Bubbly:

 

 

this is my House White.  Delicious Ice Cold at 3.99 MA price. now, just in time, 4.49

 

Id love to see what this costs in a State w a bit less Graft and Corruption.  2 buck Chuck is 3 here

 

and that dollar goes Im sure to some nephew of some Speaker etc.  maybe not.

 

this wine is dry, char-like, no oak, no vanilla, tabac, cheries etc.  as I like it.

 

got a bottle very very cold.  chilled the PZ container in the freezer etc

 

filled the Tank, one charge, gentle rotations at noted in the Manual.

 

back in the freezer for a bit, then the cold side door. a couple of gentle 'rotations'

 

etc.  I waited as long as I could.   I developed a 'thirst' making some Home Made Machine Bread.

 

two minutes of work, after all :

 

 

when the plunger was released, more gas came out than expected base on water etc.

 

The Pour  you see.   i got out a Real Baccarat Crystal Champ. glass.  polished it up.

 

small bubbles.  Soooooooooooo  delicious !

 

this is exactly what I like in Champ-y-like bubbles.  no FRsl  hint of yeast  

 

Unfortunately, I am in Sooooooooooooooooooooooo much trouble now 

 

no more 'Still' white for me !

 

rats.  I would have bought 6 ,10 ,  all they had at 3.99 an put them in my basement.

 

bought a time lock. etc.

 

fantastic stuff !

 

to my consistent palate, this is as good or better than anything Tj's has at 15.00 or more.

 

my birthday is coming up.   Im a big fan of Chablis.  from FR   they have an OK 10 $ bottle there

 

Im going to Fizz-it-Up.

 

your health is guaranteed to deteriorate w home made PureFuzz Wine.

 

believe it.

Edited August 19, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[FauxPas]

Thank you so much for your entertaining and thorough report, rotuts! A fun read! 

 

I think you have sold me on the PureFizz, but I will probably wait to buy until I am again in the US this Fall. 

 

How well does the carbonation last in water if you pour it into another container for storage, do you know? It's just that I would go through a bottle a day (or more) in the summer. So I would like to be able to have one bottle ready for drinking and another underway. Do you see any issues with this, by any chance? 

 

Edited to add:  I would definitely be making some sparkling wine, also! 

Edited August 19, 2014 by FauxPas (log)

[rotuts]

I think you will be fine w just water to keep the Fizz in the Jug.

 

just have very very cold water ready for the next charge.  put the empty jug in the freezer for a few minutes, make sure the threaded area is very dry esp is its going to be on its side, so no water freezes on the threads

 

this would make sealing a bit difficult

 

charge, rotate, etc and put back in the freezer for a few minutes

 

then the coldest part of your refrig.

 

Im sure it would be fine.   the first and second glass is very very fizzy.

 

enjoy

 

the Champ-y would take more time Im guessing.  if your are going to have several bottles. you would consider getting

 

extra bottles.  over the long run , say a week,   they will pay for themselves.

[rotuts]

next up  ( after the Chablis-Champ-y )  Kir Royals.

 

but i really have to say, the TJ's Chard-Chile  suits me fine

 

a bit too fine, really

 

*** burp ***

 

back in the day, for Friday and Sat dinners, which i worked very hard at, mostly fish etc

 

Id have owned two of these.   ( FD: 2 / night, 2 people etc More People ) Id have saved so much, Id be posting from my Villa on

 

Martinique now.  the fish still wiggling.

 

 

see thats what the bubble do

Edited August 19, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[cyalexa]

Rotuts, thanks for reporting.

 

If my sodastream  dies I'm repelacing it with a purefizz so I can carbonate wine.

[lesliec]

No need to wait, Cyalexa - I seem to recall a Heston Blumenthal experiment with putting Blue Nun (cheap German wine) through a Sodastream.  Seemed to work just fine - ah yes, here we are.

[cyalexa]

No need to wait, Cyalexa - I seem to recall a Heston Blumenthal experiment with putting Blue Nun (cheap German wine) through a Sodastream.  Seemed to work just fine - ah yes, here we are.

Thanks for the link. I tried wine in my Sodastream Penguin once and it made a huge mess. I'm reluctant to try it again. Maybe I will google it later and see if others are doing it with their Penguins.

[rotuts]

I decided to find out what a 'Second Quick Charge' was like, ie finished one charge, Id like another as soon as possible

 

I had cold water in the frig, but I brought it out and added some ice cubes.  the empty metal container was placed in the freezer, being careful to fully dry the threads.

 

about 2 minutes later, I added the now really cold water, charged the system, did a few 'rotations' as the manual states, put it

 

back in the freezer for < 4 minutes.  brought it out, and did a few gentile rotation, took the charger off and released the pressure

 

and poured the water.   it was very very fizzy and very cold.

 

so if you think you might die of thirst in about 5 minutes , you might need to buy two.

 

otherwise  with cold cold water, you are going to be fine in less than 5 minutes for a second bottle.

[FauxPas]

Thanks for that, rotuts! It addresses my earlier question, appreciate you posting your results. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My iSi holds only 0.5 liter.  Totally unsatisfactory.  That and Baccarat Champagne flutes are very much too small.  Tonight's dinner required two batches and two cylinders.

[pep.]

My iSi holds only 0.5 liter.  Totally unsatisfactory.  That and Baccarat Champagne flutes are very much too small.  Tonight's dinner required two batches and two cylinders.

 

Get a bigger iSi. (I know, easy for me to say: I own three: 0.5 l ThermoWhip and both a 0.5 and 1.0 l GourmetWhip ;-))

[rotuts]

interesting point about the B.flute.

 

was staking wood yest.  it was warm, I needed an incentive :  Polished up the Baccarat ' Rotary ' G&T glass:

 

 

this is my usual technique.

 

Churchill used a 'constant infusion' method with Champ.  he used Baccarat 'Harmonie' :

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=baccarat+harmonie&client=firefox-a&hs=u69&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=yzL3U-W-IYb5yQT20oC4DA&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=962&bih=859&dpr=1.2

 

big big tumblers.  What did he know !

 

BTW  Rotary is no longer made.   From the 'Free' French trip 

 

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/Baccarat-Rotary-Highball/prod139640109/p.prod

 

http://www.crystalclassics.com/baccarat/barware/rotarytumbler.htm

 

etc.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Last night's flute was Comtesse De Paris.  I prefer plain glass.  My biggest Baccarat is barely 16 ounces, but I use that for mai tais...speaking of which, as at the moment.  You might look to their ice buckets and flower pots for inspiration.

 

I gave serious thought to ordering a 1 liter iSi last night.  Fortunately the "champagne" had its effect on me before I could do any more damage to my bank account.

 

Is it just me, or is methode Rotuts particularly dangerous?  It knocked me out pretty good.

 

I still might order up that 1 liter iSi.  It's too bad that the review linked above did not consider a normal iSi instead of just the iSi siphon.

[rotuts]

"" methode Rotuts "" is not in itself particularly dangerous

 

the bubbles probably change the pH thus the effective agent might reach its intended receptor sooner.

 

and BTW, its tasty-er than 'still'

 

Im guessing if you use Methode Rotuts  ( excellent name BTW ) you will loose some bubbles in the 'sprizering'

 

[rotuts]

BTW  I now think PureFizz was really made for  Methode Rotuts

 

Id accept no inferior Methode.

 

stacking the rest of the Wood today ....

 

components chilling down nicely.

 

1/2 cord / day + One M.R / day  smoooooooths out the situation, nicely.

 

BTW  Im fairly sure the PureFizz and the Methode Rotuts will be banned in France 

 

very very soon.

 

if you get Le Monde, pls let up know.

 

Edited August 23, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I returned to method rotuts tonight.  I took a tip from MC vol 2 and first vented the freezer temperature wine, in this case, soave, with CO2 by holding down the valve of the iSi while charging.  Then I charged again with a second cylinder.  I think I may have over done the carbonation.  The wine was a bit too acid.  Maybe I should have added a little sugar, much like real Champagne?

 

But this invites the question:  has anyone tried charging wine with nitrous oxide?  That is my next experiment.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I now have two more iSi canisters, both one liter.  I tested a combination of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.  Unfortunately with N2O the wine had an inappropriate sweetish taste...and perhaps an inappropriate intoxication.  Tonight I tried a run of straight CO2 by the Modernist Cuisine method and the result was very good.

 

This requires three cylinders of CO2.  One cylinder to vent the atmospheric gases from the canister and two cylinders to fully charge the liter of liquid, which in this case is a euphemism for white wine.

 

Much better than using two cylinders of CO2 with the half liter iSi, which resulted in wine which was overly sour.  The downside of the iSi with methode rotuts is that a liter's worth lasts only two days.  I don't mean the wine loses it effervescence.  On the contrary, the canister runs dry.  Not sure what to do about this, but having two canisters seems to help.

[lindag]

I went back to this thread to try to understand how to make fizzy wine (MR) with the equipment I have and I,'m still confused.

If I chilled my ISI (liter size),  chilled my white wine thoroughly, would I then add the wine to the cold ISI, charge it, re-chill thoroughly, then drink?

Do I have it right?  I 'm eager to try this.

[rotuts]

take a look at this thread :

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/149804-methode-rotuts/?page=5&tab=comments#comment-2145413

 

as the Fizz Items I have are no longer available

 

Id look into MR-JNW

 

red tops of course.

[paulraphael]

@Rotus, if you don't already have it, you'd probably enjoy Dave Arnold's cocktail book Liquid Intelligence. He goes into fairly obsessive detail on carbonating booze, including wine (his blog gave me the idea to play with this in the first place).

 

His conclusion is that in most cases it ends up being a pointless exercise (the wine was better flat), although the one time my friends and I did it, we thought the cheap chardonnay was much improved ... even if it was too oaky to pass for champaign. 

 

He also discusses how to set up a carbonating system with a 20lb CO2 tank for around $200, which over the long term will cost a tiny fraction per drink what a soda stream costs, with its overpriced cartridges.

 

Far in last place, as others have commented, is the Isi siphon with its $1 a hit chargers. Sadly, this is the only gizmo I've got. 

[Lisa Shock]

BTW, I'm still working on using up the gas in the first of my two CO2 tanks. (which can, of course, be refilled at a sporting goods store)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, paulraphael said:

Far in last place, as others have commented, is the Isi siphon with its $1 a hit chargers. Sadly, this is the only gizmo I've got. 

 

Check with CreamRight.  I pay 42 cents a hit.  And as I believe @nathanm explained, iSi vessels are far less likely to explode.

 

[paulraphael]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Check with CreamRight.  I pay 42 cents a hit.  And as I believe @nathanm explained, iSi vessels are far less likely to explode.

 

 

I'm a big fan of iSi generally, just not for carbonating drinks. Even at 42 cents it's wildly more expensive than the other options. And slower, and less controllable, and more of a nuissance. Ideally I'd like a big tank under the sink that holds 20 lbs of CO2, with a regulator and an attachment to carbonate things in regular 2L bottles. 

[rotuts]

"" the Isi siphon with its $1 a hit chargers. "

 

they don't take these ?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Leland-Soda-Chargers-Seltzer-CO2/dp/B00304SLAO

 

that's 40 cents

 

I think MR w dry no-oak whites from Tj's is fine stuff

 

the one from Chile costs 4.49   and the one from CA costs 4.89

 

Ive posted pics of these in the Tj's thread  

 

dry , no oak.

[cdh]

9 hours ago, paulraphael said:

 

I'm a big fan of iSi generally, just not for carbonating drinks. Even at 42 cents it's wildly more expensive than the other options. And slower, and less controllable, and more of a nuissance. Ideally I'd like a big tank under the sink that holds 20 lbs of CO2, with a regulator and an attachment to carbonate things in regular 2L bottles. 

What you're looking for is:

1) a tank: https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Cylinder-Handle-CGA320-Valve/dp/B0088P10OO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521297900&sr=8-2&keywords=20+lb+co2+tank&dpID=31zyh6yydfL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

2) a regulator: https://www.amazon.com/Taprite-Primary-Regulator-3741-BR-Draft/dp/B00PZM6H7S/ref=sr_1_11?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1521297972&sr=1-11&keywords=co2+regulator

3) a gas line: https://www.amazon.com/16-Gas-Line-Assembly-Ball/dp/B0064OI77Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1521298041&sr=1-3&keywords=ball+lock+gas+line&dpID=419E02PgkoL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

and 4) a carbonator cap: https://www.amazon.com/16-Gas-Line-Assembly-Ball/dp/B0064OI77Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1521298041&sr=1-3&keywords=ball+lock+gas+line&dpID=419E02PgkoL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

If you wanted to get crazy fancy you might get a diffusion stone like this, to help the gas get into the liquid faster by virtue of much larger surface area of zillions of tiny bubbles: https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-MRbrew-Micron-Kegging-Homebrew/dp/B0728DY9P7/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1521298188&sr=1-1&keywords=diffusion+stone&dpID=41cQ61Gfa%2BL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

That whole lot comes in at right around $200... You can carbonate anything in a bottle that takes a standard soda cap.  Stay away from glass bottles, as most modern glass is designed to contain pre-existing carbonation, but not beefy enough to reliably take a carbonation charge without going all glass grenade.

Edited March 17, 2018 by cdh (log)