Hmmm, I’ll have to give that a try. I do the extra carbonation thing all the time… I make carbonated diet lemonade that I use to make shandy when I’m working in the yard. I also make coffee concentrate, so that could work. (I got a Toddy for Christmas a few years ago, though I use it more in the summer than in the winter.)
That’s the first person I’ve heard of who also does that. I have a kegerator with two 5 gallon soda kegs full of water. It’s one of the things we miss most when we travel.
Very oddly, I’ve gotten pinhole leaks in 4 soda kegs over the last few years. I use about a tablespoon of sea salt to add flavor - but it shouldn’t do anything to stainless steel.
1 Like
If you know your barista at your local Starbucks (or similar outlet that does both coffee and custom carbonated beverages) I am sure they would make it for you. The local one got their carbonating machine in last year and I asked “What happens if you put coffee in it?” the reply was “I don’t know, let’s find out” - the resulting drink was a bit bitter and did not really do it for me. She liked it a bit more than I did.
Bed Bath Beyond is reasonable with a coupon.
Also if your interested in carbonating other things. The old fashioned soda siphons will do that. It’s a closed system with a tight seal.
The soda stream will bubble over because there isn’t super tight seal, so bubbles form because the other liquids have a difference surface tension than water and fills up the chamber with bubbles that overflow and break through the seal.
My parents refused to let me try that, with vague but dire warnings of what would happen to me if I tried.
7 Likes
So I assume from the lack of mentions that the traditional Seltzer bottle and small co2 cartridge is not seen as an option ( excepting @SteampunkBanana 's mention of the bespoke crafted kind). I know that the cartridges are not refillable.
The closest grocery store has been part of a take over and of the oddities that seem to be taking hold are a reduced availability of inexpensive carbonated water.
IIRC, food-grade CO2 is tested to be 99.9% pure while industrial-grade is usually only tested to be 99.0 - 99.5% pure. There’s a small percentage difference, to be sure, but the big issue is that you can’t really know how much of that percentage is what kind of contaminant. If you’re lucky, it’s harmless. If not… well…
1 Like
Well, certainly if you’re going to use a “common-sense” definition of the word “occupied,” then you’re absolutely right. But are you also suggesting that the correct resolution of the conflict is for the West Bank to go to Jordan?
My .9 percent ended up being squirrels once. It was unpleasant in our kitchen for a few hours.
10 Likes
I’ll bet… compressed squirrels are only topped by compressed weasels in terms of nastiness once they’re freed after being squirted through a nozzle.
3 Likes
Growing up, we had a burning barrel; it was a favorite toy.
My brother and I would get a good fire going and experiment! Toss in a can of hair spray and after a minute you get a nice fireball and an individually crafted exploded can. Bags of gasoline were trickier and not as much fun as we imagined.
But one of those little CO2 cartridges… big WHOOMP and the fire goes out!
7 Likes
Thoughts.
What about using a pressure vessel with a wide mouth and refill it with pieces of dry ice, then screw it closed? Dry ice may be more available at some places than a liquid CO2 refill. Then it will be usable as a conventionally filled CO2 vessel. (Beware of the metallurgy used for the vessel - low temperatures may make some alloys brittle and prone to fail.)
If the lubricant traces are a problem, what about putting a cartridge with activated charcoal or another sorbent into the gas path?
As of carbonating liquids, anything in which the CO2 is soluble enough at increased pressure, and which won’t react with it or be altered in an unwanted way. CO2 is acidic, which would cause milk to curdle and ruin your day (hence N2O is used for making whipped cream). Water-based liquids that don’t mind the extra acidity should work well - syrup, soup, coffee, liquor - as long as they are cold enough, as the gas solubility goes down with increasing temperature. Mercury, not at all. Gasoline and paint, careful maybe.
You can even carbonate fruit, by putting it into high-pressure CO2 atmosphere for long enough so the gas dissolves in the juices.
1 Like
Fizzy gazpacho it is then. Thanks!
3 Likes
The linked article says to soak in CO2 sublimated from dry ice in a loosely covered bowl for 30 min - no high pressure necessary. High pressure seems like it would be a lot more efficient, though.
1 Like
Yep!! I have yet to find an airgas that will refill your existing tank that you bring in. Besides, I kinda like the “personality” of a savagely used, old tank.
3 Likes
"syrup, soup, coffee, liquor - as long as they are cold enough, as the gas solubility goes down with increasing temperature. "
As someone who has… Ahem… Attempted many of these, all I can say is when you try make sure you are recording the attempt (for YouTube posterity), and also make sure you have plenty of paper towels.
In a word? Frothy!
4 Likes
Yes! Depending on the characteristics of the liquid and the ability to retain the bubbles, the result will be somewhere between a soda and a foam. Said N2O-whipped cream is an example of such foam, with very fine bubbles.
The kinetics of the expansion could then be used to influence the bubble size; fast, grossly out of equilibrium expansion will favor lots of small ones, while slow process will favor fewer bigger ones. Letting the foam stay would also lead to coalescing of the bubbles to fewer bigger ones, if the gas/liquid mobility was not retarded by e.g. a gelling additive.
I’ll dig it up one of these days, but I recall there is a patent Guinness has on Nitro/CO2 mixtures that releases the gas with a specific shear, so they produce very specific bubbles (and decrease the amount of carbonic acid).
Another thought… What about carbonated whey from Greek yogurt? It would be sour as hell, but all the solids would already have gelled…
2 Likes
Yes, N2/CO2 mix is common.
The beer cans even contain a “widget”, a piece of plastic to facilitate the controlled gas release on depressurizing of the can.
Could work, in theory. The dissolved proteins would be likely to foam it up a lot, though.
