Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by thisisnotaname
If you are talking about the new soda machine being advertised on TV...I don't think so. They don't tell you in the commercial the machine requires
whippet cartridges. Co2 to make it fizzy. Whippets are not cheap. They syrup is cheap the water is free from your own tap...the Co2 cartridges not
cheap.
Des
Whippets are Nitrous Oxide, soda is carbonated with Carbon Dioxide. What you said still stands, though, those soda stream machines are overpriced and
charge way too much for their proprietary CO2 cartridges. You can modify them by tapping the cartridge, attaching a fitting, and then running CO2 from
a regular food-grade CO2 tank. Basically use their cartridge as an expansion chamber instead of a CO2 supply. Much cheaper that way! Plus doing it
this way doesn't require any modification to the actual unit itself, in case you need to return it for warranty work or something. Modifying the
actual unit would void the warranty.
Making soda at home is great, aside from buying those specific syrups they sell to mimic normal soda brands, it's really fun to experiment with other
sodas.
I like to buy those Torani syrups used for flavoring coffee and what not. I make an absolutely awesome vanilla soda out of their french vanilla syrup.
Using grenadine as a syrup is delicious as well, assuming you like grenadine.
I've also used bar syrups that you get at the liquor store (or the supermarket too, I guess) So many flavors, and you get a huge bottle for the price
of those small bottles soda stream sells.
I've also carbonated wine with it before. I used Hogue's Late Harvest Riesling as well as Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling to make some delicious
champagne knock-offs.
I'm also a home-brewer, and when a batch is done fermenting, I'll take a liter and run it through the soda stream to force carb it, that way I can get
a taste for what the batch will be like once it's all bottled and carbed up. Usually a bit green at that point, but I can't help myself to sample
every batch as soon as possible.
They are pretty cool little machines with a lot of uses. I buy a lot of tonic water for making G&Ts. After a week or so the 2-liter bottles of tonic
are usually totally flat, so I'll run a bit through the soda stream to carb it up before making my cocktails. I think soda stream sells a tonic water
syrup, but I have not bought any of their syrups for so long so I usually just get store bought tonic.
Another thing I really like is that it allows me to make sugar free soda that tastes great and doesn't have nasty fake sweeteners in it. I use either
vegetable glycerine or stevia as a sweetener, and strawberry and banana extract together to make an awesome sugar/calorie free strawberry banana
soda.
I'd definitely recommend getting one if you like soda a lot, all of the crazy experimental sodas you can make are just too cool. My only gripe is
their overprice proprietary CO2 cartridges, but like I said it's easy to convert so you can just use a regular larger CO2 tank.
Those are what you're talking about right? Because you can also make soda using yeast to bottle condition your mixture to carbonate it. I've made
ginger ale like this before using my home brew equipment. But making soda this way takes more time, more money, more effort, and it's kind of
difficult to get it right. The yeast will keep fermenting the sugars until they are all gone, or the alcohol content gets too high for them to
survive. This can create "bottle bombs" where you have a bunch of glass bottles exploding because of overpressure.
It can also create a pretty nasty drink that's got too much alcohol, and isn't sweet enough anymore. Basically turns into prison wine if you don't
stop the fermentation at the right point (the right point being fermented just enough to carbonate the beverage, but not raise the alcohol content to
an "effective" level)
edit on 4-7-2012 by James1982 because: (no reason given)