Do You Make Sodas At Home?

Is it worth it?

Originally posted by thisisnotaname
Is it worth it?

If you like homemade soda, I guess it is..

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

I have not made my own soda but I think it would be worth it. Its better then paying evil corporations for poison but then again you could find a good soda.

reply to post by Destinyone

Wrong thread...sorry...my bad...

I have a soda stream unit and modded it to connect to a 20lb co2 tank under the counter. I make soda using OJ or juice mainly because sodastream syrups are horrible for you and so are most others. Its nice when company comes and you can create your own syrups to make an original semi healthy soda ( i use cane syrup to sweeten it). I think its worth it, cost is a bit high but pays for itself after a while. Tank refills cost me 10 bux as opposed to the $30 per new sodastream co2 cartridge with $15 refill. Bubbles make things seem more refreshing.

Originally posted by thisisnotaname
Is it worth it?

yes making home made soda is worth it.


if you use natural ingredients instead of the junky chemicals they put in normal soda you can make it healthy too.

I just buy 2 liters of cheap plain soda water and mix it with cordial as required.

Cheaper, still got whatever makes red cordial red cordial in it, but you can make whatever flavours you like with cheap cordials and as long as you don't intend on the soda water lasting a long time (it goes flat pretty quick) then it's a good enough alternative.

So if you're buying the expensive name brand syrups and the whippets to go with it as an alternative to store bought soda, I rekon it's better since the cost is much less than the machine and the things that go with it.

2 liters of soda is what.. 99 cents.. cheap cordial about $2 so.. and thats over 2 liters of soda in whatever flavour you like.

Just mix it as you want a glass, or you do find it goes flat.

I like to pour a bit of unsweetened koolaid powder into a bottle of club soda and sweeten with stevia. Yum!

I have a soda stream as well.. LOVE IT!
I keep water chillin in the fridge JUST for it. I also make my own syrups from Fresh fruits. I control what goes in. Just don't try to carbonate the actual juice, Its not pretty , Been there done that, Trust me!
If you have a local place that fill Fill your CO2 Containers, thats the least expensive, My local Hardware store carries the products as well as trades on the canisters, No not free, But cheaper that buying a new one ea. time (don't know why you would) And 1 canister goes along way. (depends on how much carbination you like as well) Me I am all about the bubbly

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)

jimmyb0nz- do you care to outline how you adapted the Sodastream to the 20 lb CO2 bottle? Which model Sodastream was it? Thanks!

I don't know about soda, but I know someone who does this:

www.homebrewers.com...

I'll probably just stick with my Lowenbrau though.