Posted: 3/7/2013 4:36:49 PM EDT
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I figure I would ask this on here since I'm sure its valuable information to alot of you guys as well.
So I picked up a sodastream last night tried the root beer that comes with it and well it sucks. I looked on the dang site for syrup sales and found the energy drink but no dang root beer. can we buy root beer and butterscotch root beer syrup preferably in 1gal jugs. If not available could you make it available say on the arfcom whtf black market? |
| Unfortunately, regular soda syrups won't work with the Soda stream. It all has to do with the mixing ratios. Regular sugared syrups are usually made in a 1+4 or 1+5 concentration, meaning you add one part concentrate to 4 or 5 parts carbonated water (seltzer). As I recall, the Sodastream flavors are at a ratio of approx 1+20. In order to do this, they have to make use of some sort of artificial sweeteners which are anywhere from 150 to 600 times the sweetness of the equivalent amount of sugar, so as you can see, you can really ultra-concentrate this stuff. They also use a token amount of sugar just to make it "syrupy". So, with the Sodastream, you have an almost full bottle of carbonated water, and add a little of the concentrate. If you were to do it with a 1+4, you'd have to leave 1/5th of the bottle empty, carbonate the water, and then add the syrup. Then you'd need to make sure the syrup is mixed thoroughly (meaning you'll have to agitate the bottle), and everybody knows what happens when you do that. Now, it wouldn't be drinkable at that time unless you wanted a root beer fountain all over your kitchen. So what you'd do is put the capped bottle in the refrigerator for a day to re-carbonate & settle down. You would probably be okay. I've never tried it in one, so I'm basing this on what I know about the Sodastream. Theoretically it should work although from a practical standpoint it just isn't efficient. I probably should get one and play around with it. If it's something you'd want to play with it's fine by me, I've always got syrup. At MI's open house last year I gave Unique a bunch of flavored syrups to play with and pretty much explained all of the above and not be expecting good results. I never did hear if he tried it and how the results are. For those of you with Sodastreams, if you can stop down, I'll give you some syrups to play with. I'd be interested to see what happens. |
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Unfortunately, regular soda syrups won't work with the Soda stream. It all has to do with the mixing ratios. Regular sugared syrups are usually made in a 1+4 or 1+5 concentration, meaning you add one part concentrate to 4 or 5 parts carbonated water (seltzer). As I recall, the Sodastream flavors are at a ratio of approx 1+20. In order to do this, they have to make use of some sort of artificial sweeteners which are anywhere from 150 to 600 times the sweetness of the equivalent amount of sugar, so as you can see, you can really ultra-concentrate this stuff. They also use a token amount of sugar just to make it "syrupy". So, with the Sodastream, you have an almost full bottle of carbonated water, and add a little of the concentrate. If you were to do it with a 1+4, you'd have to leave 1/5th of the bottle empty, carbonate the water, and then add the syrup. Then you'd need to make sure the syrup is mixed thoroughly (meaning you'll have to agitate the bottle), and everybody knows what happens when you do that. Now, it wouldn't be drinkable at that time unless you wanted a root beer fountain all over your kitchen. So what you'd do is put the capped bottle in the refrigerator for a day to re-carbonate & settle down. You would probably be okay. I've never tried it in one, so I'm basing this on what I know about the Sodastream. Theoretically it should work although from a practical standpoint it just isn't efficient. I probably should get one and play around with it. If it's something you'd want to play with it's fine by me, I've always got syrup. At MI's open house last year I gave Unique a bunch of flavored syrups to play with and pretty much explained all of the above and not be expecting good results. I never did hear if he tried it and how the results are. For those of you with Sodastreams, if you can stop down, I'll give you some syrups to play with. I'd be interested to see what happens. thanks for explaining the limitations i still would like to try hopfully unique can chime in with his experiences. at home we haven't bought soda for awhile we mostly just add mio to water and after awhile that gets boring so we figured we would give this a shot but the splenda they use as a sweetener just doesnt taste right. it will be good to have some things to experiment with .i dont see a problem with mixing and setting aside for awhile thats what extra bottles are for i can make a liter or two when i get home and it should be settled down for dinner time. besides I really need to get down there one of these days anyway id love to see where the best dang root beer on earth is made. |
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How about just some syrup so I can put it on tap at home =D I have 6 beer taps right now and plan on adding 2 more (1 beer, 1 soda), sure would be good with some DANG! on tap....just saying =D arnt beer taps and soda taps different i think u need a carbonator pump. oh and you suck 
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The sodastreams don't force you to use a fixed ratio, but I don't doubt Johns explanation. I've heard of people buying brand name syrups at sams (I haven't seen any) or from local disributors.
It's the 5:1 ratio that disturbs me...those would be some freaking expensive drinks! The sodastream flavors are so-so. pretty much all of the flavors taste like cheap imitation soda's, although the Dr. Pepper equivelant seems to come pretty close. Having done more research AFTER purchasing one, what I'd do is NOT buy a sodastream, but spend about $150 or so for a carbonating setup. Not a tap, but a system that lets you carbonate one and two liter bottles. Get the bottle from your bottle gas dealer, and the rest of the parts from amazon or online. I've seen setup where the bottle has a siphon tube, and another where it does not. I've also seen where you can buy adaptors to refill your own sodastream CO2 and to bypass their propierty valves. |
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How about just some syrup so I can put it on tap at home =D I have 6 beer taps right now and plan on adding 2 more (1 beer, 1 soda), sure would be good with some DANG! on tap....just saying =D arnt beer taps and soda taps different i think u need a carbonator pump. oh and you suck Yeah, when you use beer taps for soda you'd need to use a pre-mix soda, essentially a 5 gallon stainless steel tank that contains finished soda just like you'd find in any can or bottle. The standard faucets you see on dispensing machines are post-mix dispensers, they blend the syrup & carbonated water right at the nozzle. Those use the dedicated carbonator with a pump and carbonated water holding tank. With this style (or any soda pre-mix or post-mix) you have to keep the carbonated part of the mix chilled at no more than 42 degrees to prevent the CO2 from flashing off and losing the carbonation. Just like how a warm beer goes flat. Keeping it chilled can either be done by running it through insulated lines that are cooled by a conventional refrigerated setup using a compressor. Or the seltzer can pass through a cold plate, essentially a heat exchanger consisting of stainless steel tubes encased in a large block of aluminum which is covered by ice. This is usually placed in the ice bin behind the bar. This is actually the preferred method now as you bypass the need for dedicated refrigeration equipment which is prone to breakdown and expensive to repair. |
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Couldn't you mix the water and syrup first then carbonate after? Thus eliminating the double carbonating? Yep. That's how I'd do it. Get a carbonating setup like rcav8r said and it can be done that way. I don't know what they cost, or consist of, but I'm assuming that they sell some of a complete kit and it most likely uses a carbonating stone to disperse the CO2 into the liquid. You usually blow off any head pressure at certain intervals to enable the CO2 to diffuse into the mixed solution. I think this is one of the methods that home brewers sometimes use, so they probably know exactly what I'm talking about and they may be able to expand on this. When we first started making this, the carbonating stone method is actually how we did this. We'd have 1000 gallons in a nice strong pressure vessel which had a cooling jacket. There was a large carbonating stone in the bottom. Twice a day we'd blow off the head pressure and you could actually hear the new CO2 rumbling into product. It used to take about 3 to 4 days to reach proper carbonation. |
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I converted a chest freezer into a fridge by adding an external temp controller. I can get like 14 5 gallon kegs in this thing, its pretty large. Ive done rootbeer before and kiddies love it when they can "pour a beer" just like the adults. Take a home brew keg (basically the old silver coke and pepsi soda kegs), add spring/RO/distilled water (tap water will probably make it taste like ass...thats why I stopped using my post mix wunderbar gun), sugar and syrup, mix well, add CO2 for a few days, boom, super delicious and easy. No stone needed. If you just leave the CO2 on it for a few days it will enter into the solution (just like carbing up beer). Shouldnt need to relieve the pressure either, just wasting CO2 at that point (when you first add the gas you blow it off a few times to get rid of all the air in the headspace). |
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Wasn't tehre going to be a wihtf dang factory tour this year? 
Howsabout a dang "build party" ?  There was talk about coming down to play with our MIG welder. The offer is still open. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_21/507863_talk_to_me_about_welders.html |
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Wasn't tehre going to be a wihtf dang factory tour this year?
Howsabout a dang "build party" ? There was talk about coming down to play with our MIG welder. The offer is still open. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_21/507863_talk_to_me_about_welders.html my problem is i am an all star procrastinator Id love to come out there for a home town meet up. but someone else with stronger motivational skills needs to plan it. |
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Quoted: I converted a chest freezer into a fridge by adding an external temp controller. I can get like 14 5 gallon kegs in this thing, its pretty large. Ive done rootbeer before and kiddies love it when they can "pour a beer" just like the adults. Take a home brew keg (basically the old silver coke and pepsi soda kegs), add spring/RO/distilled water (tap water will probably make it taste like ass...thats why I stopped using my post mix wunderbar gun), sugar and syrup, mix well, add CO2 for a few days, boom, super delicious and easy. No stone needed. If you just leave the CO2 on it for a few days it will enter into the solution (just like carbing up beer). Shouldnt need to relieve the pressure either, just wasting CO2 at that point (when you first add the gas you blow it off a few times to get rid of all the air in the headspace). I've always wanted an in-house soda dispenser -- any one of the various. The Wunderbar gun seemed like the way to go -- maybe not??? At this point I'd be happy just dispensing Dang! or maye Dang and another flavor. So you're saying pre-mix in the old style and it gets carbonated in those? How long does it last (assuming they live in a converted fridge with taps on the front or whatever)? I've always wanted it but didn't need another hobby to have to get in!! (but not wanting to pay the price for a full blown ready to go setup) |
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Quoted: Quoted: you realy need general beverage in madison to carry dang,so i can order it for my bar Home bar or bar bar? Because if we have an arfcommer with a bar and we haven't had a gathering there yet... well, that's just wrong. I like where this thread is going! |
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Quoted: Quoted: I converted a chest freezer into a fridge by adding an external temp controller. I can get like 14 5 gallon kegs in this thing, its pretty large. Ive done rootbeer before and kiddies love it when they can "pour a beer" just like the adults. Take a home brew keg (basically the old silver coke and pepsi soda kegs), add spring/RO/distilled water (tap water will probably make it taste like ass...thats why I stopped using my post mix wunderbar gun), sugar and syrup, mix well, add CO2 for a few days, boom, super delicious and easy. No stone needed. If you just leave the CO2 on it for a few days it will enter into the solution (just like carbing up beer). Shouldnt need to relieve the pressure either, just wasting CO2 at that point (when you first add the gas you blow it off a few times to get rid of all the air in the headspace). I've always wanted an in-house soda dispenser -- any one of the various. The Wunderbar gun seemed like the way to go -- maybe not??? At this point I'd be happy just dispensing Dang! or maye Dang and another flavor. So you're saying pre-mix in the old style and it gets carbonated in those? How long does it last (assuming they live in a converted fridge with taps on the front or whatever)? I've always wanted it but didn't need another hobby to have to get in!! (but not wanting to pay the price for a full blown ready to go setup) I havent tried it since we moved to well water, but when we had city water, the soda tasted horrible coming out. I double filtered it to remove the chlorine, but that didn't help. After I did some reading, you really need a good water filter setup to get good tasting soda (because carbonation brings out any bad flavors). For how little I used it, and how little money it really saved, it wasnt worth it for me to invest more money into it so I just dropped it. If you do the pre-mix style, it stays good pretty much forever (assuming you used good disinfecting practices, etc). I use those kegs for long term storage on some of my beers (2+ years). Its really the way to go unless you want to make your water good enough to use (a RO system would work if it can supply enough water...I know some people have them in their house already).
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Wasn't tehre going to be a wihtf dang factory tour this year?
Howsabout a dang "build party" ? There was talk about coming down to play with our MIG welder. The offer is still open. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_21/507863_talk_to_me_about_welders.html Can u pm me your phone number I might be able to stop by today I have a job at Milwaukee water linwood plant by Lincoln memorial today so depending on how long it takes I Could stop by on my way home if your still at work Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Figure I would just bump this thread, still sort of on topic. I stopped by my local Ace hardware for some weed killer and to peruse some items. As I had checked out, saw a small cooler labeled "Natural Soda".
Took a quick peek, and lo and behold, there was some Dang! Root beer. I said, hey, all the WIHTF boys rave over this, I'm gonna try it. Well, sitting here waiting for my frozen pizza to cook I popped the top and dang. that's some dang good root beer! And that's coming from a guy with no sense of smell, so my sense of taste is affected as well. Good Job and a hearty thank you to all of the posts/raves/rants on probably one of my top 3 root-beers Ive ever had! (I'm but 10 mins from WI state line, so I claim proximity asylum in order to contribute to both WI and IL HTFs)
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I was down to my last 3 bottles  .... but a re-supply of 36 more is on it's way north, right now as I type this, and it should be here by 10pm. 12 bottles go in the fridge immediately, then 4 or 5 go right into my fishing boat in the morning. Life is good.im jealous havent had any for awhile i really need to get to midwest one of these days to get another case |
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you realy need general beverage in madison to carry dang,so i can order it for my bar Home bar or bar bar? Because if we have an arfcommer with a bar and we haven't had a gathering there yet... well, that's just wrong.
Not my fault you never stopped over..... the door was always open (the 6 hours a week I was not working or sleeping) |
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I was down to my last 3 bottles .... but a re-supply of 36 more is on it's way north, right now as I type this, and it should be here by 10pm. 12 bottles go in the fridge immediately, then 4 or 5 go right into my fishing boat in the morning. Life is good.You drink 3 to 5 rootbeers in one session of fishing. |
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I was down to my last 3 bottles .... but a re-supply of 36 more is on it's way north, right now as I type this, and it should be here by 10pm. 12 bottles go in the fridge immediately, then 4 or 5 go right into my fishing boat in the morning. Life is good.You drink 3 to 5 rootbeers in one session of fishing. 2 for me, one per grandkid, was today's plan. But it was snowing hard when we woke up, turned to rain now, cold & windy, so fishing was cancelled. 
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