Co2 into bottles via Sodastream

[fritz]

A functioning Sodastream Co2 dispenser with 330g bottle has recently come into my possession and I'm wondering what is preventing us from carbonating direct into bottles. I do not have the space or the inclination to set up a kegging system. Low consumer only.

My beers, Dark Ale, English Bitter Ale, Kilkenny-style and lagers all done from Coopers kits and often manipulated, are all fermented in a small freezer with controller all at the extreme lower end of their recommended yeast temps. I bulk-prime only, using mainly dextrose but sometimes corn syrup extract at about 170grams. Bottling is easy and trouble-free if not a little time consuming, and THAT is where I'm looking.

So, what if I bottled directly out of the initial fermenter, carbonated directly from the Sodastream unit, capped and stored? Tiresome searches on the web show very little on this. An adaptor is needed to fit between the dispensing unit and bottle but what other hurdles are there? Anyone ever tried? Am I wasting my time? Should I just go back to admiring fractal image equations then?

[gregb]

I have no idea, but on paper it should work. The beer may foam up a big mess. Try it with plastic bottles first.

[Oliver]

+1. I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

[fritz]

Trial and error...
I recently bulk primed and bottled a Coopers Dark Ale using Pale Ale and Dark Malt extracts. Two days later the bottles had tightened up but after two weeks I couldnt resist and had to have a little taste. Even after only 14 days the taste was silky smoothe, whats it going to be like after a couple of months. BUT, although all the bottles were as tight as a drum there was little carbonation and no head at all in the glass. Another bottle the same. Early this morning I thought I'd try the soda stream. I gently filled a soda stream bottle with the seemingly flat Dark and began to give it one quick squirt of Co2. After the tiniest microsecond there was beer foam everywhere, it seems all I did was activate the dormant gas already in the beer. You could stand a spoon up in the thick, creamy foam and it lasted forever.

But why was the beer flat when initially poured into a glass? An old acquaintance told me when living in Canada beer was traditionally served flat and a pinch of salt was added to make it carbonate. My next experiment will be to do just that. Does anyone here know of such practice?

[Tipsy]

But why was the beer flat when initially poured into a glass?

Whenever I overcarb a keg the beer comes out flat with a huge head, I've heard it's something to do with the Co2 coming out all at once
Thankfully that doesn't happen much these days.

[fritz]

An update for those interested.

I tried the salt trick and it works, especially if stirred with a fork; hardly ideal but it brings out the gas thus creating a head in a supposedly flat-as-a-tack beer.

On my next Dark Ale batch I bottled up three Sodastream bottles and attempted to carbonate them lightly with gas but each one was a similar messy result, foam everywhere but no gas release and no head when opened days later. The rest of this Dark Ale batch was very carefully bulk-primed with 70g dextrose and the bottles tightened up in one day. I will leave this one alone for a while.

[keolumike]

Looking for a way to introduce the soda stream gas directly into a carboy or bucket to avoid oxy contamination when racking

[billybushcook]

I tried a similar thing once.
Had a batch that did not carbonate for some reason.

With a few already in me I decided I'd gas the next one using the Sodastream.

Gently poured the bottle into the plastic soda stream bottle (already chilled) then proceeded to carbonate as I would with a normal soft drink sodastream.

All went well until I tried to unscrew it.
On the last thread it blew off with a bit of force & left me standing there covered in beer from head to toe in an ongoing shower of beer dripping off the rafters!

Don't do it!
The proteins & sugar make it much more volatile than just the chilled water you carb to make a soda stream.

Mick.