# A way to carbonate at home? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824 "2010-10-02T05:49:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/21 "2010-10-02T23:53:19Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Is there something I can use at home to add carbonation to a beverage? I regularly drink carbonated water and a few years back, thinking it would be cheaper, I looked into getting a seltzer bottle with carbonation pellets. Unfortunately, it turned out that wasn’t the case. Even after factoring out the cost of the seltzer bottle [(which cost around $45 for one that’s liter sized)](http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BLACK_SELTZER_BOTTLE_no_air_s_P1670C23.cfm?UserID=3541780&jsessionid=d830769ae61b4b57335a), the carbonation pellets–if you can find a store that sells them–cost around $10 for a pack of 10 that can charge one liter of water each. Thus, at best, it will cost you $1 for one liter of water. I can go to any grocery store and get _two_ liters of club soda or seltzer water for that price or cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/22 "2010-10-03T01:26:17Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > When I was a kid my dad made seltzer water at home all the time. The system we used involved cartridges of carbon dioxide that would be injected into the water. No 50s or 60 coctail party would be complete without one. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/23 "2010-10-03T03:12:58Z")
These guys have seltzer bottles available. They also have some nifty whipped cream dispenser gizmos too. > **[European Nitrous Oxide Cream Chargers and Soda Cartridges for the Kitchen and...](http://www.creamright.com/category/soda-siphons.html)** > > Creamright carries nitrous oxide whipped cream chargers, whip cream dispensers, soda siphons, CO2 cartridges, iSi Cream, and Seltzer siphon parts. We offer unmatched customer service, unbelievably fast shipping times, and rock-bottom prices. There is... ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/24 "2010-10-03T03:37:11Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > > > The problem with that method is (besides the alcohol produced) you’ll get exploding bottles unless you refrigerate after you get to the level of carbonation you want. And even then, refrigeration might not be a complete guarantee. > > I carbonate my beer at home this way all the time. We have also made Ginger beer this way. What you are saying here is entirely false unless you add way too much sugar. Also, the alcohol produced will be minute. The resulting beverage is essentially non-alcoholic. I bottle-carbonate my beer too, but as mentioned by others you really do have to watch out on soda or some other high-sugar products. I’ve had a 9% alcohol homebrew beer and an (unknown alcohol, but probably 10%?) mead turn into bottle bombs when my normally cool basement heated up on very hot summer days. Probably the yeast strains I used contributed, but I’ve always read that you should be really, really careful if you’re going to try working with soda and yeast. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/25 "2010-10-03T03:56:10Z")
Carbonation is a pretty good example of the move to the right in the USA over the last couple of decades. It used to be that you could carbonate in public. Then the moral majority drove the practice behind closed doors, so that otherwise decent folks could only carbonate in the privacy of their own homes. Now that carbonation has been driven so far underground that we now talk in terms of carbon sinks, what used to be common knowledge of the practice has been removed from society’s general knowledge base, with only a few closeted practitioners to be found in arcane corners of the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/26 "2010-10-03T06:29:07Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > > [@Malacandra](#): > > > > You can use N[sub]2[/sub]O as well (if you want a milk-based fizzy drink). A case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous. > > There are several types of beer that are N2 dispensed, but I’ve never heard of anything – even milk based – that’s N[sub]2[/sub]O based. Do tell us more! Nitrous oxide is used as propellant/frothing agent in aerosol cream; it’s fat-soluble and volumizes cream twice as well as air, though the result is unstable and collapses disappointingly in about 20 minutes if you don’t get on and eat it. (CO[sub]2[/sub] isn’t used as it would tend to curdle the cream.) But really it was a pun in search of a set-up and I don’t know that anyone actually does drink fizzy milk - however, should you be inclined to experiment and don’t want the slightly acidic carbonated taste in a milk-based drink… > [@BigT](#): > > The second I thought of was adding baking soda to orange juice, which was touted in an old science experiment book. I wonder if it’s actually safe. Why wouldn’t it be? Baking soda’s used for, um, baking, and also with citric acid crystals to make fizzy sherbet - the exact same reaction you’re after. Be warned though, it’s apt to be quite lively when added directly to acidic liquid. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/27 "2010-10-03T06:39:31Z")
WRT “bombs”, are there no cheap commercial versions of pressure release valves? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/28 "2010-10-03T07:14:09Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Nitrous oxide is used as propellant/frothing agent in aerosol cream; it’s fat-soluble and volumizes cream twice as well as air, though the result is unstable and collapses disappointingly in about 20 minutes if you don’t get on and eat it. (CO[sub]2[/sub] isn’t used as it would tend to curdle the cream.) I’ve made whipped cream with a CO2 cartridge in place of the nitrous by mistake. It produced carbonated whipped cream which did not curdle. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/29 "2010-10-03T08:07:51Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@Malacandra](#): > > > > Nitrous oxide is used as propellant/frothing agent in aerosol cream; it’s fat-soluble and volumizes cream twice as well as air, though the result is unstable and collapses disappointingly in about 20 minutes if you don’t get on and eat it. (CO[sub]2[/sub] isn’t used as it would tend to curdle the cream.) > > I’ve made whipped cream with a CO2 cartridge in place of the nitrous by mistake. It produced carbonated whipped cream which did not curdle. Fair enough. However, it’s [not](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide#Aerosol_propellant)general policy. Perhaps yours was only exposed briefly? ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/30 "2010-10-03T08:31:55Z")
Have you never seen [this](http://www.sodastream.com/)? Am I too old or something, but I remember this system from my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![MrFizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MrFizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFizz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/31 "2010-10-03T11:07:19Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > > [@Malacandra](#): > > > > You can use N[sub]2[/sub]O as well (if you want a milk-based fizzy drink). A case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous. > > There are several types of beer that are N2 dispensed, but I’ve never heard of anything – even milk based – that’s N[sub]2[/sub]O based. Do tell us more! whipped cream - since forever. ---
**Author:** ![MrFizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MrFizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFizz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/32 "2010-10-03T11:12:51Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > > [@Stoid](#): > > > > Is there something I can use at home to add carbonation to a beverage? > > I regularly drink carbonated water and a few years back, thinking it would be cheaper, I looked into getting a seltzer bottle with carbonation pellets. Unfortunately, it turned out that wasn’t the case. Even after factoring out the cost of the seltzer bottle [(which cost around $45 for one that’s liter sized)](http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BLACK_SELTZER_BOTTLE_no_air_s_P1670C23.cfm?UserID=3541780&jsessionid=d830769ae61b4b57335a), the carbonation pellets–if you can find a store that sells them–cost around $10 for a pack of 10 that can charge one liter of water each. Thus, at best, it will cost you $1 for one liter of water. I can go to any grocery store and get _two_ liters of club soda or seltzer water for that price or cheaper. Dude - check this vid out: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgfsa8zOio](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgfsa8zOio) Not only is it superfast, it’s only 1.5 cents to carbonate a 12-oz bottle - about 9.5 cents to do a whole 2-liter bottle if U wanna. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/33 "2010-10-03T13:22:12Z")
> [@MrFizz](#): > > Dude - check this vid out: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgfsa8zOio](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgfsa8zOio) Not only is it superfast, it’s only 1.5 cents to carbonate a 12-oz bottle - about 9.5 cents to do a whole 2-liter bottle if U wanna. That’s what I described above. The dude in the video has a bad technique, though. He’d be much, much faster if he squeezed out the air before putting on the cap, then shaking the bottle while the CO2 is connected. It takes me about 15 seconds to make 2 liters of soda water. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824/34 "2010-10-03T13:29:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The second I thought of was adding baking soda to orange juice, which was touted in an old science experiment book. I wonder if it’s actually safe. A problem with baking soda is that one of the products is NaCl, so you could end up with salty juice. Dry ice is really bad at carbonating liquid in an open container. You need a cold liquid and high pressure. Dry ice is surprisingly bad at cooling the liquid it’s bubbling in. The low temperature increases the solubility of the gas in the liquid. You need the pressure so that the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide is much greater than the equilibrium concentration in 1 atm of air (which is low). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-carbonate-at-home/555824.md?page=1)