Beer Forum

Kinda figured that it had to be something injecting the CO2 into the water (like those SodaStream units), but never seen it myself...

I ended up getting a 5 gallon sankey keg. It's a little easier to clean than a carboy and I can ferment in it. The spear is really easy to deal with. Hopefully I can score some more soon...

Ozwald wrote: believe they've switched over quite some time ago, but that may not be true in all parts of the country/world. The carbonated water in those machines comes from the house water line, a CO2 tank & remote unit that keeps the mix right. In most restaurants you'll see them pretty near the rack where the boxes of syrup are stored along with the pump that pushes everything to the dispensing heads.

We in Oz have been using post-mix soda in bars & restaurants for as long as I can remember (at least as early as the early 1990's) - we've already noticed a price hike & a shortage here of 2nd hand corny kegs (from the US) supposedly due to you folk switching over to post-mix.

It seems remarkable that pre-mix soda survived for so long in the US...

(ps, hello everyone, I've been a member of the BN for about a year but it's the first time I've posted to the forum - I just this week upgraded to Sargent cos I had to switch credit cards around on PayPal and the shitty mutha-fucking website cancelled my subscription so I thought it was a good enough reason to donate more... love the podcasts)

Welcome! Good on ya, Sarge! That reminds me, I need to check my paypal account... funds may be running low...

Thanks SpiderWrangler,

Also, in terms of preference:

I brew 50L batches (I'm not 100% sure what that is in old numbers? 12gallons? 3000cubic inches?) - and I like to cold condition my beer off the yeast to settle it out a bit before transferring to ball-lock cornies.

So, I use a borrowed commercial keg. I say "borrowed" because I return them to the pub when I'm done.

I get the newest looking empty keg from the pub one that has had the most tasteless, pale generic beer in it (low carb euro lager) & I don't clean or purge it out. I simply sterilise the coupler & external seal of the keg with oxonia, connect it all up with the hose I'll use to transfer & release all the co2 (using that blow-off to fill my transfer hose & connections with co2) then when there's no more pressure I turn on the tap of my fermenter & fill the keg.

Why do this? These kegs are originally filled with sterile, tasteless beer & when they're empty they're filled with only CO2 (and a little beer @ the bottom). This lowers the chances of oxidising my beer.

On top of that - this is the best bit - when I'm done cold conditioning I transfer my beer to cornies under CO2 & i don't have to clean up; whatever trub/yeast/sediment is @ the bottom of the commercial keg is now the problem of the commercial mega-swill beer company as I return the keg to the pub (and get another empty)...

(dear Moderator, please don't post this if it seems to incriminate me in any way

DanRayner wrote:We in Oz have been using post-mix soda in bars & restaurants for as long as I can remember (at least as early as the early 1990's) - we've already noticed a price hike & a shortage here of 2nd hand corny kegs (from the US) supposedly due to you folk switching over to post-mix.

It seems remarkable that pre-mix soda survived for so long in the US...

I started working in the restaurant industry here in the early 90's. I've never seen anywhere still using cornies, back then or since. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still in use *somewhere*, but I wouldn't even begin to guess where. None of the major suppliers (Sysco, FSA, etc) have carried them what so ever in the last 20+ years, and even the backwoods hole in the walls depend on those suppliers for a large portion of their stock. I would guess if someone's still using them, they'd have to be coming from a small beverage supplier.

The last time I remember seeing cornies being used for soda was at fairs and carnivals back in the late 80's...

There are two different types of soda, as dispensed:

- Post Mix concentrate (Bag In Box) is used at most restaurant, deli, c-store, locations.....basically anywhere that has electricity, water supply, and drain. This change took place a couple of decades ago. Post Mix 'generally' is 5 parts carbonated water to 1 part concentrate syrup.

- What we use as home brewers (Corny kegs) are only used for soft drink pre-mix, where the final product is carbonated and pushed out via co2. You will likely see these at temporary or special event venues, that don't have access to water, electricity, and drain. Product is generally cooled via cold plate/ice, and isn't anywhere near as profitable as post mix, for the most part.

That is why so many of the corny's available are stamped or identified with Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola. A majority all of the premix out there (some exceptions) are ball lock....