For the last few days a silly idea has been bugging me.
We moved into this condo a year ago in May, May 2008 to be precise. In what has become my office we have a nook where someone expected a wet-bar to be installed. There is a sink, wioth working water, and racks above for cocktail glasses. We’ve not planned to use it as a wet bar and mainly just use it as storage currently.
I was online at Amazon and I saw home soda kits available for purchase. Now I buy a lot of soft drink and thought that this might be a way to save money. (The mark-up on soft drinks is outrageous.) Well, the kits for sale certainly didn’t pan out. These counter top units make two liters at a time and that would have been plenty for me, but they use off brand syrups. In other words it would have been generic colas and not the name brands I like. The name brands are not sold in consumer sized lots, but rather in three and five gallon bags-in-boxes for used with pressurized soda fountains. I am very picky about the tastes of my soda and I certain the off-label brands would not have satisfied me.
Soda fountains…..
Here’s where the madness began.
How about installing a soda fountain in the nook where the wet-bar would be. It has water line, power, and space. There would be easy access from my office and the living room – where my friends and I game and watch movies — which is right off my office.
I went as far as to do internet searches on systems. Boy, are they expensive. Two flavor towers brand new can run $1500. It would be a long time before that investment paid off in savings. ( about a 12 pack per week, @ 5.99 per pack means I spend per year about $312. Evne if I cut my costs in half it would take about 10 years to pay off.)
Of course used systems are much cheaper…..
It’s a silly idea, but one that holds a strange fascination for me.
I find it funny that this is still hanging around in your head. I thought I was the only person who got those ideas that gnaw like a pissed off chihuahua. Honestly, if sweetie will go for it, I’ll help you install and possibly even chip in so I can steal a glass on game nights ;).
I have made soda from scratch. Do not waste time or effort on anything that makes less than 2-5 gallons. Making you own soda is dead easy, cheap as it gets (my dad did it in the depression to save money.)and actually tastier than most commercial stuff. I assume you mean to make regular soda – not diet. (If you are going to go diet, all bets are off. I have tried to make home-made diet and it simply doesn’t work. Yet.)
You need: a container to hold at least the total quantity of liquid you plan on ending up with, sterilizing solution (check out a brewing supply store for this. You can use bleach, but it is hell on plastics and anything metal), bottles to age and store in, yeast, soda concentrate, your preferred sweetening solution, and caps with your preferred capping/sealing device. Myself, I prefer to use a five gallon, food grade plastic bucket with a spigot attachment in the lower side and a tube with a little pressure stop on it to bottle – but I also use this for alcoholic beverages so it is extra worth it. Your sweetener needs to be in liquid form. There will be directions on the concentrate. Follow them. Do not add hot sweetener to your mixture. You need the whole thing to be between 80-100 degrees F. (Too hot will kill your yeast and there will be no fermentation.) Sterilize anything your finished product will touch. Mix everything together according to concentrate directions. Bottle. Wait at least one week (two is better.) Refrigerate. There’s the soda.