Takes a little learning how to best use.

Posted by Mike Johnson on 10th Jul 2011

Ok, so this sounded great. I bought one, gassed a 2 liter bottle of homemade rootbeer I'd made from extract sold by the RB crew. I did as the instructions said, 2 inch head space, 30 lbs of pressure. After day one, tasted the same as without gassing, same on day 2,3, and 4.
Since this is not a RB product, I contacted the folks that make them. I got a reply to my email that same morning. They had little more help than the instructions but said to check for a gas leak by submerging a charged bottle. They said if there were any leaking bubbles simply return it to them and they'd gladly replace mine with a new one. I checked and mine did NOT leak.

By now, I'd drained about 8 oz of my root beer sampling it day to day. This is when it started to work. Instead of filling to about 2 inches, then squeezing out the air before gassing, I now only fill about 3/4 full, squeeze the air out per the instructions then gas. This allows much more Co2 in the bottle to do the "Carbonizer" job when you shake the bottle. Kinda goes against what you'd think. Shake a bottle to ADD gas? But that's exactly what you need to do after gassing. I mean really shake it up. You know, kinda like when you were setting up a "loaded" can for someone to open and spew everywhere.

All and all, I'm very happy with mine now I know how to work it the best way. I'm just glad I didn't give up before I looked up on how best to gas her up.

***NOTE: I don't know if the instructions mention this or if you tried this, but the liquid that you are carbonating should be cold. It is next to impossible to carbonate a liquid at room temperature. If you get it down to about 35 degrees and put 30 lbs of pressure on it, it should be carbonated in less than 10 minutes with some agitation or shaking. -Rebel