Water formulation and preparation using Soda Stream carbonator - Page 2

Water analysis, treatment, and mineral recipes for optimum taste and equipment health.
napierzaza
Posts: 221
Joined: 13 years ago

#11: Post by napierzaza »

Sparkling water is always great if it's hot or you're thirsty. You can squeeze some lemon into it. Ask my about what I think is the best lemon squeezer on the market! I've been through many and I have as much affinity for that piece of equipment as I do about my espresso machine.

ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#12: Post by ziggomatic »

This is such an awesome post, thank you so much for sharing! I've been wanting to start mixing my own water and I think I will give this method a shot.

How does the taste of this blend compare to the Crystal Geyser bottled water you had mentioned you were previously using?

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nuketopia (original poster)
Posts: 1305
Joined: 8 years ago

#13: Post by nuketopia (original poster) »

Makes great coffee.

I've played with the method a little bit, and have reduced the amount of concentrate. I just titrate it into RO water until I reach about 65ppm reading at 25-degrees C. Add a little, stir well, measure with a simple TDS meter. The cheap TDS meters are highly affected by temperature, so make sure the water is at standard temperature to take a reading.

It is a little unpredictable what concentration of calcium bicarbonate will wind up in the sparkling water. I think the recipe can be adjust to 0.5g of calcium carbonate in the water bottle for carbonation. It needs to sit over night in the fridge for any remaining powder to settle and for the carbonation to consume as much of it as possible.

Given the uncertainty in the concentration, it made sense to blend by measurement rather than volume. A simple TDS meter can be bought for $10.

ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#14: Post by ziggomatic »

JoeSventek wrote:Interesting. The description of a very similar method can be found at http://grindscience.com/2015/08/making- ... pe-so-far/
Good read and seems many people had very positive results with this method as well.

One thing the article talks about is a final filtration stage where he runs his final mixed water through a BWT MG2+ filter, which filters out excess calcium particles and in the process also exchanges for some Magnesium ions, which apparently can be good for taste as well.

This seems like it could be a good "safety net" step to make sure any unsettled calcium particles get filtered out that could potentially end up casing some scale in the machine?? Would these undisolved calcium particles even matter if our water still fell into the ideal TDS & hardness range before potentially filtering?

nuketopia (original poster)
Posts: 1305
Joined: 8 years ago

#15: Post by nuketopia (original poster) »

The undissolved calcium carbonate will settle to the bottom of the soda bottle over night. You can then decant the liquid off the residue or filter it through a coffee filter or the like.

I don't think the powder residue will harm anything, even if a little gets in your machine. The scaling happens with dissolved calcium (bicarbonate) converts under heat into insoluable calcium carbonate and coats everything.

ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#16: Post by ziggomatic replying to nuketopia »

I guess i'm just imagining a worst case scenario of a small calcium particle getting clogged up in the gicleur or something (I have the .6mm).

Just got my sodastream & will be giving this a try tomorrow, super excited!

ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#17: Post by ziggomatic »

Been using this new water recipe for about 3 days now, I still haven't quite been able to pull a great shot with it, as the new water seemed to change how my previous coffee was dialed in quite a bit. But I guess this is expected given the different mineral breakdown of the old water vs. new. I can taste that certain flavors are a bit more transparent at different grind/dose/temp settings, however I think I have to do some setting searching to get back to the shot quality I was previously at.

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ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#18: Post by ziggomatic »

Well i've been at this method everyday for the past couple weeks now. As easy as it sounds, I am still having a bit of trouble getting it right and could use some help and feedback.

The test kits i'm using seem to indicate my PH is very low, typically reading around 6. KH also seems to be reasonably low, which combined with ideal TDS & hardness levels (around 120) still shows that corrosion will occur. I also purchased a BWT water filter in an attempt to convert some of the calcium bicarbonate into magnesium, while the taste seemed to get a bit sweeter, the water still tested very acidic and it wasn't much of a difference using or not using the filter.

I have also noticed when brewing with this water that a MUCH higher temp is needed to get the same sweetness out of coffees I had previously dialed in at a lower temp (mostly using light roast coffees), so im wondering does this somewhat confirm my test results? From my understanding acidic water (low PH) requires higher temps for light roasts, correct? I also briefly tried adding a very small touch of sea salt (following directions as listed in the grindscience sodastream/calcium carbonate water recipe article) and that didn't really work out much either, but I only tried this with one batch.

What's really getting to me overall is that I can't seem to get anywhere near the taste I experience when using Acqua Panna water in my Linea.
I've been using only Crystal Geyser bottled water for the life of my machine, and while this water will not harm the machine, its low hardness does not have the flavor I am really looking for in my espresso. The Crystal Geyser tastes balanced, but dull and muted overall, with no big flavors shining through which really happens with Acqua Panna.

For now i'm left a bit frustrated at my failed attempts to improve my espresso taste, so im going back to a mix of Crystal Geyser & Acqua Panna.

Any feedback and/or help would be greatly appreciated.

nuketopia (original poster)
Posts: 1305
Joined: 8 years ago

#19: Post by nuketopia (original poster) »

I'm still using it with really good results, identical in the cup to what I'm getting with CG Spring water.

I'm using RO water, which when it comes out of the RO system shows 27ppm TDS at 75-degrees F using a pocket TDS meter.

The PH of the water out of the RO system is about 6, which is the same as a gallon jug of distilled water, due to the presence of dissolved CO2 in the purified water. If you boil the water and let it sit undisturbed and cool down, you'll find the PH will reach the standard neutral 7 because much of the dissolved CO2 will be driven off.

The soda stream carbonates the water with an oversupply of CO2 which creates more carbonic acid, which serves to dissolve the calcium carbonate and turn it into calcium bicarbonate. The fizzy concentrate will show an acidic PH due to the carbonation.

Once the carbonated water is heated, the carbonic acid is driven off and the water will approach neutral PH again. This will happen inside the machine's boiler.

I adjusted my concentrate recipe a little, so that I'm using only .25g of calcium carbonate powder in a liter of water and carbonating that. It eliminates undissolved powder in the concentrate.

To mix I'm just using RO water that's been heated/cooled to 75f so the TDS meter reads correctly. Then just adding concentrate solution and stirring until the TDS meter reads 60-75ppm. It takes about 3 tablespoons per quart of water in my case.

But all in all, I'm getting really good results with the coffee.

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