Using a SodaStream Gas Bottle With Your Mini Keg

Thinking about powering your mini keg with a SodaStream gas bottle? We explore the pros and cons.

A lot of our customers ask if our mini kegs can be attached to C02 bottles like a SodaStream gas bottle. The answer is actually: YES! Because of this interest we thought we would explore this subject so you can decide whether it suits your homebrewing needs.

16g Cartridges Vs SodaStream Gas bottles

16g C02 Cartridges
These are the cartridges we supply to fit your Dark Farm mini keg. The great thing about them is that they make your mini keg completely portable. Each cartridge is only 8.6cm long and fits neatly on the C02 dispenser without any external hoses. One cartridge lasts long enough for about 10L of brew; when it’s spent it’s really easy to unscrew and replace with a full one. They’re made from recyclable steel so you can just chuck them into the recycling bin when you’re done with them. No need to send them off for re-filling!

SodaStream Gas bottles

A SodaStream gas bottles contains 425g of C02 which is enough for roughly 156 L of your brew. Which means that you’ll have to change it a lot less often than using the 16g cartridges. And you can, of course, connect it to multiple mini kegs, which is a great bonus.

However, you’ll be compromising on portability and slickness. The gas bottles are pretty clunky and require external hoses, so are best suited for a stationary home bar / man cave rather than taking to parties, the garden or into the TV room.

When your SodaStream gas bottle is empty you can either visit certain shops (Argos, Lakeland, Robert Dyas etc) to exchange your empty one for a full one or you can order one on line from the supplier. There’s a refundable deposit charged on each gas bottle purchased without providing an empty one for exchange (currently £10), but SodaStream do provide a shipping label so you can send your spent one back and get your deposit back.

Conclusion

Portability
If you want more freedom from your mini keg it’s best to stick with the 16g cartridges

Home bar set up
If you’ve got quite a serious home bar set up with multiples of 10L kegs and want to connect your C02 bottle to a series of kegs then the Soda Stream gas bottle option is going to be ideal.

Convenience
While it’s more convenient to only have to switch to a new cartridge every 156 L with a SodaStream type gas bottle (versus every 10L with a 16g cartridge) it’s a bit of a faff having to exchange the empty one. You’ll also need a special adaptor kit to convert your mini keg to fit the SodaStream type gas bottle. The good news is that we sell kits here to help you with your SodaStream mini keg set up.
Check out the 5L mini keg Soda Stream kit  
Check out the 10L mini keg Soda Stream kit

Price
One SodaStream gas bottle equals about 26 x 16g C02 cartridges. It actually works out at roughly the same price (if you get your 16g cartridges from another supplier other than us – we sadly cannot compete on price for these at the moment). Though you will need to adapt your mini keg to fit the SodaStream type gas bottle.

Environment
While we haven’t done any extensive research on this we imagine that although the 16g steel cartridges can be recycled being able to refill a SodaStream type gas bottle creates less of an impact on the environment.

If the SodaStream gas bottle set up is the one for you then check out our special adaptor kits for your mini keg here.