Home-brewer here. I’ve used a C02 canister and keg to carbonate my beer for a while, since it’s simpler and more consistent than trying to add sugar to a bottle before capping it.

I also bought a $1 adapter that lets me connect my CO2 to a bottle and carbonate a few liters of water with a few moments of shaking. Add a few tiny bottles of flavoring and I can make a 12-pack of seltzer in about 30 seconds with any flavors I have on hand. Pear is my current favorite, but I also have cherry, vanilla, orange and others, and they can be mixed. My kiddos love the ‘dreamsicle’ that is a few drops of vanilla + orange. I rarely add sugar, unless I’m aiming for a more ‘soda’ vibe.

The CO2 canister and gas regulator assembly was probably $70-ish bucks around 10 years ago. Refilling the canister is $20 and I do it around quarterly, while making 5-10 liters of seltzer a week. I have a homebrew store nearby, but I’m pretty sure that I could find a food-grade CO2 provider too, since any bar needs one.

I have friends who use SodaStream, but their gas canisters are terrible for pricing when you can do it yourself.

I used seltzer to kick a soda habit. I swapped sugary sodas like Mountain Dew for a non-sugar fizzy drink. I just couldn’t go for flat water and needed the bubbles. LaCroix and its cousins were a step in the right direction and having the ability to make my own on-demand was perfect.

Are you really gate-keeping fascism?

Just because we can see this coming, and it’s not terrible yet doesn’t mean it’s not terrible.

The kind of person you are calling ‘disgusting’ is empathetic to all forms of oppression and not just focused on the US local landscape – we just see it happening here right now and are calling it out. We have also been calling it out when it occurs elsewhere.

Doing anything to limit or inhibit the spread of information about what is occurring is more disgusting than being fascist to begin with. Fuck off.