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Author Topic: DIY sports drink  (Read 1540 times)

Offline Cyllian

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DIY sports drink
« on: September 09, 2018, 07:57:30 am »
hey guys, sports drinks  other than gatorade are becoming quite popular, bai water, celsius drinks etc.    I am curious if anybody out there has made any sort of sports drink with electrolytes, tea, or anything else.  not looking for something kombucha related but more just along the lines of a natural sports drink recipe that I could keg and drink when I want.

Offline erockrph

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Re: DIY sports drink
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2018, 01:17:52 pm »
If you keg it, it will end up carbonated at least to some extent (unless you use some sort of wine setup using argon or nitrogen). For me, that's a dealbreaker for a sports drink that I want to drink a lot of rather quickly.

If I were going to make one to keep on tap, then I'd just start with a soda recipe that is slightly on the sweet-tart side (cola or fruit-based) and add some NaCl, KCl and Mag Sulfate (or Mag oxide). The sweetness and acidity will help mask the mild saltiness from the added salts. Just don't make it too puckering or sweet to affect the refreshing aspect.

NaCl I'd get from kosher salt. KCl I'd get from a salt substitute or bulk supplement product (something with no fillers - sold either in capsule or loose powder form). The magnesium I'd get from a supplement as well. For the amounts, I'd try to match the Sodium, Potassium and Magnesium values in Pedialyte (Gatorade actually uses too much, Pedialyte more closely matches an appropriate rehydration solution).
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Offline kramerog

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Re: DIY sports drink
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2018, 03:33:58 pm »
Sports drink is a dream environment for bacteria (sugar & electrolytes).  If I am lucky when I have excess sports drink it will last a week.   Gatorade is hot filled into containers at ~180 F to keep safe.  Having a 5-gallon keg of sports drink is not a great idea unless you can drink fairly quickly or have some kind of sanitation plan to avoid infection.  This plan would include a pH below 4.5 which is normal for sports drinks and a preservative or hot filling the keg.

While carbonation is not desirable in a sports drink, I think it would be possible to keg and dispense sports drink at a low CO2 pressure such that carbonation was not a problem. 

Let us know how this works out.