Carbonated Beverages - when to shake the whipping siphon, and when not to?

Ben_Humphrey_18779

In the whipping siphons course, the cherry cola recipe indicates you should shake the siphon like a mofo, the lemon lime recipe says do not shake at all. What is the rationale for this? I would be inclined to shake them all to get the CO2 to pop into solution. FWIW, I tried to carbonate some kombucha and juice this morning in my siphon, did not shake it, and it came out flat. (It did cheat by not chilling it - all items were straight from the fridge though)

Chris_Young_80640

@Ben — That's a good question. In general, shaking helps speed the dissolution of CO2 into the liquid. If you're patient, it will eventually go into solution and reach equilibrium without shaking. It's possible that Ben, one of our development chefs, was trying to prevent the lemon-lime oil emulsion from becoming cloudy during carbonation. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you wouldn't shake it. I'll look into this and see if it was an error on our part.