Every so often, I get to work on a project that reminds me why I fell in love with this industry in the first place. The Carbonation and Dispense Pressure Calculator is one of those projects.
I built this tool with my friends Bart and Valentino from Crossroads Consultancy, the brilliant duo formerly behind Crossroads Bar in London and the authors of Bubbles: A Practical Guide to Carbonation and Draft Cocktails. If you haven’t read it, Bubbles is the definitive guide to understanding carbonation in our field: it’s scientific, practical, and deeply rooted in hospitality.
Bart and Val reached out to me a while back to ask if I would write the foreword to their book. I was honored – and a little shocked – when they told me that my early work with carbonated cocktails had helped inspire their journey. Since then, they’ve expanded on those ideas in ways I couldn’t have imagined. They’re two of the most thoughtful, curious, and generous people I know, and it’s been such a joy to learn from them.
This calculator is the result of that collaboration: a simple, reliable tool designed for anyone who loves working with bubbles, whether behind a bar or at home. You can select your desired level of carbonation and your liquid’s temperature, and it will tell you exactly what PSI or BAR to set your regulator to. If you’re running a draft system, you can also enter your line type, length, and height difference to find the perfect dispense pressure for a clean, consistent pour every time.
Like the other tools I’ve made over the years (the Universal Syrup Calculator, the Batched Cocktail Calculator, and others) this project comes from a place of love for the craft and for the community that continues to shape it. It means the world to me to know that people are using these tools every day to make their prep easier, their service smoother, their drinks more dialed in. That’s what it’s all about.
Working with Bart and Val on this project has felt like a full-circle moment. It’s a reminder that when we share ideas, we raise the bar for everyone. When we take the time to teach and to learn from each other, we make this community stronger.
The Carbonation and Dispense Pressure Calculator works beautifully on desktop and mobile, and you can even save it to your home screen as an app. You can find it at carbonationcalc.com.
I hope you love it as much as we loved making it for you.
