As a fourth-generation, family-owned, certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), we know how important it is to deliver on the promises we make – and to give you the respect and quality service you deserve when you become an Irish Carbonic customer.

Why join the Irish family? Here are six great reasons:

1. Top-shelf customer service. At Irish Companies, we pride ourselves in being there for you when you need us most – whether you need a liquor control system installation or beer line cleaning for your bar or restaurant, a dry ice delivery for your food delivery business, or any of our other carbonic service. Our company mission is to deliver peace of mind – and we live that mission every day.
2. Safety. Your wellbeing is always Priority 1, so we make safety our priority for every bulk gas delivery or equipment installation and maintenance visit we make.
3. Reliability. When we say we’ll be there, we will be – in all weather conditions and circumstances. We are committed to providing what you need, where and when you need it most.
4. Innovation. At Irish Carbonic, we’re born problem-solvers. Whatever solution you need for your restaurant, bar, greenhouse, or any other business, we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.
5. Community. At Irish Companies, we believe in giving back to the people who have been responsible for our success. We’ve been fixtures in our community for decades, and work every day to make life better for our neighbors in Buffalo and Rochester, NY.
6. Experience. Irish Carbonic has been serving customers for more than half a century, and our parent company’s roots go back into the 1930s! We’ve learned a thing or two along the way, and we pass that knowledge to you with our work.

Discover the Irish Carbonic Difference: become a customer today (and if you’re already one, thank you for choosing us)!

Who doesn’t enjoy a fizzy drink?

From cold brews and refreshing sparkling water to delicious sodas and juices, we Americans love our carbonated beverages. But who first thought of the idea of putting some POP in our pop?

Actually, the carbonation process was first “invented” (more accurately “discovered,” since it happened quite by accident) by a man named Joseph Priestley in England in 1767. Priestly described the “peculiar satisfaction” he found in drinking his first bubbly brew, later publishing a paper called “Impregnating Water with Fixed Air.”

The commercial carbonation process would take decades to perfect: finally, in 1786 in Switzerland, Jacob Schweppes developed a process to manufacture bottled carbonated mineral water based on the discovery of Priestley, founding the Schweppes Company in 1783.

It would be another 50 years before carbonated beverages were first bottled for sale, which also marked the time when companies began adding flavoring to their carbonated drinks. Once this happened, flavored carbonated beverages became a mainstay in Western culture and the drink of choice of many consumers.

Other Fun Carbonation Facts

• Originally, carbonated beverages were only stored in bottles, because cans would explode when left in storage.
• In the United States, carbonated water was known as soda water until World War II, due to the sodium salts it contained. During the Great Depression, it was sometimes called “two cents plain” – a reference to its being the cheapest drink at soda fountains.
• The term seltzer water derives from the German town of Selters – a location known for its mineral springs.
• Interestingly, few guidelines for ideal levels of carbonation exist. Sodas tend to be highly carbonated – sparkling drinks and champagnes less so.

Irish Carbonic will help you put some fizz in your biz

Did you know that Irish Carbonic offers a full range of syrups and flavored drinks for just about any container or delivery system, including bottles, ultrapack cartridges, bag-in-box, and more?

We’ll supply these delicious drinks and more, with professional beverage system installation and maintenance service for the full gamut of dispensing systems, plus beverage grade bulk CO2 deliveries and more.

Add a splash of flavor to your bar or restaurant with delicious beverage syrups from Irish Carbonic – or let us install or maintain your dispensing equipment to keep the drinks flowing, properly carbonated, crisp, and fresh all fall and winter long. Contact us to learn more or to get a FREE, no-obligation estimate on a beverage system installation today!

Think dry ice is only fun on Halloween? Think again! Here are three great ways to use dry ice as things start to heat up here in Western New York (just remember to always use dry ice safely!).

Using Dry Ice For Bubbly Ice Cream

Did you know that dry ice can help you make your ice cream more fun and refreshing? That’s because dry ice gives ice cream a bubbly texture when carbon dioxide gets trapped inside it.

To make bubbly ice cream, simply add crushed dry ice to a large bowl half-filled with ice cream, stirring the two until they become too difficult to mix (a plastic bowl is preferred to glass or metal bowl, which conduct cold too easily and can give you frostbite while handling them). Once the two are mixed, let your creation thaw until it’s soft enough to stir again. Then eat and enjoy!

Dry Ice Carbonated Fruit Drinks

Who doesn’t love fizzy drinks made from delicious fruit like strawberries, oranges, bananas, apples, and grapes? To make them, simply cut your fruit into thin slices, then place them on small chunks of crushed ice in a plastic bowl. Allow the dry ice to sublimate (melt, or turn into a gas); as it does, your fruit will get fizzy and frozen (in about 10 minutes).

Homemade Root Beer With Dry Ice

Root beer is a fun refresher to have on-hand for spring cookouts and parties! To make five gallons of root beer, here’s what you’ll need:

• A five-gallon plastic container
• 2.5 gallons of cold water
• 2 Lbs. sugar
• 1 oz. root beer concentrate
• 2.5 pounds of crushed dry ice

Add the sugar to the water in your plastic container, stirring until it is totally dissolved; then add the root beer concentrate. Once the concentrate is mixed in, add the dry ice and loosely close the container using a vented lid (do NOT close the lid tightly, or it might explode!). Leaving the lid loosely closed will slow the sublimation of the dry ice so it can dissolve as carbonated bubbles in your drink.

Looking for a reliable dry ice supplier in Rochester and Buffalo, NY? Irish Carbonic is it! Contact us today to learn more about dry ice deliveries in Buffalo, Rochester, and other nearby areas in Western NY State!

From aviation and automotive shops to foundries and factories, just about every industrial setting will periodically need to do a heavy-duty clean of their equipment to keep it operating safely and efficiently.

While many alternatives exist for doing the job (solvents, pressure washing, and soda blasting, to name a few), there’s one method that stands above the rest when it comes to cleaning surfaces well and safely: dry ice blasting.

Dry ice blasting is an effective and eco-friendly way to scour the surfaces of industrial equipment without causing damage, removing anything from rust and adhesives to mold and bacteria without harming delicate electronics, wiring, or casings.

How Dry Ice Blasing Works

Dry ice blasting uses extremely cold (-109.3° F) dry ice pellets (the solid form of carbon dioxide) delivered at high speed via compressed air. The pellets are “shot” against a surface using a device that operates a lot like a power washer you’d use to clean the side of your house. When the particles come in contact with an unwanted coating, the contaminants freeze and fracture; eventually, heat transfer, gas expansion, and impact force will remove the unwanted coatings.

Why Choose Ice Blasting Over Other Surface Cleaning Methods?

Dry ice blasting enjoys significant advantages over other cleaning methods like sand and soda blasting, water cleaning, and chemical cleanup. In addition to doing the job without damaging your equipment, dry ice blasting offers the following advantages over alternative methods:

• Better environmental performance – Some or all of the media used in dry ice blasting can be left behind, flowing down public drains into sewer systems, lakes, and streams, or seeping into the soil. The dry ice used in the dry ice cleaning process is made of reclaimed CO2 that is collected and recycled from other industrial processes.  It also allows for the elimination of environmentally harmful cleaning chemicals.
• No electrical conductivity – Dry ice is non-conductive and will not cause corrosion on surfaces being cleaned.  It also allows for electrical equipment to be safely cleaned with the dry ice blasting process.
• Safe operation– Dry ice blasting eliminates worker exposure to hazardous cleaning agents.
• Minimal secondary waste – With dry ice blasting, all you will need to clean is what you are trying to remove. Dry ice sublimates (turns into a gas) on impact with the surface being cleaned, which results in no secondary waste, no residue and no introduction of moisture.
• Highly effective performance – Dry ice blasting simply does a better of job of cleaning equipment, both visually and at the microbe level.
• No surface contamination – Dry ice blasting leaves behind no water or chemical residue – which means no additional cleanup is needed.
• Deep penetration – Dry ice blasting makes it easier to get into hard to reach nooks and crannies.
• Fast action – Dry ice blasting works faster than other cleaning methods, which means less downtime.
• No disassembly is required – With dry ice blasting, your equipment can remain built and in place, which saves time and allows more frequent cleaning.
• Efficient processes – Dry ice blasting is not as labor intensive as cleaning with water, media, or chemicals.

The Bottom Line

Whether you need to clean food processing equipment, electronics, electric motors, or just about any other type of industrial equipment, dry ice will do the job faster, safer, and more completely than just about any other method. Why not give it a try?

Need dry ice pellets in Rochester and Buffalo, NY? Irish Carbonic has them. Contact us today to learn more or place an order!

Carbonation – a solution of carbon dioxide gas in liquid water – makes drinks fizzy. But why does “fizzy” taste good?

The science behind carbonating drinks with beverage grade CO2 is simple: When dissolved in liquid water, carbon dioxide gas will produce bubbles for as long as it is kept under pressure. One the pressure is removed (by taking the top off the soda bottle, for example), it goes “flat.”

But that still doesn’t explain why some of us crave carbonated drinks, including unflavored seltzer and club soda. Why does fizzy mean delicious?

Again, we come back to science: when a bottle or can of a carbonated beverage is opened, the carbon dioxide gas reacts with water to form carbonic acid (H2CO3). Carbonic acid actually has a taste that your tongue can detect – one that accents the flavor of the beverage. In other words, carbonated beverages are built to taste better in their carbonated form!

The chemistry lesson doesn’t stop there: drink manufacturers add more and stronger acids (and often boatloads of sugar) to further enhance the taste of the drink, while carbonation bubbles in the nose and mouth trigger other pleasure sensors in the brain.

Of course, this doesn’t inherently mean that all carbonated beverages taste better than non-carbonated beverages – but it often does mean that when CO2 is removed from a previously carbonated drink, the flavor falls…well, flat.

Other Fun Carbonation Facts

• The carbonation process was invented by Joseph Priestley in England in 1767; it was commercialized 19 years later by Jacob Schweppes.
• Carbonated beverages were first bottled for sale back in 1835; this is also when people began adding flavoring to their carbonated drinks.
• Originally, carbonated beverages were only stored in bottles, because cans would explode when left in storage.
• Interestingly, few guidelines for ideal levels of carbonation exist. Sodas tend to be highly carbonated – sparkling drinks and champagnes less so.

Need bulk beverage CO2 to keep your drinks fizzy and delicious? We’ve got it! Contact Irish Carbonic today to learn more about bulk CO2 deliveries in Buffalo and Rochester, NY!

Need a bulk CO2 supplier? Dry ice pellets for a blasting project? Beer line cleaning and installation service? We offer all that and more. But comprehensive carbonic products and services are only one of the reasons to choose Irish Carbonic.

You’ll also get:

1. Top-shelf service – As a fourth generation, family-owned business, we know it takes great partners and suppliers to keep your business moving, and to give you the peace of mind you need to focus on what matters. We strive to be that partner for you, going above and beyond to deliver superior products and services.
2. Fair and honest pricing – We don’t think you should have to hunt for bargains on the carbonic products, bulk gas, and services you need– so we offer pricing every day that meets or beats industry standards.
3. Problem-solving innovation – When the answer isn’t obvious, you want a pro who has been there and done it all to guide you to a solution. At Irish Carbonic, we pride ourselves in finding better ways to tackle a problem.
4. Best-in-class safety standards – Keeping you safe has always been, and will always be, our top priority. Our highly-trained experts do the job right, keeping you and your business protected along the way.
5. Industry leadership – Irish Carbonic is proud to be recognized by NY State as a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (MWBE) —one of the few businesses of our type in the country to hold this honor. 

Irish Carbonic – serving the Buffalo and Rochester areas of Western NY for more than 50 years! Contact us today to put the Irish Carbonic difference to work for you!

This year, perhaps more than any most of us can remember, we’re going to need a personal touch for the holidays – and one of the best ways to send that touch is by sharing food we’ve made for our loved ones.

If we can’t be with our favorite people, we can still share our favorite meal – thanks to dry ice.

How To Send A Perishable Gift This Season

Dry ice is the perfect way to send perishable foods by mail this holiday season – but shipping with it does require some special care if you want your food to arrive safe and fresh. Here are some dry ice packing basics:

• Buy quality dry ice – Always choose a reputable dry ice supplier (Irish Carbonic has all the dry ice you need, available for pickup at one of our convenient locations).
• Choose sturdy packing materials – Heavy weight corrugated cardboard, plastic, or wooden boxes will protect your shipment, and it will prevent the dry ice bags from rupturing (we have great packing materials, too).
• Use Styrofoam – Add a Styrofoam layer to your shipping box – an inexpensive cooler, for example, can be placed inside.
• Be safe – Always follow dry ice safe handling precautions!
• Layer your packing – Wrap food in plastic or paper bags prior to packing. Pack the food and dry ice together tightly, using newspaper to minimize gaps and provide insulation. Packs of dry ice should be on the bottom, followed by food items. Alternate between dry ice and food items, filling in gaps with bubble wrap and newspaper until the box is full. If you’re using a Styrofoam cooler, do not seal it completely as this can prevent the package from releasing pressure.
• Double-check your shipping address – This is always important, but particularly when you’re shipping perishable items.
• Choose the right labels – Dry ice is considered hazardous material, so it needs to be marked properly prior to shipment. Ask for the following labels at your post office or from your courier:
• A label that says “Dry Ice” or “Carbon Dioxide Solid.”
• A label that reads UN 1845 (indicates hazardous materials).
• A label that indicates the net worth of dry ice in your container (keep track of how much dry ice you use!)
• A Class 9 label – This indicates that the package contains dry ice – they’re free at most post offices and from your courier. Put the Class 9 label on the same side of the package that contains the UN 1845 label.
• Complete the right paperwork – Ask your post office or shipping professional for the proper paperwork, which could include a shipper’s declaration (a slip that includes basic information about yourself and the recipient). 

• Other considerations – Dry ice lasts a maximum of about three days; overnight shipping is usually best, especially when shipping items like meat. However, if meat is vacuum packed, two-day shipping may be enough. Do not choose options that take more than two days to ship. And be prepared for extra regulatory costs – Call your local post office or courier for details.

Irish Carbonic sells quantities of dry ice in Rochester and Buffalo, NY ranging from individual portions of dry ice rice pellets to 10,000-pound commercial blocks available for pickup or convenient delivery to your location. Contact us to learn more.

Dry ice is pretty amazing stuff – you can use it for everything from making eerie Halloween displays and preserving perishable food for holiday mailings to removing old floor tiles and fixing car dents (more on these uses in future blogs!).

But dry ice (which is carbon dioxide in solid form) also requires some special handling to do all of these tasks – mostly because its surface temperature is a chilly minus 109.3 degrees Fahrenheit! With temperatures that low, handling dry ice improperly could cause severe burns and other problems, so please be careful!

Always follow these safety tips when using or handling dry ice:

• Dry ice is not a toy – teach children to use it correctly. Only allow younger children to use it with adult supervision.
• Dry ice must be handled using heavy gloves or tongs. It will cause severe burns if it comes in contact with bare or unprotected skin.
• Always wear safety goggles when handling dry ice. The debris and shards are extremely dangerous to your eyes. When tapping dry ice with a hammer, first cover it with a towel to keep the pieces in one place.
• Never put dry ice in your mouth.
• Never store dry ice in an airtight container. As the dry ice sublimates (turns from a solid to a gas…it can never turn into a liquid), gas pressure will build and the container will explode.
• Do not store dry ice in your freezer. It will cause your freezer to become too cold and the freezer may shut off.
• In the unlikely event of a dry ice burn, treat it the same as you would a heat burn. See a doctor if the skin blisters or comes off.

Need dry ice for your Halloween display, or to ship food for the upcoming holidays? Stop in and stock up at our convenient store locations:

IRISH CARBONIC
1444 Clinton Street | Buffalo, NY 14206
(716) 827-2727 | Map & Directions »

IRISH CARBONIC AND PROPANE
535 Buffalo Road | Rochester, NY 14611
(585) 254-6844 | Map & Directions »

IRISH CARBONIC
772 Marion Rd | Columbus, OH 43207
(800) 884-0072 | Map & Directions »

A COVID-free Halloween may be witch-ful thinking, but that doesn’t mean you can’t scare up some fun in your Buffalo or Rochester home.

Imagine terrifying neighborhood passers-by with a foggy graveyard display, or delighting your kids with a smoking punch bowl. It’s all possible with the help of dry ice from Irish Carbonic!

Dry Ice Ideas For Halloween

Whether you want to make a smoking witch’s cauldron, a foggy Jack-O-Lantern, or even some creepy-but-cool boo bubbles, you’ll really leave an impression with a haunting dry ice display. Dry ice is inexpensive and easy to use and – just be sure to follow these simple precautions when handling it, and be sure to read these instructions to get the most dry ice fog for your buck!

Halloween is coming – make your displays eerie-sistable with dry ice from Irish Carbonic!

You don’t need an enGRAVEd invitation – just stop in and stock up on dry ice at our convenient store locations today.

IRISH CARBONIC
1444 Clinton Street | Buffalo, NY 14206
(716) 827-2727 | Map & Directions »

IRISH CARBONIC AND PROPANE
535 Buffalo Road | Rochester, NY 14611
(585) 254-6844 | Map & Directions »

IRISH CARBONIC
772 Marion Rd | Columbus, OH 43207
(800) 884-0072 | Map & Directions »

Dry ice blasting is one of the most effective and efficient ways to clean unwanted surfaces off industrial equipment and surfaces. But how much do you know about dry ice blasting? Here are some basics.

Q. What is dry ice blasting?

A. Dry ice blasting is a non-destructive way to clean and remove unwanted coatings from industrial surfaces using extremely cold (-109.3° F) dry ice pellets (the solid form of carbon dioxide) delivered at high speed via compressed air.

Q. What can dry ice blasting remove?

A. From paint, rust, adhesives and syrups to oils, powders, mold and bacteria, dry ice blasting will remove just about any surface contaminant.

Q. How does dry ice blasting work?

A. Fine dry ice particles are “blasted” onto a surface using a dry ice blasting machine (imagine a high-tech pressure washer that shoots dry ice rather than water). When these particles come in contact with an unwanted coating, the contaminants freeze and fracture; eventually, a combination of heat transfer, gas expansion, and impact force will remove the unwanted coatings.

Q. What are the advantages of dry ice blasting compared to other methods?

A. Dry ice blasting enjoys significant advantages over other cleaning methods like sand and soda blasting, water cleaning, and chemical cleanup. Here are just some of dry ice blasting advantages.

• It minimizes surface damage – Dry ice blasting is non-abrasive, non-flammable, and non-conductive, which means it won’t abrade, wear, pit, or erode equipment surfaces. Other methods of cleaning can damage surfaces and remove more than just unwanted debris. Control panels, glass, electrical wiring, and other delicate surfaces can all be safely cleaned with dry ice.
• It’s eco-friendly – Some or all of the media used in dry ice blasting can be left behind, flowing down public drains into sewer systems, lakes, and streams, or seeping into the soil. Dry ice blasting meets USDA, FDA and EPA guidelines and eliminates the expense of environmental cleanup.
• It’s safe for employees – With dry ice blasting, cleanup crews won’t be exposed to chemicals or grit media.
• It produces little secondary waste – With dry ice blasting, all you will need to clean is what you are trying to remove.
• It cleans better – Dry ice blasting simply does a better of job of cleaning equipment, both visually and at the microbe level.
• It doesn’t contaminate your equipment – Dry ice blasting leaves behind no water or chemical residue – which means no additional cleanup is needed.
• It gets everywhere – Dry ice blasting makes it easier to get into hard to reach nooks and crannies.
• It works quickly – Dry ice blasting works faster than other cleaning methods, which means less downtime.
• No disassembly is required – With dry ice blasting, your equipment can remain built and in place, which saves time and allows more frequent cleaning.
• It’s efficient – Dry ice blasting is not as labor intensive as cleaning with water, media, or chemicals.

Q. What industries use dry ice blasting?

A. Dry ice blasting is used across many industries, including but not limited to:

• automotive
• manufacturing
• industrial cleaning
• foundry/metal working
• petrochemical
• power generation
• food processing
• pulp and paper manufacture
• general maintenance

Whether you need to clean food processing equipment, electronics, electric motors, or just about any other type of industrial equipment, dry ice will do the job faster, safer, and more completely than just about any other method. Why not give it a try?

Need dry ice dry ice pellets in Rochester and Buffalo, NY? Irish Carbonic has them. Contact us today to learn more or place an order!