Xalwine

Recipes 

So I plan on making a rolling jockey box out of a cooler. I am gonna get stainless beverage coil for inside but I don't wanna spend the 80 for 50 feet. Will 25 feet be enough if I keep the keg cool? I just don't want foam.

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bellecitybrewer

Recipes 

Now, I'm no expert in this, but i do see people using cold plates also. Seeing as how the cold plates are fairly small, i can't imagine that the channels within that are even close to 25'. I'm sure you'll be fine, just keep that coil submerged in icy water!

MacGyver22

Recipes 

I just put the finishing touches on my jockey box.

Before I put the SS coils showed up, I had a BBQ cookoff to go to. We got a keg of Shiner (don't have any homebrewed stuff yet). We kept the keg on ice and just used ~20ft of 3/16" beer line (plastic) in the jockey box and kept it covered in ice. It worked great. I didn't get any real cooking effect from the beer line, but it didn't foam since I kept the keg cold.

So short answer is yes, 25ft will work as long as you keep the keg cold.

On a side note, I didn't want to pay big bucks for the coils either, so I bought 304 SS tubing at Grainer (~$50) and bent it myself - saved quite a bit of cash!

DBbrewing

Recipes 

I use 25 feet for each of my taps in my jockey box and have never had a foam problem.

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Dave
http://thebeerbunker.com/mash

primarys: Orange blossom mead
Secondaries:

Bottled; Mead

Kegged; Imperial Kolsch,
Dead Guy Clone
Kolsch, Oatmeal Stout, Octoberfest, Cascadian Dark ALE, Southern English Brown, Milk Chocolate Stout, Dark American Wheat,

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Xalwine

Recipes 

Thanks for all the quick replies! 25 feet is what I'll go with. Next question, will using dry ice work better than ice water?

__________________

Fermenting:
None :-(
Kegged:
Test batch
Test batch
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)

JRems

Recipes 

Dry Ice would work great with a plate chiller since you just want ice and no water. But with a coil it's better to have ice/water to completely surround the coils for the best heat transfer. I also separated the coils with plastic cable/zip ties so each loop of the coil sits about 5/16" above the Lower one. This way they have the most surface area touching the icy water instead of the coils sitting In a big pile and touching each other.
If you want it colder and don't mind using more ice, dump salt on the ice it will melt fast but get super cold.