How to Clean a Jockey Box?????

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abnatare

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Hello, I am new to homebrewing and new to this forum. I tried to do a search but came up with nothing so I am hoping you all can help me out. I have a Jockey Box with aluminum tubing in it (at least I assume it aluminum and will need to confirm its not SS when I get home tonight).

I went clean it and flushed the line with some cleaner and then lots of clean water. Now my question is how to get the residual water out of the line. I flushed CO2 through it and water spurted out but my concern is there is still water in there and I don't want to waste a whole tank of CO2 to get it out. I thought of taking out the coil and turning it upside down over night and it would drain naturally but when it took it out I noticed it does not have enough of a slant to let all water flow downward out of both sides of the coils. Next thought would be to heat it and let the water evaporate but I am a little worried that may weaken the aluminum over time so I have not tried that option.
 
Welcome to the board.

I'd just push some starsan through it and call it a day.

How long will you be storing it before you use it again? If it's not going to be a long time, let it go, then just dump the first beer through the line. If it's gonna be months, then I'd definitely sanitize.

B
 
I have had a jockey box for along time 6yr. When I'm done using it I just run clean water through it till it has no more beer in it. Then I take my air compressor and force air through it and get as much water out as possible. When you go to use it again the first pitcher will have water in it. I just pour a pitcher and discard it. Happy drinking.
 
Craigbrew and bad coffee thanks for the info. I plan to use it again in about a month then after that it may be 2-3 months. Its good to know the water sitting in it will not hurt anything or cause any contamination.
 
I also strongly encourage you to sanitize the inside of the icebox before storage. The funk that can build up from long term damp storage miht never touch yoru beer but it can get pretty rank.

You do not want people to associate 'smells dank and mildewy' with your fine crafted brews.
 
Thanks. That is a simple clean at this point. This is all kinda overwhelming for a new brewer but you guys are all making it a lot easier. next up is searching filtration but not for a while.


I also strongly encourage you to sanitize the inside of the icebox before storage. The funk that can build up from long term damp storage miht never touch yoru beer but it can get pretty rank.

You do not want people to associate 'smells dank and mildewy' with your fine crafted brews.
 
I would like to know your methods on cleaning some Jockey Box coils (SS). I used PBW and filled up my Jockey Box with the coils not connected. I noticed that I had to use my faucet brush to clean the grime off the shanks. As for the coils, I am not exactly sure how I will go about scrubbing any grime off, since it's 50'. Any suggestions or methods that work?
 
If at all possible, run clean water through the coils immediately after dispensing beer.

Today, I use "Mark's Keg and Carboy Washer" pump that I connect to the "liquid in" shank on the back of the jockey box. I put the pump in a 1.5 gallon bucket with a 1 gallon mix of hot water and PBW. I place the bucket under the faucet and circulate the water/PBW mix for 15-30 minutes then rinse with water using a larger bucket but no recirculation. You could always use an inexpensive pond/aquarium pump in the same manner.

Prior to owning the pump, I would just fill a keg with hot water and PBW. Hook up the liquid out of the keg to the liquid in on the jockey box. Create some sort of 3 tier set up with the PBW keg higher than the jockey box, which is higher than a collection container capable of holding 5+ gallons. I would push a little PBW mix out of the keg with some CO2, once the PBW started flowing, I turned off the CO2, opened the pressure relief valve on the keg and let gravity siphon the rest of the PBW through the keg. I would repeat this a few times, returning the collected PBW to the keg and recirculating through the coils.

Eventually, I bought a 1/2 gallon garden sprayer and a few different fittings to connect to kegs and shanks. I would pressurize the keg with air, using the sprayer and push the PBW through the keg with air, rather than wasting CO2.

Once I finish rinsing, I flip the jockey box on it's lid, pump up the garden sprayer with a lot of air, connect to the shank and hit it with a blast of air. This clears almost all of the water in the coils (a 50' coil of 3/8" or 1/2" tubing holds about a pint of liquid give or take a few ounces). Placing the jockey box on it's lid places the faucet as the lowest point and helps get a little more out.

The pump made life a lot easier and I don't have to use as much PBW. I just connect the pump and walk away and work on some other janitorial task.
 
I would treat it just like any beer line. Clean it with pbw and then starsan. Drain out what you can and blow out a bit more to get most of the water. An air compressor should be OK, just don't use oiled air.
 
I bought a 1/2 gallon garden sprayer and a few different fittings to connect to kegs and shanks.

I know this thread is a bit old but was wondering if you remember where you got this. I just looked around on Amazon and couldn't find anything that looked like it'd work.
 
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