Wedding Brew - keg or bottles?

First off I would like to thank all of the contributors to this forum. You have provided heaps of information that has contributed to my love for brewing. It's help more than you know... I don't post much(at all). Anyways, I'd like your input on some things.

As the title implies, I am getting married. My brewing bud, also one of my groomsmen, offered to provide beer for the reception. We will be brewing 20 gal for the event. My questions focus on how to serve them. The wedding is at a vineyard in Oregon. I spoke with them about this and they are cool. So I am assuming there are not legal issues...

We mostly keg and that is what I am most comfortable with. However the few times I have served from a keg at a party, with one of those CO2 cartridge chargers, the resulting beer was foamy. Also, I feel that I have to tinker with the setup a lot. Since we will be relying on the vineyard wine guy to serve the beer I don't think I'd like this configuration. So we thought about bottling. I think the server would be more comfortable with the bottles. I don't really feel like bottling that much beer, or dealing with the leftovers....

After all of this, I am leaning towards building a jockey box and assigning one of my friends to setup and take down duty.

My questions:
1. Would a jockey box help ensure the beer would not be foamy?
2. If no, other recommendations?
3. I've seen that copper is no good for serving beer, but SS is expensive. Thoughts?
4. Any tips for the jockey box?


I apologize if these questions were answered already. I've been researching a lot and haven't encountered the information I need.

First off, Congratulations! I would go keg. Less clean up

This is going to be one of your best nights of your life. You will be first in line for food, people will be giving you money and presents, your wife will be outstanding. Relax and serve bottle beer unless you are 100% sure how to do a keg.. Make some nice labels for the bottles.

I rented a jockey box for my wedding. I think it cost about $40, but was a nice micromatic unit and worked flawlessly. Check around at some of the bottle shops that sell kegs, they may also rent the Jockey Box. Congrats!

Thanks for the replies.

I'm thinking the jockey box is the way I will go. I pitched it to the fiancé and she's for it. So we will be building one.

Any tips for building one or using one?

I'm in the same boat but we are having a backyard wedding. I'm only going to have 2 beers on tap and was thinking of sticking them in a barrel on ice - but not sure about cobra taps or maybe the faucets on the cornies?

How much would a jockey box cost to build ?

shoreman said:

I'm in the same boat but we are having a backyard wedding. I'm only going to have 2 beers on tap and was thinking of sticking them in a barrel on ice - but not sure about cobra taps or maybe the faucets on the cornies?

How much would a jockey box cost to build ?

Click to expand...

We did something similar last summer. Two kegs in ice, with cobra taps. We used the portable charger for CO2. I'm not sure of all the reasons why, but we couldn't get a consisten good pour. It was pretty foamy and a lot of beer was wasted. Also, I had to tinker with it a bunch. So be warned that someone will need to adjust things when it's not pouring right. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I have been kegging for a few years and don't have much issues with my keezer setup...

I think the jockey box would take care of the pouring issues, because the beer would be properly chilled and there would be plenty of tubing to reduce the foam. I would definitely use a real CO2 tank and regulator though. So I would dial up the pressure to compensate.

I have been thinking about this same issue as I am going to bring my cousin some brew for his wedding in the summer, and I have come to the conclusion to keg-- mostly because I fear the "yeast shot" might be off-putting to those who lack experience pouring a homebrew.

just my $0.02
but it looks like you have already decided on kegging so that's good

Keg (In a trash can with ice) and jockey box. You'll get great cold pours with the JB and the coils inside will help with the foam, then asign one of your friends, who knows how to pour, to serve. That way you can RELAX and enjoy the moment. The night will go by so fast it'll make your head spin, but you'll remember it forever. Dont sweat the details just go with it.

You could carbonate in the keg then bottle with a beer gun to avoid getting yeast in the bottle. Then you don't need to worry about anything when you get to the event. Its more prep, but the day of the event will be much easier.

I had to bottle 230 bottles of beer for my wedding. We actually bottled 25ish gallons total. Took about 2.3-3 hours to bottle and label it. I used a Beer gun and had no sediment. Either option sounds good and if you build a JB you'll have that for future use.

Thanks everyone - why is everyone concerned about the day of? I'm planning on having my 5lb co2 tank there - kegs pressured then serving at 5 psi or whatever - I've been kegging homebrew for a while and usually have no probs

If you have your mind set on owning vs. renting I would look at micromatic or morebeer. You can get it complete or piece it together from either place. Get ready for some sticker shock, those stainless coils aren't cheap.

So I've been researching jockey boxes and I have a couple questions:

1. 5/16" or 3/8" coils? (I think 5/16 is the better for cooling, but 3/8" =less CO2)
2. 50ft coils or 70ft coils?
3. Best way to prevent foamy pours? (Ice the kegs, higher pressure,etc.)
4. Best place to buy the coils? (NYbrewsupply seems good)

Thanks in advance for any response.

+1 for bottling so you don't have to sweat it during the wedding. Also, if there's leftovers with nice labels, they would make nice take-homes for guests. Congrats on getting married!

Evan_L said:

+1 for bottling so you don't have to sweat it during the wedding. Also, if there's leftovers with nice labels, they would make nice take-homes for guests. Congrats on getting married!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I thought about bottles, but it sounds like so much work! Also, I am much more familiar with kegging. So I feel more confident that I can dial in the desired CO2 level with kegs.

With that said, I may play around a bit with bottling from the keg... But I'm still leaning towards the jockey box. It just seems like an incredibly useful piece of equipment.

Thanks Again!

Currently fermenting 20 gal of of 2 different beers for my best friends sons wedding on 3-30-2013. Gonna bottle 10 gal and keg 10 gal. Currently building a Keezer for the wedding as well. My friends wife wanted to be able to make labels for the bottles and my buddy wanted the Keezer... so we split the difference. His wife tossed out the comment that the Keezer better not look "Like it belongs in a garage instead of a house." The pressure is on....

I did bottles for mine - around 150 total, but I brewed and bottled it over the course of several months as it was ready. We didn't have time to properly label them (a friend made sheets of pretty but unworkable labels that had to be hand-punched), so we told everybody what the kinds were and half the fun was trying to choose the kind you wanted based on color or comparing this one to the last one you had.

We just went to Home Depot and bought two big steel tubs and filled them with ice, beer, pop, and water. One of my jerkface friends loudly announced there was "no more beer" after an hour because all the bottles had gone into the tubs - I think there were still 100 beers on ice, lol.

I didn't have kegs at the time, so bottles were my only option. They worked out great though, even though all the bottling (and later the cleanup) was kind of a pain in the ass. It was nice to have them all stacked and ready when the big day arrived so that there was no setup or fiddling. Just bottles into the ice, and a few bottle openers and a stack of cups nearby, and everybody knew what to do from there.

So I ended up going with the jockey box. Here is my build:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-wedding-jockey-box-build-409366/#post5170734