DIY Jockey Box anyone? Or: can you self coil the SS?

A buddy with a pub would like to set up a jockey box.

Looks like it's just dispensing parts, bulkheading through a cooler, and running through SS tubing.

Any idea if rolling that tubing is doable DIY style? Anyone done another jockeybox somehow at home?

I was thinking about building one of those for myself before I got my kegerator setup.
Anyways, I am all about saving money and so instead of using SS tubing I was looking into using copper tubing that you can buy for around $30-$40 at the hardware stores.
I asked around a few brewery stores for their input to see if it would work and their input was "Yes copper might work"

WHy not just use a cold plate made for a jockey box?? I think you can get a six outlet for something like $100.

Yeah, $100 is a lot more than $30-$40 but you'll be able to hook six taps up to is and save yourself a ton of work and headaches.

EBay cold plate FTW. Small diameter SS will be difficult to coil and will cost more than the cold plate. If you are dead set on the coil, McMaster is the cheapest place to get it (believe it or not), unless you find a great deal on ebay.

+1 for the cold plate

I built one for a buddy using a 6 outlet cold plate. Since he was only starting with 3 taps, we just passed the outputs from 1-3 into inputs 4-6. Takes a little more psi, but not much.

HarvInSTL said:

+1 for the cold plate

I built one for a buddy using a 6 outlet cold plate. Since he was only starting with 3 taps, we just passed the outputs from 1-3 into inputs 4-6. Takes a little more psi, but not much.

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I too use a 6 pass cold plate for three taps. I built short jumper hoses to double up the passes if I wanted to, but I've never found the need to.

Anyway, I own both a cold plate and a stainless coil, and I like the cold plate much better.

looks like he wants to buy a cold plate, and we put together the rest.

He's got taps, but can anyone recommend a tap/shank combo for a cooler? And are all the fittings going to be 1/4" FFL to 5/16" barb with tube clamps and some vinyl tubing?

Essentially I'd like to make a parts list he can get through to get everything together so we can build this.

What chills the coldplate? i'mm assuming it still requires the cooler to be filled with ice/water?

Yup

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If this was for a single draft, you could go with this:

Stainless Steel Immersion Wort Chiller w/Garden Hose Fittings :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies

gssmind said:

I was thinking about building one of those for myself before I got my kegerator setup.
Anyways, I am all about saving money and so instead of using SS tubing I was looking into using copper tubing that you can buy for around $30-$40 at the hardware stores.
I asked around a few brewery stores for their input to see if it would work and their input was "Yes copper might work"

Click to expand...

I have heard you shouldn't use copper for carbonated beer...

Maybe you sohuldnt but I have been using 4 copper coils in my jockey box for several years without any issues. And I use it at least once a month. Now I dont leave beer in the lines ever and I never leave it setup for more then 2 days at a time. YMMV

Az~

RockfordWhite said:

I have heard you shouldn't use copper for carbonated beer...

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I can tell you for a fact that carbonated water (aka carbonic acid) is pretty corrosive, and will react with anything but stainless pretty aggressively. I tried using a copper coil as a coldplate for a soda setup, and it did not work well at all. It definitely gave a metallic taste to the final product. Of all the metals other than stainless to use, copper is probably the least bad, as some copper is good for your system.

I've only used a jockey box once and had no problems using my copper IC I had at the time. If I was going to use one a lot I may venture to a bold plate, but for the once/twice a summer I think you'll be fine with the copper.

Copper is a bad idea for anything after the fermentation starts. read this other post:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/jockey-box-copper-vs-stainless-107221/#post1182065
You can get the stainless coils for a reasonable price, I can tell you it is not easy to roll these things out yourself. I took a 2 tap jockey box apart to make a couple immersion chillers, it was a PITA to just realign the tubes to go up and out of the kettle.