Jockey Box

I would love to build a 2 tap jockey box and have seen all kinds of designs and materials. I want something "economical" but I also like to have my beer cold. I have seen a 1 pass cold plate on ebay for 25$ but really want a 2 pass. Does anyone have a good hook up or know where reasonably prices cold plates could be purchased.

I have seen DIY self designs made with beverage tubing but it sounds like the down side is that they don't seem to get the beer very cold.

Anyone have any suggestions on what I could do to build my jockey box?

Thanks

just make sure that you use stainless steel tubing in the box if you go the diy route. metal of course conduct heat/cold better than plastic, the reason i say SS is that copper will leach in the presence of carbonated products creating a very toxic solution.

i'm not sure how much a 50' run of SS tubing is going for nowadays. but that should be plenty for a 2-3 tap jockeybox. wrap @15-20' of the tubing around a 2 liter size bottle per run. nestle both wrapped coils inside a 20qt cooler and fit with taps through the side.


if you don't care how your junk looks check out the trashcan kegorator.

i's in the project locator under trash-r-ator by biermuncher

If i were building a two tap jockey box, wouldnt I need 2 coils of ss hose. This is where the expense lies and I think I could get a two run cold plate for less than the price of 2 coils. Unless I am not understanding how the cold plat runs, I was assuming a two run plate will allow me to have two seperate kegs connected to the jockey box with 2 taps. I may be misunderstanding of how the whole system works.

yes a 2 pass cold plate would run 2 separate beers and should do it cheaper than stainless coil. Just watch ebay for some good cold plate deals.

does it matter the size of the SS coil? like say 3/16 or 1/4 on the inside of the SS coiL,

I built a jockey box with a 5 pass cold plate that I bought for $80 in the classifieds section. I have seen a build that uses beer line coiled in ice.

Malric said:

I built a jockey box with a 5 pass cold plate that I bought for $80 in the classifieds section. I have seen a build that uses beer line coiled in ice.

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Sorry for the hijack, but just a quick Q:
Do you insulate your kegs at all for use with a cold plate?

Nope, I left them sitting at about 70F. The cooler is an igloo extreme that I loaded with 20 LB of ice and kept pouring around 40-45F for about 2.5 days. I really was nervous about pouring multiple beers in line, but the cold plate worked great. I think a major factor was that I lifted the plate off the bottle by about 3 inches using packing foam. It kept the plate off the melt water for the most part. Some people complained that you had to keep packing down the ice, but I never had a problem. The only con was low flow rate.

Malric said:

Nope, I left them sitting at about 70F. The cooler is an igloo extreme that I loaded with 20 LB of ice and kept pouring around 40-45F for about 2.5 days. I really was nervous about pouring multiple beers in line, but the cold plate worked great. I think a major factor was that I lifted the plate off the bottle by about 3 inches using packing foam. It kept the plate off the melt water for the most part. Some people complained that you had to keep packing down the ice, but I never had a problem. The only con was low flow rate.

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why was your flow rate so low? what did you have your psi at? I am building a 4 tap box with a 7 pass plate and will be serving 4 beers at a time at wedding in August. I plan to refrigerate and ice down the kegs before hand

I wouldn't say 'so' low, but definately a little low. It didn't help that the kegs were a little under carbed too. I think they were around 10 psi at 70f. They flowed better when I jumped up the serving pressure, but I was worried about over carbing. Not bad for the first try. I would recommend that you test it to feel out the settings.

zman said:

why was your flow rate so low? what did you have your psi at? I am building a 4 tap box with a 7 pass plate and will be serving 4 beers at a time at wedding in August. I plan to refrigerate and ice down the kegs before hand

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Unless it is extremely hot out you should have no problems with 3 of your beers as they can be jumpered for 2 passes each. Your last keg that is getting the single pass should be chilled.

Make sure you run beer through the plate before adding the ice to the box, otherwise you could freeze up any water in the passes creating excessive foam or poor/no flow...

jblizz said:

Unless it is extremely hot out you should have no problems with 3 of your beers as they can be jumpered for 2 passes each. Your last keg that is getting the single pass should be chilled.

Make sure you run beer through the plate before adding the ice to the box, otherwise you could freeze up any water in the passes creating excessive foam or poor/no flow...

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I have seen this jumping method mentioned. I am assuming that it is as simple as jumping the ports in an in/out fashion, port 5 in to port 5 out with 6' or so of tubing?

evandena said:

Sorry for the hijack, but just a quick Q:
Do you insulate your kegs at all for use with a cold plate?

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Did you use anything to seal around the insulation where you drilled the holes? I am planning on using Aquarium Sealant

I drilled the holes fairly tight and then sealed with a general purpose silicone sealant.

zman said:

I have seen this jumping method mentioned. I am assuming that it is as simple as jumping the ports in an in/out fashion, port 5 in to port 5 out with 6' or so of tubing?

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Yeah 5 or 6" should be enough to jumper them together, just make sure the tube doesn't kink too hard as that could create foam as well.

As for sealing the drilled holes I used shanks on both the back and the front, that way I could disconnect all hoses and keep them in the jockey box.

jblizz said:

Yeah 5 or 6" should be enough to jumper them together, just make sure the tube doesn't kink too hard as that could create foam as well.

As for sealing the drilled holes I used shanks on both the back and the front, that way I could disconnect all hoses and keep them in the jockey box.

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I thought about pass through shanks for the back but @ $20/each I decided against them for now.

subed

been considering build a jockey box but I plan on going stainless coils or bevseal beer line. Sometime soon I am hoping to try it with the bevseal line on a corny, because it would obviously be really cheap to go that route. Weather it works or not...

Still trying to decide if I want to go cheap and use a cobra tap, or get a chrome faucet (since it won't get used a lot).

CidahMastah said:

subed

been considering build a jockey box but I plan on going stainless coils or bevseal beer line. Sometime soon I am hoping to try it with the bevseal line on a corny, because it would obviously be really cheap to go that route. Weather it works or not...

Still trying to decide if I want to go cheap and use a cobra tap, or get a chrome faucet (since it won't get used a lot).

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I like the SS Coils also but I was not willing to pay $500+ for coils nor did I want to get a boat cooler for 4 taps. The upside is that you can fill the box with Ice water and not have to pre chill the kegs

zman said:

I thought about pass through shanks for the back but @ $20/each I decided against them for now.

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$20 seems kinda steep unless you are supporting your local home brew store... I only paid about $10 each for mine from BeverageFactory's ebay store...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kegco-Beer-...722?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6d9a83da

zman said:

I like the SS Coils also but I was not willing to pay $500+ for coils nor did I want to get a boat cooler for 4 taps. The upside is that you can fill the box with Ice water and not have to pre chill the kegs

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Where are you buying your stainless coils??



I am not sure what size coil I would use for this, but I can get 1/2'' 304 stainless in a 50ft coil for $85. That would give me enough for 2-3 taps. I am assuming that stepping down in coil diameter would give a cheaper or at least similar price.

That said I assume that the cooler would have to be larger pending on the size of the coils. But I am not looking to make a 4 tap either, because it would take a ton of ice. I have also heard you need to drain the coolers when you have a chill plate, and not let water build up (so you need more ice)

for example:

http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Coiled-to-customers-request-035-304304L-Coiled-Tubing_p_30.html

3/8'' OD x 10'' coil @ 50 ft = $59.49

Cut that in half and you have 2 coils at 25' each for two taps

CidahMastah said:

for example:

http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Coiled-to-customers-request-035-304304L-Coiled-Tubing_p_30.html

3/8'' OD x 10'' coil @ 50 ft = $59.49

Cut that in half and you have 2 coils at 25' each for two taps

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I thought that 50' was the required minimum if using coil? That is a good deal but you have to get the additional parts and fittings to make it work for a Jockey box. Personally I am happy using the cold plate option

zman said:

I thought that 50' was the required minimum if using coil? That is a good deal but you have to get the additional parts and fittings to make it work for a Jockey box. Personally I am happy using the cold plate option

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it very well might be. I haven't fully searched out all the parts (or found really good build specs on one yet). This is on a "definite maybe" list for me this summer. Part of me want to just go the trasherator route.

There seem to be 1000 ways to build them too. If you want to buy all the fancy hardware, or go the route of oversized tubing and hose clamps etc.

I have these 30Gallon poly containers that cost around $40 or so and they would be perfect for putting a single corney in and taping the wall. Lots to consider! I would thing the trasherators are certainly less portable.

CidahMastah said:

it very well might be. I haven't fully searched out all the parts (or found really good build specs on one yet). This is on a "definite maybe" list for me this summer. Part of me want to just go the trasherator route.

There seem to be 1000 ways to build them too. If you want to buy all the fancy hardware, or go the route of oversized tubing and hose clamps etc.

I have these 30Gallon poly containers that cost around $40 or so and they would be perfect for putting a single corney in and taping the wall. Lots to consider! I would thing the trasherators are certainly less portable.

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I have quite a few events that I am catering the beer for this year so I decided that a jockey box build was in order. I got a really good deal on a 7 product plate and presently my build has 4 taps but I could expand to 6 or 7 at some point. There are tons of ways to construct them and I have been reading just about all of them. My main issue now is whether I was do add pass through shanks to the back or just drill holes for the "Beer In". 4 shanks are $80 so it looks like I might just go with the former.

I did not go all that fancy. I got 50' of 3/16 bev tubing from micromatic and will be using it throughout. I am going with the Red 5/16 tubing for the gas lines.

zman, here is how i passed my hoses through, i didnt spend the money on bulkheads.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-new-jockey-box-302897/

Very nice bucfanmike! I opted to seal them with silicone to reduce temperature change. It should be simple to remove them when needed. When I have to redo it, I'll probably put in disconnects.

I have a question about ice and the cold plate. I have seen where people suggest keeping the plate out of the melted wather by setting it on something. I was wondering if I could rest the cold plate on a block of ice and then use crushed ice around the block and the cold plate. Would this work?

johnsonbrew said:

I have a question about ice and the cold plate. I have seen where people suggest keeping the plate out of the melted water by setting it on something. I was wondering if I could rest the cold plate on a block of ice and then use crushed ice around the block and the cold plate. Would this work?

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I'd like to bump this thread and know the answer to this... has anyone tried it???

You probably could. I used temporary styrofoam blocks to lift the cold plate and poured 20lb of ice over the top. By the end of the weekend, the cold plate was sitting in water, with ice still on top. I didn't notice any loss of cooling.

Malric said:

You probably could. I used temporary styrofoam blocks to lift the cold plate and poured 20lb of ice over the top. By the end of the weekend, the cold plate was sitting in water, with ice still on top. I didn't notice any loss of cooling.

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Sounds good... if your chill plate was sitting in water and it worked fine, why do people say that you should leave the chill plate with just ice on it and let the water drain off?

It's obviously been a while since this topic has been brought up so I have a little bit of experience to fill in the blanks. When I use my jockey box, I just get a block of ice and rest the cold plate on top and then surround to plate with ice. Over a 5 day camping trip I need to replace the ice once but just leave all the water. The first several pours are foamy but as the beet adjusts with the temp and settles, the pours get better after a bit. I would suppose you could set your co2 at a lower pressure and have slower pours to help eliminate the foam. I really hate waiting for beer to fill my cup before I drink it though.

In theory, the water would be warmer than ice. In practical application, I think the water would keep near freezing temperatures and act as a buffer.

Malric said:

In theory, the water would be warmer than ice. In practical application, I think the water would keep near freezing temperatures and act as a buffer.

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That is exactly what I was thinking. Even more, why would you not want to mix salt-water and pack it with ice to bring it to even lower temps? I would think this would work better than just ice and letting the water drain off, but I may be sorely mistaken...

You probably could, but I wouldn't add salt for corrosion concerns. I'm going to be using mine again this weekend. I'll try draining the water this time to see if there is any noticeable difference.

Just to chime in, I built a two tap jockey box using a four pass cold plate. Each tap goes through two passes on the plate.
I too have read everywhere that the cold plate should be elevated and drain left open to keep it out of standing water.
Not once have I done that.
After a few days camping in 90+ degree weather and kegs sitting outside the whole time wrapped in a moving blanket, my box was full of 90% water and the plate was submerged in about 6-8". I can't honestly say that it ever performed any different being under water than it did with ice directly on it with no water. The beer was always cold and once I got the pressure right, foam never became an issue.

One thing I can say though is that I have to bump my keg psi up to about 20 to get a good pour. Over a week of sitting at that pressure, it does seem to over carb the beer if I have any left to bring home and put in my kegerator on shorter lines. So just something to keep in mind.

If the water is allowed to drain, you will have ice contacting the plate at random locations, but much of the plate is NOT in contact with that ice, but air. The temperature change of water is MUCH slower than the temperature change of air, and any water in contact with the plate will chill the plate (and it's precious contents) better than if that space were air.

Also, bust up the ice if necessary, as it melts it can have a tendency to form large clumps, and draw away from the plate or coil, which can then not be in contact at all with your plate or coil. Then you have nearly zero chilling capacity unless there is water in the cooler.

When not in use it should be thoroughly cleaned and dried.

Excellent! Thank you so much for the advice. I think I'll just not worry too much about any standing water then. I plan on getting one of those well-insulated 5-day coolers and just not worry about draining any water.

krazydave said:

Just to chime in, I built a two tap jockey box using a four pass cold plate. Each tap goes through two passes on the plate.
I too have read everywhere that the cold plate should be elevated and drain left open to keep it out of standing water.
Not once have I done that.

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I've never put much stock in the old 'never let the cold plate sit in contact with water' theory. It gets bandied about all the time, but never have I seen any science to back it up. It keeps getting repeated, but I've not been able to find an acceptable reason as to why.

The physics of the problem even seem to be quite the contrary - water is at it's densest just a bit over freezing at 4 deg C (~39F). This means that as the ice melts, the coldest water will then sink to the bottom, leaving the slightly warmer water in contact with the ice. Now - we are dealing with a very small scale, so the actual differences are probably negligible and thermal convection likely not significant.

However, as far as I can figure - as long as your ice/water mixture is kept at the serving temperature you want your beer at, the most efficient cooling will be with a mixture of ice and water as the water is a far more efficient cooling medium than just ice and air.

I've got a 3 tap jockey box with two cold plates -a single pass and a double pass. I've used it for hours on 80+ degree days with no issues without draining off the water. I do tend to set the pressure up to 20-25 psi to compensate for the temperature difference of the kegs, but even then I get a nice pour all day after the first glass or two from each line.