Jockey Box Rental

Hey all,
I'm up in Berkeley, CA for my sister's wedding and I'm trying to find a jockey box for rent somewhere. My sister has purchased a keg of beer from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing but never considered how to get the beer out of the keg. Santa Cruz doesn't have any recommendation for me, although they will rent me a manually pumped faucet. If this were a frat party I wouldn't think twice about hand pumped beer and red cups... but this isn't a frat party we're talking about here.

Back home (Tucson, AZ) finding a jockey box is incredibly easy. No self respecting small keg beer store is without one (or even two).

Here in the bay area things are, apparently, quite different. I've called 15 beer stores (big ones and little ones) and nobody has them and no one wants to deal with them. I've found one beer supplier (Bay Area Beverage) that rents them out regularly but they won't rent to me unless I have a special one-day permit. I don't have time to get the permit before the event occurs.

Do any of you know where I could go to rent one of these things? The wedding is on Monday evening and I need to pick up the jockey box no later than Sunday morning.

Thanks for your help!

Zack

Is there something in particular that you don't like about a manual pump tap? I just don't see a whole ton of difference between that and a jockey box besides the manual pumping. Sorry I don't have any great info but I hope you find something that works. Have fun at the wedding!

mnm129 said:

I just don't see a whole ton of difference between that and a jockey box besides the manual pumping.

Click to expand...

That's the biggest difference, certainly.

Some other differences:
1) Beer stays good after the wedding if you've poured it with a real CO2 system. (assuming that there's any left over)
2) Beer pours consistently from a real draught system.

We only have 1 bartender at the wedding and he/she basically brings just a bottle opener and a tip jar. She/he isn't going to put up with pumping a keg all night long.

Jockey boxes aren't the classiest items ever but it sure is easier to get good beer out of them. What I should have done (and thought of doing before we left) was to take all of the hardware off of my kegerator and bring it down with me. I could have done that and just bought a cooler and a coil of stainless steel and made a jockey box in a couple hours of work. Ahh, hindsight...

Thanks for the good wishes. It's going to be a great wedding. At the very worst I'll recommend that my sister cancel the keg and just serve bottled beer instead.

Could be a good time to get that second keg setup you always wanted.

Not sure how much rental is; but you could put that money toward a half-barrel kegerator.
Make your own jockey box - you've still got 3 days.
TIp the bartender big at the beginning of the night - and make him deal with the pump.
Put an ad on CL asking for what you need - you never know....

-OCD

Don't distributors rent co2 tanks and regulators?

Try calling Oak Barrel Winecraft. 1443 San Pablo Avenue | Berkeley, CA 94702 phone: 510. 849. 0400

you could get this overnighted to you portable

there are plenty of Home brew shops in Ca brewshops


I bet it would be about the same price if you buy or rent.

Thanks all for your input. I eventually went the brew shop route and found The Good Brewer in Livermore, CA. Daniel, the owner, has a jockey box that he rents out for $35 per day with a $200 deposit. He and I had a very pleasant conversation on the phone this morning. I'm going to pick up the keg on Saturday (he's closed Sunday for a fair) and since he's closed Monday and Tuesday I'll be returning it on Wednesday. Since he's got a policy of not charging for days that he's closed I'm only paying for 1 day. What a deal, huh?

It's quite possible that some beer will be left over after the festivities on Monday… but thanks to having the jockey box on Tuesday too I figure I can find a way to finish it off!

I highly recommend The Good Brewer, by the way. The owner is a very nice fellow who seems like he makes the customer his highest priority.

Good Brewer

Thanks,
Zack