somekindofnick
Active Member
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Question: Should I buy a jockey box to serve beer at my wedding? If not, should I rent a box, bring bottles or what?
Situation: I'm getting married in July and want to serve some homebrew in addition to some tasty commercial microbrew. I have considered bottles, but would prefer to have a couple of faucets with beer on tap--one homebrew, the other a commercial microbrew. I'm thinking I could rotate beers through the event as I burn through kegs. I know bottles would be better for variety, but I think kegs would be cheaper.
More background: I have a kegerator at home, so I am familiar with draught systems. I thought briefly about bringing the kegerator out, but it wouldn't be able to keep all the kegs cold while they aren't on tap. I have a Sanyo BC-1206, which is barely big enough for two 5 gals with a 5lb CO2 tank.
Purchasing a jockey box: I've been researching on here and online at Micromatic about jockey boxes. It seems the best way to go is 48qt cooler, two faucets, and 120ft stainless steel immersion coil for each faucet. The resulting price is about $600. I recognize the stainless is a big factor in this, so going with a shorter line of say 75ft may be an economical compromise. Does building it yourself save a lot of money here? I didn't get the impression it does.
The rental option: My local brew shop rents it for $20 with a $150 deposit. They said the coils are 25 ft, though, so I don't think it will be sufficient to maintain serving temperature for regular pours at an event with 50+ beer drinkers.
I'm thinking that the biggest deciding factor is use of the box after the event. The $600 makes a lot more sense if I'll be using it for parties, camping, etc. I am not sure how convenient these things are to use for these events vs. just using the beer gun and bringing bottles or growlers. On the other hand, don't these boxes hold their value on resale? Speaking of which, I haven't seen too many for sale on the forums.
My initial conclusion: It's a lot of cash, but I'm inclined to buy the jockey box and use it for the wedding. This way I will be familiar with it and if it works as expected, I can take it to parties as an easy way to share my homebrew without the hassle of managing bottles. If it doesn't work out, I can sell the box and recoup most of my costs.
Thanks in advance for your response.
Question: Should I buy a jockey box to serve beer at my wedding? If not, should I rent a box, bring bottles or what?
Situation: I'm getting married in July and want to serve some homebrew in addition to some tasty commercial microbrew. I have considered bottles, but would prefer to have a couple of faucets with beer on tap--one homebrew, the other a commercial microbrew. I'm thinking I could rotate beers through the event as I burn through kegs. I know bottles would be better for variety, but I think kegs would be cheaper.
More background: I have a kegerator at home, so I am familiar with draught systems. I thought briefly about bringing the kegerator out, but it wouldn't be able to keep all the kegs cold while they aren't on tap. I have a Sanyo BC-1206, which is barely big enough for two 5 gals with a 5lb CO2 tank.
Purchasing a jockey box: I've been researching on here and online at Micromatic about jockey boxes. It seems the best way to go is 48qt cooler, two faucets, and 120ft stainless steel immersion coil for each faucet. The resulting price is about $600. I recognize the stainless is a big factor in this, so going with a shorter line of say 75ft may be an economical compromise. Does building it yourself save a lot of money here? I didn't get the impression it does.
The rental option: My local brew shop rents it for $20 with a $150 deposit. They said the coils are 25 ft, though, so I don't think it will be sufficient to maintain serving temperature for regular pours at an event with 50+ beer drinkers.
I'm thinking that the biggest deciding factor is use of the box after the event. The $600 makes a lot more sense if I'll be using it for parties, camping, etc. I am not sure how convenient these things are to use for these events vs. just using the beer gun and bringing bottles or growlers. On the other hand, don't these boxes hold their value on resale? Speaking of which, I haven't seen too many for sale on the forums.
My initial conclusion: It's a lot of cash, but I'm inclined to buy the jockey box and use it for the wedding. This way I will be familiar with it and if it works as expected, I can take it to parties as an easy way to share my homebrew without the hassle of managing bottles. If it doesn't work out, I can sell the box and recoup most of my costs.
Thanks in advance for your response.
