Building a jockey box & tap into your kitchen fridge

[brokendownyota]

Good day

I was pondering the viability of installing a jockey box coil in a tub of water in a standard kitchen fridge with a tap on the door, so as to be able to be able to continue using the fridge for adult purposes, like food and condiments. Storing the keg and co2 bottle outside the fridge and simply chilling the beer in the jockey box coil, in a tub of water for thermal mass (and so you could dump ice in if you're planning on pulling more than a couple pints an hour) seems to me like a workable idea.

http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/50_Single_Faucet_5_16_Jockey_Box_Basic_Kit_Ba_p/1faucet-50jb-5-16-kit-ball.htm

Is what I would use - run some beer line from the coil output to a tap on the door (hinge side so as to stay out of the way) and you'd only occupy a single shelf in the fridge, meaning no separate kegerator or keezer to have one beer on tap.

Ideally, I would keg prime, and then cold crash the kegs in the basement/garage until required so as to achieve decent carbonation and clarity.

Has anyone gone this route, or considered it? What are the cons? Higher serving pressure? Limited pours per hour? Cloudy beer?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[GPP33]

You'd probably have to have the keg at a very high pressure to maintain carbonation and have a mile of line to get it to a manageable serving temp. Warm beer doesn't absorb CO2 as easily as cold beer.

Try it and let us know how it works.

 

[brokendownyota]

Wouldn't the chiller itself act as extra beer line? The coil itself is 50 feet that the beer is passing through... Not sure how much more beer line you'd need. Probably 5 or 6 feet to get it from the keg to the coil, and another 3 or 4 feet from the coil to the tap would give you 60 feet of line, give or take.