Jockey Box, Cold Plate vs Coil

[TipsySaint]

I'm in the market for a Jockey Box and I'm seeing one at rebel brewer with a cold plate and one at homebrewing.org with 50' SS coils.

What are the pros and cons?

I have never worked with cold plates so I could really use a bit of knowledge about this!

thanks!

 

[maida7]

In my experience they both work good. Not sure but I think the coil does a better job of cooling the beer. But one thing to consider is with the coil, you will have a lot of resistance so you will jack up the pressure to push the beer through all that coil. No big deal if it's just hooked up temporarily but if you keep the pressure high like that for extended amounts of time it will end up over carbonating the beer.

 

[Demon]

Go coil. Plates are fine for maintaining temp, but won't do much to drop temp, especially if you're pouring fast. My jockey box has two 120' coils. I can pour a keg that's 80* and it comes out in the high 30s. Size your cooling capacity for your "worst case scenario". My worst case is pouring at an outdoor Chicago festival in July. Kegs get warm quick even on ice.

 

[bucfanmike]

my jockeybox uses a cold plate, as does my club's box. We have poured alot of beer and never poured a warm one. Pricewise once you go more than 2 taps, the cold plate is significantly cheaper.

 

[TitusCooker]

Our club pulled the cold plates out of a 10 tap system, and replaced it with just beer line hose. Turns out, it worked just as well, sitting in ice, in 90+ degree heat, with uncooled kegs. It is cheap to replace (if necessary), and the two 5-channel cold plates were put into jockey boxes, for member check-out. I'm building 2 jockey boxes this weekend, and using just beer line hose. Just a thought if you prefer a cheaper solution.

 

[banesong]

Our club pulled the cold plates out of a 10 tap system, and replaced it with just beer line hose. Turns out, it worked just as well, sitting in ice, in 90+ degree heat, with uncooled kegs. It is cheap to replace (if necessary), and the two 5-channel cold plates were put into jockey boxes, for member check-out. I'm building 2 jockey boxes this weekend, and using just beer line hose. Just a thought if you prefer a cheaper solution.

How much beer line hose did you use for each channel, and how well did it work? I am looking to build a jockey box and like the cheaper alternative.

 

[TitusCooker]

How much beer line hose did you use for each channel, and how well did it work? I am looking to build a jockey box and like the cheaper alternative.

I used 25 feet of 3/16" inner diameter beer line for my cheap jockey box. The line is coiled into a bucket of ice inside the igloo cooler. The one thing I noticed is that I have to run a bit more pressure to dispense without foam. I regularly sit the cooler above the kegs (about 30 inches, on top of a table), so there is a bit of vertical lift. I set the kegs in ice in the summer to keep them cool, and the differential is less. Then push with 25-26 psi. If I use less pressure, the internal friction pushes the bubbles out of solution and you end up with a lot of foamy pours. I am sure it is probably adding CO2 to the beer as it dispenses, but most of my beers are 2 volumes or less, so adding a bit at that time does not cause too much problem. YMMV.

I recently loaned out my jockey box to a wedding, and the bartender was a homebrewer. However, he kept putting the pressure down to 3-4 psi, and was using pitchers to collect the foam. When I got there, I explained the problem, but he did not believe me. So, I turned the pressure to 26psi when he wasn't directly looking at me. The beer became liquid, and poured perfectly. He looked at me and said, "see, it only took time..." I laughed and took a pint.

Hope that helps. The final advice is that I use Beer Line Cleaner, and a small immersion pump. I run that through the taps for 5 or so minutes, then flush with StarSan. I made the mistake of using StarSan only, once, and it left a residue on the inside of the lines that caused nucleation sites. You could see the beer was liquid to that point, then suddenly foam. BLC cleaned it all out. And I also try to drain them after sanitizing and putting away. Worse case scenario is I have to replace the line, and it's cheap comparatively.