Jockey Box on the cheap?

[Peruvian802]

Has anyone skipped the cold plate or s/s coil and just used beverage line in a cooler like this - http://simplybeer.com/jockey-box/?

Barring this, it seems that building a jockey box is about as expensive as buying one.

 

[Homercidal]

People do it. It can work as long as the beer isn't being poured too often. Those plastic lines don't conduct the cold to the beer very well, so it takes a lot longer to get the beer cold compared to Stainless.

Technically they can work, but how well they work for you depends on your expectations.

You may consider skipping the chilled serving plate version and think about using a cooler or kitchen trash can to hold the KEG AND SERVING LINES cold. You eliminate the cost of a cold plate/stainless coil, and with a bit of creative engineering still manage to pour cold beer.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Thermal conductivity of the tubing would be horrible...it's really more of an insulator than a conductor. I doubt you'd get much if any cooling capacity. I've been looking into building one myself and stumbled across this build a couple months ago. It made me suspicious that the write-up doesn't mention anything about how much it's able to chill a warm keg. If you're not in a rush, I'd recommend watching ebay for cold plates. They're a major part of the expense, but faucets, shanks, etc can add up quick too. I recently picked up two 2-circuit cold plates pretty cheap (around $40). I saw a 7-circuit go for $35.

 

[Peruvian802]

Thanks for the replies. I've been watching for a cold plate but haven't seen anything yet.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Yeah it's kind of funny, one minute you'll see a 7-circuit go for $35, then the next minute you'll see a single circuit go for $80.

I also saw good prices on stainless coils if I just searched for "stainless tubing" rather than "jockey box coils". There really didn't seem to be much difference other than they were about half the price for the same length. Sometimes the JB coils are coiled a bit tighter and/or have some bends that make things easier to line up with faucets and bulkheads.