Jockey Boxes, worth the investment?

[beau_cephus]

Anybody own one? I was thinking seriously about building one until I read that it is recommended that you ice the keg in addition to filling the cooler with ice.

Is it possible to use a room temperature keg and get a cold beer out of a box with 50' coil?

Also, anyone tried using dry ice?

 

[JoeyChopps]

I had a buddy that had a chill plate that would take room temp beer to cold with just ice. I imagine a 50 foot coil would do the trick

 

[twobrain]

i read that 50ft will do room temp to cold beer fine, but if you want to contintously serve non stop then you will need 100ft... but most jockey boxes are built with 50ft

 

[rwagner23]

I made a jockey box. Long story short, I have a four product plate chiller in a cooler and with a 20 lb bag of ice four beers at probably 80 degrees temp came out as nice and cold beer.

Hope the pic works:

 

[Gfei]

I've got one with 50ft of stainless tubing; pours from a warm keg near continuously with no problems.

Sent from my FroyoEris using Home Brew Talk

 

[dfess1]

Are you really going to use a jockey box all that much? I guess that's what you'd need to figure out first. I haven't found the need to run more than a beer. That said, i did the following: Bought a keg sleeve with the gel freezer pack inside. Slipped that over the keg. Then I took 10' length of beer line, and put a picnic tap on the end, QD on the other. Coiled the beer line up and placed it inside of a soft side cooler we won some place that basically fits a growler. Packed it full of ice, and it worked no problem until the 5 gal keg was kicked. This was in 80 degree sun/cloud. The sleeve cost 35 bucks. I'll most likely be doing this again this weekend for a tailgate.

 

[Cheektronic]

I made a jockey box. Long story short, I have a four product plate chiller in a cooler and with a 20 lb bag of ice four beers at probably 80 degrees temp came out as nice and cold beer.

Hope the pic works:

Where did you get your tap handles?

 

[rwagner23]

Made them myself using ideas from this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-tap-handle-33455/

 

[beau_cephus]

Are you really going to use a jockey box all that much? I guess that's what you'd need to figure out first. I haven't found the need to run more than a beer. That said, i did the following: Bought a keg sleeve with the gel freezer pack inside. Slipped that over the keg. Then I took 10' length of beer line, and put a picnic tap on the end, QD on the other. Coiled the beer line up and placed it inside of a soft side cooler we won some place that basically fits a growler. Packed it full of ice, and it worked no problem until the 5 gal keg was kicked. This was in 80 degree sun/cloud. The sleeve cost 35 bucks. I'll most likely be doing this again this weekend for a tailgate.

I would use it at home, but mostly at the river during the spring,summer, and fall. It would be cheaper than buying kegerator amd would be portable.

 

[JoeyChopps]

I would use it at home, but mostly at the river during the spring,summer, and fall. It would be cheaper than buying kegerator amd would be portable.

My buddy use to only use a jockey box and his beer was always over carbonated and gave me the worst farts (may have be his method) but imo it seems to me that letting a keg "cold crash" in the frig as u serve it produces a better beer just my opinion but if an extra frig is not an option disregard this comment

 

[dfess1]

I would use it at home, but mostly at the river during the spring,summer, and fall. It would be cheaper than buying kegerator amd would be portable.

well that's what I'm saying. Are you using it and drinking the keg most likely in one shot? Looking to have it available over the length of a few days, etc. Basically what I described, was what I called a "ghetto" jockey box. I was not planning to have to worry about the keg for any longer of a length than a couple of hours. So the sleeve and freezer pack worked well. And the coil of beer line in the soft cooler was essentially a jockey box. Then again, the keg did come out of my fermentation chamber at 38 degrees to begin with. For the amount of times I'll need to use this setup, the 35-40 bucks I spent on the sleeve justified it to me. I already had the beer line and picnic tap at home, as well as a spare 5lb CO2 bottle and spare regulator. And when it's time to break it down, i don't need to find a spot for yet another cooler. I guess it is a cheap way out is all I'm saying. Some of these jockey boxes are a good chunk of change, even putting it together yourself.

 

[dutchoven]

I've thought about building one. Would use it a few times a year for serving beer; the rest of the time as a prechiller for my IC.

 

[Phunhog]

I have one that I bought from MoreBeer. I use it for parties, special events, and camping. I have noticed that if the beer is warm it is really hard to get a foam free pour. I have tried pushing with low pressure, high pressure, and and just keg pressure and always get a lot of foam. I know that CO2 comes out of solution easier when it is warm. What pressure do you run when you have a warm keg? MoreBeer recommends 10-12 psi but I haven't had much luck with that when warm. Other than that though I like having a jockey box......

 

[twobrain]

I have one that I bought from MoreBeer. I use it for parties, special events, and camping. I have noticed that if the beer is warm it is really hard to get a foam free pour. I have tried pushing with low pressure, high pressure, and and just keg pressure and always get a lot of foam. I know that CO2 comes out of solution easier when it is warm. What pressure do you run when you have a warm keg? MoreBeer recommends 10-12 psi but I haven't had much luck with that when warm. Other than that though I like having a jockey box......

have you tried changing out the faucet?

are you using ice or ice water? i think for the plates you can use ice, but the coils need ice water. maybe try adding salt to the ice water?

 

[LordUlrich]

I would use it at home, but mostly at the river during the spring,summer, and fall. It would be cheaper than buying kegerator amd would be portable.

I think the key is a jockey box is NOT a replacement for a kegerator but is for use at short events.

 

[dfess1]

I think the key is a jockey box is NOT a replacement for a kegerator but is for use at short events.

I would totally agree with that. I guess I didn't read that well enough.