Jockeyboxes and warm kegs

[pjk49202]

I have a question to ask everyone on the board about jockeyboxes and warm kegs.

I have four kegs of homebrew for my wedding on Sept. 3rd. I plan on renting jockeyboxes to dispense the beer. My question is will I have foam problems with the beer I dispense through the jockeyboxes if they are at room temp? Obviously, I will have the jockeyboxes nice and iced down. The problem is that the kegs will not be chilled before they are hooked up the jockeyboxes. It's just impossible to keep them chilled starting the night before.

Thanks in advance.
:rockin:

 

[tesilential]

I don't have any experience with this, but the previous owner of my kegs did this at tailgating events and it worked for him.

That said I hope you moved the kegs early or filtered. I moved 1/4 mile down the street 2 weeks ago and my keg are just now starting to clear up.

 

[shortyjacobs]

No. Just dispense at a low pressure. We always scream "dispense at carbonation pressure!" in this forum, because for kegerators you need to or else your beer goes flat. Jockeyboxes, the rule is "dispense at whatever pressure works".....too high a pressure and you get foam and even warm beer.....too low and it just takes a while to pour, (not the worst problem, really)....start at 3 or 4 or 5 PSI and slowly turn it up, then turn it down if it's a problem. The time it will be at 5 PSI will be too short for it to appreciably lose carbonation.

 

[pjk49202]

Thanks for the responses! I will plan on putting a low pressure on the kegs.

 

[JRems]

Don't count on using low pressure, if the boxes have very long ss coils( not a cold plate) you might have to go much higher. I need 40psi to pour at a decent rate on my jockey box. Also even if you can't cool the kegs the day before have them sitting in 5 gal pails with ice around them that day will help a lot. Also for a cold plate you want ice on the top and bottom and the drain on the cooler open, no standing water. For a ss coil, you want to fill the cooler with ice and top off with water.

 

[pjk49202]

I believe that both of the jockey boxes are coils vs. cold plates. I'll look into coolers or something to keep the kegs cool, but I'm not too confident about it.