my new jockey box!

[gnef]

In the lab I work in, a coworker got married this past weekend, and had asked me to do the main beverages for her. the wedding and reception were all on a boat, and bringing a kegerator of any kind was out of the question. i decided to build a new jockey box, my other jockey boxes could only handle two beverages at a time each, so that would limit me to four beverages, and they would be serving from coolers, which would not look very good for a wedding, so i built a new one. i used birch plywood and 2x4's for the structure, a 6 pass cold plate, stain, and spar eurethane.

more pictures can be found starting at this link: http://www.pbase.com/melvinfeng/image/77564269

i had a bavarian hefeweizen, american IPA, traditional mead, hard cider, root beer, and ginger ale through the box. you can see the sheet metal i used as a backing plate, it doubled as a splash guard as well as a magnetic backing for my labels that i printed out credit-card size, and then used the adhesive magnetic backing to place it on. it worked extremely well for the first run, although i didn't calculate very well how much ice i would need. i only bought 30 lbs of ice, and went through that pretty quickly, so i ended up with very foamy beer towards the end of the reception, but other than that it was a good experience.

i also made the box large enough so that in the future, if i want to upgrade, i can place one of my other 2 pass cold plates next to the 6 pass, and i can put in another shank on each side, making this into an 8 keg dispensing jockey box, which would be even more than my kegerator (6-keg kegerator).

 

[ahsndpro]

Looks great!

Question: Do you put the ice inside the wood/behind the taps? How does the wood tolerate the ice and keep the ice cold? Just curious, I don't have much experience with jockey boxes.

 

[gnef]

i put in three thick coats of spar eurethane. from my understanding, spar eurethane is superior to poly eurethane, and holds up better to moisture. over time, it will degrade, just like any eurethane, but i don't intend on using this that often, so i may have to give it an extra coat every couple years or so. when i checked the inside of the box, all the water was in beads, and didn't soak into the wood. i also used 100% silicone caulk for all the edges before the spar eurethane.

wood doesn't have a very good R value, but i didn't want to pay to put in insulation and waterproof the insulation. plus, even though insulation is pretty light, this box is already heavy as-is, and i didn't want to add more weight than was structurally necessary.

 

[ahsndpro]

That's cool...Thanks!

 

[olllllo]

wood doesn't have a very good R value, but i didn't want to pay to put in insulation and waterproof the insulation.

Depending on the length of your session, some accelerated melting is desired.
Cools it off quicker.

 

[gnef]

can you explain that a bit more?

 

[olllllo]

Wet ice cools quicker. More surface contact.

If you want to cool off beer quicker add water to your ice.
If you want even faster results add salt.

Ice won't last as long, but things will cool faster.

 

[sirsloop]

How much did you pay for the cold plate? Did you get it new/used...source? I'm going to be doing something similar at my wedding after party september... i'll be serving...

1. Cascade IPA
2. Belgian Wit
3. Coffee Stout
4. English Special Bitter
5. Trois Pistoles
6. Eds Apfelwein ~8.5%

 

[sirsloop]

Wet ice cools quicker. More surface contact.

If you want to cool off beer quicker add water to your ice.
If you want even faster results add salt.

Ice won't last as long, but things will cool faster.

Adding salt will lower the temperature of the water/ice A LOT... like down into the 20's. Mythbusters did an episode on how to cool a 6 pack the fastest. Salt ice water was fastest, ice water was 2nd, ice was 3rd, and a freezer was 4th. Considering these are generally used at parties... there should be an abundance of ice in the place

 

[gnef]

well, thing is, i'm free draining this. i have the base plate angled towards the front, with a drain to the drip plate, which then drains through a tube to where i want it to go.

if i were to add salt, it will melt the ice, and basically drain all the cold away.

someone recommended me to get block ice, so the next time i do this, that is what i will most likely do to see how that goes.

the cold plate, i paid around 60 for, if i remember correctly. i bought it off ebay, and found a killer deal, so i jumped on it. if you buy it new, be prepared to pay around 160-200 for the cold plate alone, or wait for a good deal to pop up.

a quick search of ebay reveals these auctions:

http://cgi.ebay.com/COLD-PLATE-4-BE...ryZ67120QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Beverage-6-Circ...1QQihZ017QQcategoryZ11876QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

hope this helps

 

[olllllo]

Block ice will give you longer cold time, but will be slower to cool. Compare a shaved ice drink to a beverage with the same amount of ice but in one big cube.

With the cold plate distributing coldness, however, it may not make a big difference after all. That jockey box is so kick ass, I'm sure it'll be a hit.

Related to the ice melting thing... I favor a drink called a moscow mule (see sig) .

It's served in a copper mug, so the ice melts rapidly. Very refreshing. The ice melts so fast that it re-freezes to the mug.