Quote:
Originally Posted by Hophead
Last year I built a jockey box from a cooler I had laying around. I did a TON of research and found that in almost every case, a coil is far superior to a cold plate. With the plate, you must keep the keg cool (45-50 deg. max) and it's not really made for high volume use.
There are basically 3 popular lengths of coil - 50, 70 and 120 feet. The 50 footer is only slightly better than a plate. The keg must still be kept cool. The 70 is better for higher volume but, once again, the keg should be kept cool. With the 120 foot coil, it's very possible to draw continuous cold cups and/or pitchers of beer with or without a cool keg. Since I was trying to avoid icing the keg by using the jockey box, I decided to go for the 120' coil and I've never been disappointed with my choice.
I have drawn beer from room temp kegs that poured and tasted great. In one outside event, people couldn't believe the keg wasn't on ice. Even though I don't ice the keg, I still keep it off the ground, out of the sun and covered and I always finish the keg within 48 hours of tapping it.
I let a friend borrow the setup for a party he was having. He said he went through three 1/2 barrels in about 4 hours so he was pouring a lot of beer and every cup was as cold as the first.
Lemme see if I can post a pic of my cooler setup...
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Hey guys,
I'm looking to build almost the exact same set up, but I'd like to run a clamp on tower with it.
The run from the JB to the tower will probably be 12 inches. I'd cover the line in insulation to help keep the beer cold.
The tap runs almost non-stop at this annual event, and we usually go through about 6 kegs in 10 hours or so.
Any potential pitfalls? I've been reading old posts and I think this set-up should work well... but I hesitate to have $500+ invested in all the equipment and not have it perform the way I want.
Any suggestions from the experts? Anybody run something similar in the past?
Basically it's going to be a 120' jockey box with a 12" insulated beer line running to a clamp-on tower. (Just to be clear).