Cold Plate or Coil?

[AbeFromann]

OK, I do a lot of bbqs, and have lots of kegs. I was going to get a jockey box and make my life easy. My question is, coil or cold plate? Right now, most of the bbqs are hot, and we spend a lot of time and ice to try and keep them cold. And usually by morning the are not cold anymore, and start the process agian. I thought if we had the jockey box and some CO2 life would be easier? Am I asking for more problems than it is worth? Or is it a bad idea? And if it is a good idea, cold plate or coil (how much coil?).

Thanks for the info in advance!

Abe

[embo_9]

AbeFromann???

That's the name of my wife's obgyn......

sorry you don't have any responses yet....

have you tried searching the topic?

your amigo

bm

[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...

[CoreyD]

Using a coil seems to always be better. With a plate you have to drain the water from the cooler, and who wants to have to do that? If you plan to drink the keg for more then 1 day you will have to watch your pressure. It takes 20-35lbs to push the beer through a coil(depending on the length of the coil) and that will over carbonate the beer over time. You would have to depressurize the keg back down to about 12(I think) overnight.

[Scott Zuhse]

Is your application for a high volume, short duration event or will the kegs be dispensed over several days?

[topgun3208]

whass hapnin Scott. just kickin back with some sam adams octoberfest brews, been awhile since I have seen ya.

[Scott Zuhse]

I have been traveling quite often conducting our workshops. Limits my time on the forum. Sure is nice to know that there are quite few members like yourself keeping the draft beer in good shape when I cannot contribute!

[sir_veja]

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...

Can u tell me what temperature the beer came out??

cheers
Vasco

[tailgaterinmilwaukee]

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...

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).

[lunkhead]

Should not be a problem, just use the 120ft line. You'll go through some ice keeping the coils cold. I have a JB with 2 50ft coils side by side in the box and it always gives cold beer, even with constant use, keg not in ice.

[bzegans]

hey guys,

we have been throwing a bunch of 4 keg parties up at school and we were thinking about getting a keg cooler with 2 taps to run the kegs through. we are not looking to make it ourselves and the nicest ones seem to be in ebay for around 315 with the coils and everything included. we usually pick up the kegs a couple hours before the party and they tend to be pretty cold and stay decently cold through the night if we put some ice on them. bascially do you think that 50 foot coils would get the beer cold if they kegs are pretty cold but certainly not warm to begin with?

thanks in advance, and if anyone knows if there is a better place to look then ebay apprecaited!

brian

[Hophead]

50 foot coils work fine as long as 1) the kegs stay cool - say under 50 degrees F and 2) you don't plan on pouring pitchers of beer one right after another.

You can experiment with adding salt to the ice water bath to get it even colder but be careful you don't add too much and freeze the beer in the lines!

[bzegans]

That is the problem the beer will probably be flowing at all times for about 5 hours. Why is that a problem and what would we need to make it not a problem. 120 foot coils or how about 70? We really want to make this work and I'm glad I stumbled onto this board to get some real knowledge. I just saw some legit looking websites that sell all of these coolers and parts that looks a lot more official then eBay so we will probably go that route. Thanks

[Hophead]

If I were to build my coil box all over again, I'd get everything from the site that hosts this board...micromatic.com.

50 foot coils are not the best for keeping constantly flowing beer very cold - the beer just doesn't spend enough time in the coils. You need to base the length of the coils on both the temp of the beer you'll be serving and how constant the tap flow will be.

Go here to buy boxes/parts/kits and there's a good explanation of the differences between the 50, 70 and 120 foot coils. I went with a 120 because I didn't want any issue with beer temp and I'm glad I did. I never have to worry about keeping the keg cool and I can pour pitcher after pitcher if I need to.

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-...io-cid-11.html