Making coils for jockey box?

[Fastsc92]

Hey guys, I did a search but didn't come up with much.

I'm interested in making my own coils for a jockey box. I have a kegerator unit so I'll be stealing all the components from that when I need the box for camping trips and such. Buying a $125 coil set-up really isn't in my budget right now. Can coils like this be made cheaply? It looks like there are just compression fittings at the ends of the coils to connect to the faucet and inlet. I was thinking about using a party-pump style hose to dispense the beer so I'm not looking at using any faucets or shanks.

Also, I'd assume that the keg has to remain slightly cold even though the box is doing all of the cooling. Is this true? I just don't want to have foamy beer when we're camping.

[Divinity Draft]

Good luck with the stainless steel coils...I imagine without the proper machinery it would be pretty difficult to coil them as tightly and as well as they come when you purchase them. I recently priced out what it would cost me to build a jockey box and it was the same as if I bought one brand new! I went ahead and saved the time and just bought one. You could probably save a few bucks by building one if you plan on attatching a picnic faucet head instead of shanks, faucets, and handles. Maybe $60 bucks or so....you could always put them in at a later time when you have a little cash in the pocket. Good Luck

-Cheers!

Daniel Hardin
Divinity Draft Service

[nskitts]

I used a large oxygen tank used for welding and just had someone hold one end while I wrapped the coil around it...worked perfectly and gave me nice tight 10" coils.

[edclay]

I have been thinking about making a jocky box, but I keep reading that you cannot use copper, if you do, you will die. I may be a little over dramatic, but you get my drift. I build medical offices for a living, and we use copper for EVERYTHING, water, o2, n2o, and I have asked every plumber on my jobs about this, and can't seem to get an answer as to why it is so bad. It seems to me that every brew pub that I go in has copper kettles brewing beer, and iI cannot for the life of me figure out why copper coils in a jocky box would be so bad. I understand that Stainless Steel is better, but I just wonder WHY?

[BrewGuru]

Copper is fine for potable water as it has a neutral pH.

Copper is also fine for use on beer pre-fermentation for the same reason.

Once the beer has been fermented it has a low pH.

When low pH beverages are dispensed through copper or copper containing metals, the metal leeches carcinogens into the beer...very bad news.

Not to mention that whenever beer is dispensed through copper, it tastes like you just put a penny inside each cheek and took a sip of beer...

[twoodward15]

I'll tell you that I have a copper coil in my jockey box and there is absolutely no flavor change from the coil. I only use mine for short periods (up to about 6 hours) and have never had any issues with it at all. I also have a cold plate running the other faucet. The copper coil at 22 feet in length gets the beer colder.

[edramshaw]

Keep in minds we're not referring to flavor changes here. Low PH liquids will react with the cooper and cause bad things to leach in to the beer. Might taste alright but it's been linked to breast cancer among other things.

Cooper is used in the prefermentation stages of brewing because it provides nutrients for the yeast. I believe the ph is higher at this point and doesn't cause the leaching that occurs at lower ph levels.

[Leo5102]

Contrary to what many have told me, I went ahead and used vinyl coils (that could handle that kind of pressure) in my jockey box and it has worked flawlessly. I ran 100’ of 3/8” ID tubing split into 20’ of 3/16” ID tubing going to 2 taps. I clean it after every use and have yet to had any issues with blowing any fittings. All the tubing cost roughly $40 it pours a perfect beer every time.

[Scott Zuhse]

If your goal is to acquire a clear flow of beer from the faucet, congratulations! If your goal is to acquire a clear flow without changing the flavor of the beer, good luck. Vinyl is horrible line to use for this application. It is very permeable and the reason it is so flexible is because it has so much plasticizer in it.

If you are looking to lower your cost in building this type of dispensing system, use barrier tubing. Wrap it around a 20# CO2 cylinder and then foil tape the crap out of it inside and out. Wrap it around something else round for a different radius if required for your container.

Use five feet or so of the 3/8" vinyl from the coupler to you coil and then about 10' of 3/16" ID vinyl from your barrier coil to the back of the shank. Increase pressure (30ish) until flow rate desired is achieved.