Good idea to use jockey box for 4-5 days camping?

[mdr411]

I'm going camping in 3 weeks up in NH. There will be no electricity and there will be no access to ice. I have read every post that I can find here regarding jockey boxes and heat and it's sounding as if there's a chance that after a couple days, the pressure required to push the beer through the lines will overcarbonate the beer and cause foam. So my first thought was ok when we're finished drinking for the night I'll reset the keg's pressure down to norm. But that probably won't work because the beer will be warm, thus causing it to go flat. AM I correct? It will be summertime in NH, and I'll be in the mountains so I'm expecting the nights to get pretty cool, as in 50's-60's. I have 4 kegs of cider that will be fine flat so I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the two sixths of Harpoon IPA that I don't want to ruin!

So what I'm asking is this: Has anyone ever tried using a jockey box over a period of 4 to 5 days with warm kegs and if so, how did it go?

[mdr411]

After much searching the internet, I came across this: Portable Keg Cooler (a.k.a. R2-Beer2)

Looks great! I will be building this asap, I have less than 3 weeks. I'll try to post pics as I go.

[CoreyD]

If you build the 'R2-Beer2' you should be OK. A jockey box uses 50' - 120' feet of SS tubing so the pressure needs to be
set very high to push the beer out. With this setup you only need a few feet of tubing to the faucet much like a kegerator so there is no need for the high pressure that would lead to overcarbonation.

[mdr411]

I'll be building something similar to the "R2D2", but I will be using parts I found local. A 32 gallon trash can will be the outer and a smaller, cylinder-shaped trash can will be the interior. I wanted to use the 32 gallon trash barrel so that it would appear to be a trash can to anyone who didn't know otherwise (park rangers, law enforcement, etc.) So far I've spent about $70 on everything and I'll be beginning the work tonight. The day we go camping, I'll load in the keg and fill it with ice for the 4 hour drive up. I'll update with results on how long the ice lasted and the outside temperature and all of that.

[mdr411]

I'm back from the trip and the results were excellent! The trash can keg cooler worked so well there was still ice in the water after 5 days. The beer poured ice cold the entire 5 days until it was kicked. I also dispensed cider using my two tap jockey box with 50 ft stainless steel lines. The 50 ft of line was more than enough to pour cold beer every pour. At one point I poured 4 red solo cups full of cider (in a row) from one tap and all 4 were ice cold. I was impressed with the 50 ft line expecially considering that the kegs were not on ice, just covered with a tarp. The outdoor temp ranged from 60s at night to high 80s during the day. During the day the kegs were covered with a tarp and kept in the shade. Going into this I was very nervous because almost everywhere you look people tell you not to use any less than 120 ft of tubing because it won't work unless the kegs are iced down. Total BS. 50 ft worked flawlessly for 5 days. I guess if I was expecting to pour for a tasting I would have to go with 120 ft because I would be pouring constantly, but anything less and I won't use more than 50. I'm very happy with the results. Thanks everyone for your help. I'll post pics when I get a chance.