{ 2008 10 14 }

The Jockey Box

This summer was my first experience with a jockey box. A friend brought one (and 4 pony kegs) on a Rogue trip and I couldn’t help but wonder “where has this thing been all my life?”

A jockey box is a cooler that transforms warm beer into cold beer. The beer enters the cooler, flows through 50-120 feet of stainless steel tube submberged in ice water, and flows out cold. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) pressurizes the whole system so beer flows at the exact moment you pull the faucet.

After this famous trip, I was talking with my friend Ken (an expert on beer) about the jockey box and he sent me the parts. Here’s the list:

  1. Faucet (2) - To regulate the beer flow
  2. Facuet Shank Assembly (2) - To attach the faucet to the box
  3. Ice Box Shank Assembly (2) - To attach the beer from the keg to the box
  4. Stainless Steel Cooling Coil (Right Hand)
  5. Stainless Steel Cooling Coil (Left Hand)
  6. Keg Coupler (2) - To tap the keg
  7. Beer Hose (2) - This gets the beer from the tap to the box
  8. Aluminum CO2 Cylinder
  9. CO2 Regulator
  10. Blue Vinyl Gas Hose - To go from CO2 tank to the coupler
  11. Stepless Clamps (6) - for Gas Hose
  12. Gas Hose T - To split the CO2 to go from one tank to 2 couplers
  13. Faucet and Hex Nut Wrench - You’ll need this to tighten the faucet

We found that the ice water didn’t last long enough for a multi-day river trip like the Rogue. So I bought the best cooler in the world: Yeti Tundra 65 cooler. If you use an expensive cooler like this one, get ready for some nerve-wracking drilling. Your tasks:

  1. Place the coils inside the cooler and measure where to drill your holes as accurately as possible. Drill the holes.
  2. Cut PVC pipe to fit in these holes. You’ll want the PVC pipe holes because you’ll need to tighten down the shanks and you won’t want to collapse the sides of the cooler.
  3. Use silicon to hold the PVC pipe in place and to fill the space between the cooler and the pipe.
  4. Place the shanks in the PVC and tighten.
Once you’re cooler is ready and you’ve put all the parts together, you’re ready to test. Fill up your CO2 tank, get some kegs, and throw a party. And don’t forget to invite me.
Some important things I learned the hard way:
  • The CO2 needs to be between 30-35 psi
  • The coils need to be covered with ice water (not just ice) or the beer will come out foamy
  • You need to clean the whole system afterwards or it will get moldy

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