A jockey box for club night.

Jockey Box

A jockey box is a portable dispensing device that's used to chill beer just in time for serving, removing the need to keep kegs of beer cold when serving. A jockey box needs to be functional, easy to use, and ideally pleasant to look at as you are showcasing all the craftsmanship that went into making your homebrew.

It works on the principles that the kegs of beer are sitting at room temperature, and when the beer passes through the heat exchange (coil or cold plate) located in the cooler box the beer temperature will drop to the ideal dispensing temperature. It is the perfect system for large parties or special events such as a family reunion, company picnic, camping, or club night at the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC). As it does not require any electricity it can be set up anywhere. CO2 gas is used to pressurize the keg for dispensing.

Brew Free or Die will be serving it's homebrew at this year's NHC, this is will be our third year of attending and serving beer at club night. Last year we took top honors by winning best beer at club night with a Zeus IPA from Todd Russell. The jockey box that I had previously built consisted of a 5-way cold plate (capable of serving 5 beers at one time). It had worked great over the last several years, but I really wanted to increase the number of beer/mead/cider that could be on draft, and I really showcase our homebrew, here's how I went about it.

I found a 7-way cold plate on ebay. I have had very consistent results with both types of heat exchangers (coils, cold plates), however I am not sure it's practical to have 7 coils inside one cooler. A cold plate consists of cast aluminum block with stainless steel coils inside of it, the cold plate for this project weights in at 26 lbs.

I wanted a wooden exterior for the jockey box. While on my way to the hardware store to pick up the raw materials that I would need to build one from scratch, I took a quick tour of HomeGoods and I found exactly what I needed. It's a outdoor wooden cooler that's meant to match the deck furniture. The price was about half that of anything I had found on line. It was unfinished, designed to be taken apart with a hex wrench, and designed to take the abuse of being outside for extended periods of time. All it needed was to be finished, and some other minor changes.

Getting the cooler home I completely disassembled it so that I had 5 panels, where I proceeded to sand, and polyurethane. Each layer of polyurethane must be allowed to dry completely (24 hours), then sanded with at minimum 200 grit paper, cleaned of dust and then a new layer of polyurethane applied.

I enhanced the structural integrity of the wooden exterior so that I could add handles to the side for easier jockeying around, and I wanted to ensure that the faucets would have enough support. Taking a 1/4" thick piece of plywood, I glued and secured the plywood to the slats on the sides where the handles were going, and the where the faucets were going to be paced.

Here's what the jockey box looked like after getting polyurethane applied:




Given that the hinges and the connectors had a brass finishes, I choose to keep all the accents in brass, including the drip tray, handles for carrying, and additional accents pieces, etc.
Here's a photo of the interior of the jockey box:



Given that a jockey box is often on a table, I didn't want the inbound tubing exiting from the back of the jockey box, where it would be visible. So with the cooler disassembled I drilled the 7 holes for the inbound beer lines, and then ran them down between the wooden exterior and the cooler. I connected the in and out lines in the picture above so I could keep track of which line is going to be which for final assembly. I am using 3/16" ID PVC tubing for the beer line, ordered a 100' as it was more cost efficient. I use hose clamps on all fittings. Nothing worse than opening a jockey box and seeing it full of your beer... this did happen to me at an event quite a number of years back. The handles shown in the picture above provide easy way for carrying the jockey box.

Next up is working out the logistics of where to place the faucets. I had 17.5 inch surface to work with allowing me to center the faucets every 2.5 inches allowing them equally spaced. A 7/8" hole saw was used to cut the holes for the faucets. I was extremely worried about making a mistake at this stage, and measured twice to ensure I had accurate center marks before I drilled. Also of consideration is the height of the faucets.




Here's a photo of the drip tray slider that I built, likely easier ways to do this but this is the best I could come up with that would allow me to hide the drip tray for storage and shipping, and allow for it to be extended without visible supports. This photo shows the underneath of the jockey box, I used two 5 inch sections of copper pipe, and a 10" dowel. It's set back 5 inches from the edge of the jockey box, a section of plywood is attached to the two dowels, and then I secured the support tray (oak board pictured) to the piece of plywood. Using a screw at the end of each dowel prevents the drip tray from being extended too far.





Here's a photo of the drip tray hidden:







Here the drip tray is extended:





Michael Fairbrother
Treasurer Brew Free or Die
Life time member of AHA