Need opinion on dispensing from ice chest

[oceanic_brew]

My friends having a wedding and I've made several batches of home brew for it that I'll be dispensing from corny kegs.

We can't secure jockey boxes for this event so I'm planning to build a waterproof box with plywood and 2x8 SM insulation panels.

The box will be big enough to completely submerge 5 kegs in an ice water bath if need be. The box will be stored behind a portable wooden bar we are building that has a back will for taps. My tailpieces for my perlick taps are long enough to extend past the wooden bar wall through the SM and into the box.

I have my beer carbonated at 12-13 psi at about 3-4c and serve through about 10-12 ft of line.

I'll have to travel 3 hrs to the event in hot summer temps and then keep the kegs in this submerged ice bath till the next day I guess it's possible there will be some temp swings but ultimately I'll probably be serving some real cold beer since I understand that an ice bath should be pretty near 0c

Can anyone see any problems arising from this setup?

Thanks

 

[behindthetimes]

Sounds pretty solid to me. Remember that moving your kegs will stir any sediment back into the beer. Make sure they're as clarified as you want them to be before they even go into kegs.

If your kegs are completely submerged in ice water, they may start to float as they empty out. If 1 or 2 beers are more popular than another, they might start floating around while you still want fuller kegs submerged.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Thanks!

I plan to fine with gelatin in every keg for a couple days and do a keg to keg transfer a few days before transporting

 

[microbusbrewery]

Hmmmm, in theory it should work, but you seem to be missing a lot of details. Cornies are around 49 lbs full, so you'll have around 245 lbs in beer and cornies. I'm guessing you'll probably have at least 100 lbs of ice, but likely more. I hope you're planning on more than just plywood...seems like it's going to need some reinforcing at the joints to withstand stresses from traveling full; that will add more weight. I'm assuming you'll be transporting it in a pickup truck or something similar...so that would likely entail loading the box, then loading the kegs in the box, then filling the voids in the box with ice. That's going to be heavy. Then you'll have to reverse the process to unload all of it from the truck when you arrive, then re-do it again to set it up for the wedding. Are you installing a drain so you can empty the water from the melted ice? And do you have access to a lot of cheap ice? I just had to pay $3.50 for a ten pound bag of ice in California about a week ago...insane pricing IMO considering my local Sam's Club sells 20 lbs for $1.69. After materials, fuel, ice, etc., this might end up costing enough to justify a jockey box build. Have you considered other options? Like a giant Rubbermaid trash cans and picnic taps?

 

[oceanic_brew]

Hmmmm, in theory it should work, but you seem to be missing a lot of details. Cornies are around 49 lbs full, so you'll have around 245 lbs in beer and cornies. I'm guessing you'll probably have at least 100 lbs of ice, but likely more. I hope you're planning on more than just plywood...seems like it's going to need some reinforcing at the joints to withstand stresses from traveling full; that will add more weight. I'm assuming you'll be transporting it in a pickup truck or something similar...so that would likely entail loading the box, then loading the kegs in the box, then filling the voids in the box with ice. That's going to be heavy. Then you'll have to reverse the process to unload all of it from the truck when you arrive, then re-do it again to set it up for the wedding. Are you installing a drain so you can empty the water from the melted ice? And do you have access to a lot of cheap ice? I just had to pay $3.50 for a ten pound bag of ice in California about a week ago...insane pricing IMO considering my local Sam's Club sells 20 lbs for $1.69. After materials, fuel, ice, etc., this might end up costing enough to justify a jockey box build. Have you considered other options? Like a giant Rubbermaid trash cans and picnic taps?

Some good thinking there.

The box is gonna be transported separately, I'm only transporting the kegs. It's about a 1.5 hr drive so the kegs will be sitting in warm for about 2 hrs.

The insulation, plywood, and other supporting frame members are all free plus I may be able to get free ice

We are building the box only just big enough for the kegs to fit in so it probably won't take an insane amount of ice to maintain and ice water bath the whole time.

We've considered a drain as well, good thinking on the weight of this though since the box needs to be propped up on something to get it at the right height it's gonna require another strong box underneath to support the weight.

Thanks for your thoughts, big help. My buddy is very set on this bar design so the garbage can thing isn't an option. The cheapest I can build a four tap jockey box is about $400 so considering the build materials are free it should be doable.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Ah, gotcha. That definitely sounds more doable, and the free ice is a bonus. Definitely take some pics and post them here, especially if it works well. I'm sure there are other people that are in similar situations and this could help them get their creative juices flowing.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Ah, gotcha. That definitely sounds more doable, and the free ice is a bonus. Definitely take some pics and post them here, especially if it works well. I'm sure there are other people that are in similar situations and this could help them get their creative juices flowing.

I will do so!