Hi All
The board approved funding for a "Tap Cabinet" to replace one of our Arcs that we use to serve beer at our parties. Below is the rough draft. This thread is to offer suggestions & improvements to the idea before the build begins. Feel free to chime in with your ideas!
( F R O N T )
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This will be put together with lift-off hinges so it can be taken apart into 4 clean pieces for complete breakdown (there is no “back”).
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10 taps
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Rectangles above taps represent chalk boards for each beer (or we can do a line of chalk board paint instead).
( B A C K )
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2 Jockey boxes with plate chillers will weigh down and secure the cabinet (there will be a hinged platform attached to the tap wall where the jockey boxes will sit, in turn giving the cabinet an “anchor”).
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Lines will be attached with plastic quick disconnects to the back of the taps so the box can be completely broken down.
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10 kegs will fit behind cabinet to conceal the “whole operation.”
I'm planning on insulating the lines going from the jockey boxes to the taps to minimize temperature fluctuations and foaming.
Sounds awesome!! You rule, Brandon
Looks good my man!
--james
Looks good! What's the budget?
We're budgeting up to $1000 for the "Tap Cabinet".
@matt below is the cost breakdown (we're going to use 2 coolers that the club already owns).
Looks great Brandon. How are you tying the sides and top together? Latches or something?
Like maybe a couple of these wouldn't break your budget might make it a little sturdier/safer:
https://www.signaturehardware.com/iron-surface-bolt.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxYLoBRCxARIsAEf16-t_1AkfTRLfnaqaKAyCNpno-MOd9ZFOHsehXLO5Z388MvfqvI9SdpgaAv7rEALw_wcB
my concern is how do you ropose to minimize the post chill plate to tap lne length so we don't get foamy beer - on a kegerator people put in tower coolers to deal with lines about the length your proposing (and they top out at to 5 feet)
Since each line will be insulated and the taps will be getting more use than a regular kegerator I'm not as much worried about that foaming issue - I'm more worried that in a perfect world using a plate chiller, the kegs being chilled need to be at or below 58 degrees for the chiller to work correctly.
Plate chillers are less effective than a coil chiller, but bc of the number of taps we're installing we're limited to the plate chiller. The goal of this is to elimnate ice in buckets - but I think it'll be a trial and error to see if the kegs can stay at or below 58F during the length of the party.
Rich, the walls would be held together by these type of "lift off hinges."
great that you've thought it through and are not worried abiout the lines....you are right that kegs hsould be around 55 for plate chillers
also usually with jockey boxes you need to turn up the pressure to like 20-25 (since all the lines and the plate) so we'll need to make sure bleed off pressure on any kegs when we break down or they will become over carbed
thanks again for taking this on
while I'm measuring to store stage and tents downstairs next to back fridge, it would be great to get dimensions on what you think we'll end up with so we can potentially store teh new jockey box and cover down there too. (stages are 4'x8' if I remember :) )
Right, but what about where the top joins the sides? Just thinking a bump or a kick to one of the sides might collapse the whole deal. Maybe not....
Yeah it needs to be solid becuse when Rich get hammered he gets jumpy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0gsgyY_QW0&t=0m33s
Ah, yea I see what you mean. I'm going to use latches similar to the way I designed our jockey box cover.
Hasp it up
Ok so after speaking with Faircloth, there's no way we're going to be able to keep kegs < 58F throughout the party without them sitting on ice. Again, in theory it's posible to serve beer that's > 58F, but you need around 50' of coil to do that - which is wayyyyy out of our budget (we're talking $1,000's of dollars).
So, I'm afraid that kegs on ice is still what we're looking at. An idea thrown out was to use 2 large rubbermaid containers to store the kegs vs having 10 buckets (see below).
Thoughts?
Is this just because of length of tubing from the jockey box to the tap that is uncooled?
I find >58F really hard to believe. I've used the current club jockey boxes a few times (housewarming party when it was 70F in February, 2x taking it to my friends beer fest in OH over labor day weekend, and this past year at my neighborhood block party in the middle of a 90 degree day in August). For some of those we were still drinking beer a day later out of them and it definitely wasn't close to 60F. I've never put the kegs in ice - simply fill up the jockey box with ice and a little water, and it stays COLD for a long time. And this is with the plates, not coils (which I know is a little more PITA because they sometimes leak).
Buckets use less ice I think. And we only have one summer party anyway, right? The others just bring cold and they should be fine.
I like your tub idea Brandon. They stack when stored, maybe go 1/3 ice 2/3 cold water? I'm happy to lend my 5 tap jockey box for a warm keg test.
--james