What You Need to Know About Jockey Boxes

Whenever you’re using your jockey box, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to ensure it works correctly. First and foremost, remember that you always need an ice bath completely covering your coils. If you purchase the kit with 120’ coils (which are larger than the 50’ variety) you’ll naturally need more ice. Keeping these coils chilled will help prevent foam and protect the flavor of your beer.

In addition to the ice covering the coils, you should also keep the keg on ice or covered with a keg insulator to keep the beer properly chilled and ready to dispense.

For outdoor dispensing solutions, nothing beats the king of all tailgating equipment… the jockey box. Basically, a jockey box is a cooler with a draft beer faucet (or faucets on the front), dispensing coils covered by an ice bath inside, and a shank through the back connecting to a keg that sits behind the cooler.

Depending on your outdoor draft-serving needs, you can choose a jockey box kit with either 50’ or 120’ coils. Large-scale events where people are constantly pouring will require 120’ coils, but the 50’ coils will suffice for smaller occasions where pouring occurs less frequently.