Flashback: Convertible Jockey Box

It’s no mystery that warm weather and cold beer go mighty well together. Which brings me to our flashback for this week: the DIY Convertible Jockey Box by Carlo Longino from MAKE Volume 07. For those not in the know, a jockey box is a funny little cooler with a built-in beer tap on the outside. Inside, the cooler houses plumbing to draw beer from a keg and a metal coil or cooling plate to chill it. Warm beer in a keg becomes cold beer in your cup. Great, but ready-made versions run about $150 or more. This homebrew version is not only cheaper but more adaptable. Longino writes, “In jockey-box mode, the convertible cooler houses the heat-exchanger coil while the keg stays outside. In mini-keg mode, the entire keg goes inside the cooler, and you don’t use the coil. Standard compressed-air coupler and plug fittings let you easily swap internal parts to change the cooler’s beer operational mode.”

Here is the entire project shared through our Digital Edition, so you can get the good times flowing.

We are sold out of all back issues of Volume 07, including The Next Year box set which includes it. Luckily, if you subscribe to MAKE, you get access to all 18 volumes on our Digital Edition.