Portable Irish Coffin Box

I have been doing a fair amount of beer festivals lately and needed a tap box to serve from. In the past I was simply using a cobra style dispenser and often filling pitchers from the keg. I also wanted to have a bit more class, as I am often serving alongside professional brewers who have nice looking boxes in which to serve. My requirements included at least 4 taps, portable, light weight and something that had my name/ brand on it.

I drew up some dimensions and came up with this Irish Coffin Box, here some pictures of the quick and easy build:

I started with some 3/8" “Birch plywood”

To cover the ugly ends of the plywood, I used some iron-on banding , also made of birch

trimming off the excess with a razor blade:

In the theme of keeping this box light, I used some simple pressure treated frame pieces:

Here’s a shot of the corner bracing, glued and nailed for strength:

Then I added some molding to the top collar and footings here:

Pretty plain still , I added from fancier molding to add more depth and character:

Now for a finish, to set the birch apart from the molding , I first tapped off the surface:

A finish I like is called “french polishing” , which is several layers of 3lb shellac cut with denatured alcohol and using a figure eight pattern, it adds depth and clarity to any natural grain patterns. It’s a very old style technique for finishing furniture.

To highlight the wood, I painted the molding black:

I added my brewery name from some cut-out letters obtained at a craft store, these are cheap and time saving:

French Polish by itself isn’t really waterproof, but adds a great under-finish, I then coated the whole box with PolyU, spilling beer on this box is a given, the poly adds much protection to the project:

Lastly, I added my four taps and finished the box:

Got to use it this past weekend and it worked very well , light , strong and decent looking.

Another classy project.  Nice work.    :slight_smile:

looks like you really know what you are doing.

What will be inside? a cooler to hold the ice?

Kai

Very nice work.

What kind of faucets are you using?

Thanks all, nothing inside the box really. In the last picture you can see some small feet , just enough for the liquid lines to pass under. Beer and gas are stored below a serving table, and because of the fequency of beers tapped at a fest, no need to insulate any lines or anything else. It’s simply a nicer way to get the beer into a glass, and portable for a few hours of drinking/serving. The faucets are a mix of stainless and chrome, whatever I had laying around, not anything special but does the job fine.

This could be used at a picnic,party, homebrew meeting or club event or beerfest, a little different than a fixed tap on your bar, which would be constructed more rugged and insluated.

Very nice craftsmanship!

I think you just found your niche.  Brewing is fun (not always as profitable as people would think) but you’d make a killing selling tap box/coffins.  Think about it who wouldn’t want to be buried in a four tap tap box although being on the inside might not be as fun as being on the outside.  Talk about going out in style.

btw, that is a great tap box

Nice!!! Great work!

Fantastic!!!  What are dimensions of the box?

Dimensions are  22’ w X 14" h x 10" d

That’s looks great, well done :slight_smile: