What's the best way to rack beer off of fruit?

Question

What's the best way to rack beer off of fruit?

JackSmith

2012年2月15日 22:44

I recently brewed a 5.5 gallon batch of witbier. After primary, I bottled 3 gallons of it and racked the other 2.5 gallons into a 3 gallon carboy atop 24 ounces of raspberries.

After the secondary fermentation had completed and the beer fell clear, there was a good bit of now-beige raspberry gunk in the bottom of the carboy, and just as much floating at the top. I had a hard time siphoning the beer off of the fruit. I used an auto-siphon wrapped in nylon pantyhose. That worked well for preventing the fruit from getting into the siphon, but it kept clogging at the base and I was unable to get the last half gallon or three quarts of beer.

I liked the way the beer turned out and I'll probably do it again, but in the future I want to have a better way to rack off the fruit. Have you done it before? What works well for you? I'm thinking maybe if I secondary in a bucket and build some sort of round screen that I can use to push all the fruit to the bottom - like a French press - then rack from above the screen...

Topic filtering siphon fruit beer homebrew

Category Mac

GDD · Accepted Answer · 2012年2月15日 22:44

You know what? I have a witbier going in my closet right now that has orange peel in it and I've been worrying about this very process. I was thinking of inventing some sort of contraption that has a pole running down that has another pole inside of it. When I push down it would spread out a metal mesh that would keep the sediment from coming up the siphon.

HOWEVER, this seems really complicated to do AND clean, so I came up with a new idea I'm going to try this weekend.

I am thinking of taking some thin copper wire and wrapping it around the base of the siphon (just once or twice... just enough to make it secure) and then taking the ends of the wire and bending it over the opening about an inch away from it so that it forms a bulb (use both ends to create the bulb). After the bulb is made, just tie a single piece of cheese cloth around it to create a filter system. This way the bulb is big enough to minimize the suction force (which traps the fruit) while also allowing for water to flow around the fruit. I'll take a picture and let you guys know how it goes when I finish.

The idea is that when you run out of fluid in the carboy, you just press down on the bottom and the bulb collapses, allowing you to get every last inch. The overall cost should be........ 2 cents?

drj · Accepted Answer · 2011年8月3日 07:18

I did a raspberry cider and when I racked it from the primary, I poured it through a fine mesh (actually was a frying pan grease guard that fit just right over the top of my 5 gal priming bucket) that gathered most of the raspberry "guts" (I used canned seedless unsweetened raspberries from the local brew shop in the wine section, Oregon Fruit was the brand). I then used gelatin to clarify the remaining solution. Turned out a nice clear red color, and it carbonated just fine in the bottle.

Bullet86 · Accepted Answer · 2011年7月27日 16:10

When making beers that end up with a lot of trub I do this. Go to your local hardware store and buy a paint straining bag (they are usually by the paint sprayers) this bag will fit over a five gallon bucket with an elastic on the top of the bag and the bag fills the bucket to the bottom. (see here http://forum.finevinewines.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7887 Rack into the bucket using any preferred method and then simply pull the straining bag out. I also use this technique to filter out hop trub after a boil. Works like a charm.

Rich Armstrong · Accepted Answer · 2011年7月27日 01:36

I have a year-old kriek I'm pondering the same problem with.

If you're not vegetarian, it might not be a bad idea to take a lesson from England's cask-conditioned ales, which are cleared in the serving vessel using gelatin. This might not make a great deal of difference as to how compacted the sediment gets at the bottom, but it will make the border between beer and lees a lot more distinct, and you might get more clear beer out of the whole deal.

Damian · Accepted Answer · 2011年7月26日 12:21

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Damian answered at 2011年7月26日 12:21

Why don't you just rack into a tertiary bucket for a few days and let it settle further to reduce the loss of volume. That is what I am planning to do for my Blueberry Blonde ale.

JackSmith · Accepted Answer · 2011年5月9日 13:54

I'm answering my own question with something I just thought up. If you've done this before, please let me know how it worked.

My main concern with getting the beer off the fruit is introducing too much oxygen. I just remembered there was an episode of brew strong with guest Dr. Charlie Bamforth talking about preventing oxidative staling in beer. He mentioned that beer would keep much longer if it had sulfites added to it like wine does. He said breweries won't do that, though, because then they'd have to go through all the "contains sulfites" crap that wineries have to deal with. There was also a question on this site where I argued that I wouldn't worry about adding sulfites to homebrew, saying that it wouldn't be worth the hassle. Well, I may go back on my words a bit, at least when it comes to fruit beers. Here's what I'm thinking:

If I'm making fruit beer, I think I can run it through my wine press to get the beer off the fruit while preventing oxidation by adding the correct amount of k-meta to bring the beer to about 30ppm (enough to combat oxygen, while staying below the detection threshold). It's worth a try, I think. Next batch, I'll press it and see how it goes. Actually, I may not even have to press, but rather pour it through a funnel lined with a sieve, with a piece of tubing running from the funnel to the bottom of the bottling bucket to reduce splashing. If I can keep splashing down and add the proper level of sulfites, it might work well.

I'll come back to this question after I have a chance to try this and post an update...

brewchez · Accepted Answer · 2011年5月6日 21:36

I think the problem is that your fruit to volume ratio was tight. With only 2.5 gallons its pretty tough to get it seperated. When I make fruit beer I calculate in a higher %-age of loss because you can't siphon it all out. Raspberries are especially tough because they fall apart into many little bits.

nbushnell · Accepted Answer · 2011年5月6日 14:58

If you do use a bucket for the secondary then you can just keep the whole lot of berries in a muslin bag. Just don't make it too tight so there is enough circulation to impart the flavors. Other than that you may just have to convince yourself that it is an acceptable loss for some great beer.

What's the best way to rack beer off of fruit?

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