I had the "joy" of racking off 6 lbs of cherry I added to my secondary carboy. My gosh how could I have made this easier. It was a nightmare. I am not sure I could have placed the fruit into a ferment bag because it would not have fit in the carboy. I could have placed in a ferment bucket while it sat on the fruit but then wouldn't that cause oxidation? I tried putting some cheese cloth on the end of the racking cane. That did not work.
I ended up siphoning off as much as I could then slowly dumped the rest into a big filter the drained into my carboy. That worked but I am worried I may have introduce much oxygen.
I'd like to see the responses to this as well. I have a beer I'll be bottling in a few weeks that's coming off of 5 lbs of fruit as well. Anything to make life easier beforehand would be stellar.
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Get a very large grain bag (actually a wine bag). Put the fruit in the bag and the bag in a bucket. Add beer.
Oxidation is not a problem, as CO2 will be released during the transfer and blanket the beer.
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When I don't use a straining bag, I just rack off the fruit. I always get a little bit of sediment at 1st rack because I always try to get as much wine/cider/mead as possible. I put a small block of wood under 1 side of the carbouy so it rests on an incline; this helps to get more liquid & leave more sediment behind. You're going to lose a certain amount every time you rack, whether you're racking off fruit or not. You can always ferment in a bucket & put your fruit in a straining bag, later you can rack to a carbouy for further clearing/aging. Regards, GF.
I make the straining bag to fit the container, it only takes a little sewing and doesn't have to be neat. The fermentation pushes the fruit up into a cap, along with seeds and stuff.
@#$% Fruit!! How to get out?
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