Siphoning off puree

First time I've used real fruit puree is with my apricot wheat sitting in the secondary. I plan on bottling this batch but have a question on siphoning off that puree. Unlike the syrup that just mixes in, I have 1.5" of this stuff on the bottom of the carboy. You treat it just like trub when racking to a bottle bucket? It's consistency being a bit looser than trub has me wondering how this stuff responds to an auto-siphon. Or are you better suited doing a tertiary before bottling?

I used fresh cranberries and used a tertiary before bottling and it worked well. I dunno if this is the right way or wrong way, but it worked for me.

Only bummer is I want this bugger bottled & carb'd up by May 20th so want to skip the tertiary if I can. That means bottling after only 10 days on the puree and 2 weeks for bottle conditioning. Heck, it's not my beer but the wife's and her friends so I'm not that picky .

Hey, a bottle bucket for 10 minutes could be considered a tertiary device now couldn't it.

desertBrew said:

Hey, a bottle bucket for 10 minutes could be considered a tertiary device now couldn't it.

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LOL! Of course it could!!

After racking to the secondary I place a board under the rear of the carboy
so everything settles to the front. The auto-siphon sits real nice to the rear.
As it gets near the bottom inch or so I slowly settle it back till I see a
little sediment coming up and stop.

FWIW, I use a clamp (the hand-spring-type)on my autosyphon tube to keep it from hitting bottom when the trub, or in this case, puree, is too deep.

I've never used puree--did it mix in when you first added it, and then drop out of suspension later? I guess I assumed that it would stay mixed with the beer.

I usually rack off of fruit sludge by holding the cane just above the sludge and stop when you start getting some like J-bass, it works well.
I wouldn't try to hurry a fruit beer, they can gurgle along for a really long time, and you may be making bottle-bombs.

jazzbass said:

After racking to the secondary I place a board under the rear of the carboy
so everything settles to the front. The auto-siphon sits real nice to the rear.
As it gets near the bottom inch or so I slowly settle it back till I see a
little sediment coming up and stop.

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I do this as well with regular trub. Works like a charm. Will siphon just like it's trub then. First time I did this, I used my wallet and have ever since; perfect thickness

cweston said:

I've never used puree--did it mix in when you first added it, and then drop out of suspension later? I guess I assumed that it would stay mixed with the beer.

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Imagine taking fruit to a blender; that's the way the apricot puree was. Orange goo. Some mixing, but a quick settle to the bottom.

Chairman Cheyco said:

I wouldn't try to hurry a fruit beer, they can gurgle along for a really long time, and you may be making bottle-bombs.

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gravity at rack was 1.008 and visually it looks quite complete. I might sneak out a gravity check to see where it's at along with the taste test.

Thanks guys.

For my Strawberry Tart, I used a racking cane with the red filter/cap on the botttom. Syphon as usual, and when the peels got into the cap, it plugged up and stopped the flow. Perfect!

casebrew said:

For my Strawberry Tart, I used a racking cane with the red filter/cap on the botttom. Syphon as usual, and when the peels got into the cap, it plugged up and stopped the flow. Perfect!

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That's kind of what I expected puree to look like (peel in the mix) but with the Oregon brand apricot it just looked like baby food.

Well, got this bottled up. 8-9 days in the bottle (I forget) and it's nicely carbonated already but has a **** load of sediment. Once bottle is almost 1" high. Tertiary in the future when puree in the secondary. Tastes good though just got to pour even more gentle than normal. They all have to march into the fridge to settle out...

Wife likes the cheap soapy syrup over puree though. Cool, saves me almost $9 per batch for her apricot wheat .