@#$% Fruit!! How to get out?

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.

How do you handle this?

Thanks
Kevin

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.

Edwort had a great straining device for whole hops that I think would work well for fruit too.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/question-whole-hops-fermenter-123597/

Post #6 I beleive, I will give this a try with my next fruit beer, which I have the base for fermenting now, so within the next month or two.

My first fruit beer was very chunky!

Excellent. Good call.

As you've already done it, add campden to stop oxidation.

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.

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.