Filtering Fruit from Wilds

[Thorpe429]

I've run a few searches here and around the web and come up mostly empty.

What does everyone do with regard to getting fruit out of wilds, berliners, etc? In the past, I've cold crashed and hoped that I wouldn't get too much, but still end up getting fruit particles and losing a lot of beer. I've thought about using a filtering system, but both the plate and cartridge filters worry me in that they aren't necessarily designed for this sort of thing and might clog up really easily.

Does anyone have experience with these sort of filters, or am I missing a better way to go about things? Also, I know that Tilquin, Cantillon, etc filter fruit afterward; is there a type of filter that I should be looking into that would be better suited for such a project?

 

[cinderbike]

I treat it like whole hops - mesh bag over the end of the auto-siphon, and cold crashing the day before.

 

[ffaoe]

Paint strainer over the end of the auto siphon

 

[berebrando]

I don't do anything. I use the Fruit Purees, normally, and they seem to settle out after a couple weeks. I just leave a little beer behind when I rack to the bottling bucket.

 

[Oldsock]

I tend to use whole fruit, and have never had much trouble. For larger fruit, like peaches/nectarines, I slice it up into large pieces. If it looks like the fruit has broken apart, I’ll put a fine mesh bag over the outlet of the tube running into the bottling bucket to catch any bits.

Russian River and Cantillon both filter their sours beers with really coarse filters from what I understand. They are doing just enough to catch chunks of fruit/pellicle before they make it into the bottles, not tight enough to catch much yeast/bacteria.

 

[BryanThompson]

I typically rack it into the bottling bucket picking up as little as I can then let it settle for a day or two. All the fruit usually sits low enough to not be sucked out the valve.

 

[Calder]

I use a paint straining bag over the racking cane on the inlet side of the siphon.

Once racked, I take the bag and turn it inside out and use it to line a big funnel. I then pour the fruit into the funnel and let it strain into a separate gallon jug. Sometimes I'll squeeze the fruit to get the most out of it. I'll get close to a gallon out of a decent amount of fruit. I stick an airlock on the jug and leave it. When I have a decent beer going (could be a couple of months later; either another sour, or a lowish hopped beer), I might top up the jug. I'll then leave it for another 6 months. My results have been pretty good.