Best way NOT to get fruit into keg lines

[Matteo57]

So I brewed a strawberry wheat beer.... The way I fermented it wasn't the best and I just threw it into the fermentor without a bag or anything so when I transfered it to the keg I got a few small pieces of the strawberry in there. Hindsight I can do a few different things to make sure that doesn't happen again but for now..... How should I go about pouring it off so that the strawberry pieces don't clog my keg lines? It is only 3 gallons in a 5 gallon keg. If i took a tie-able hop bag and tied it best I could to the end of the metal tube that draws the beer out would that be enough? Any thoughts on how to do this? I just kegged yesterday but didn't hook up to C02 because my tank leaked out (FML!)
Thanks for the help

 

[jaycount]

Yeah you could sanitize and tie a hop bag to the end of your pickup tube. That's probably your best bet now.

 

[birvine]

You can put the strawberries in a hop/paint strainer bag or, what I do is rack through a fine strainer into the keg to catch any debris. I have heard about getting stuff stuck in the lines and try to avoid it. To sanitize the strainer, I immerse it in the boil for the last 10 minutes.

Brent

EDIT: Another idea I just thought of, is to clip a paint strainer bag to the lip of the keg (make sure the bag and clips are sanitized, and let the bag hang into the keg. Rack from the carboy/bucket through the bag which will catch debris. Because this can possibly aerate the beer a bit, be sure to give the keg a few shots of CO2 to purge out any oxygen.

 

[DrDarwin]

Yeah you could sanitize and tie a hop bag to the end of your pickup tube. That's probably your best bet now.

The first time I made a blueberry I did nothing of the sort, and it was pure hell in my keg. The second time, I did what jaycount suggested here, and while it was slow to siphon, it worked wonders. I was a able to successfully pull my beer through about a gallon of blended blueberry slurry... (shhhh it was an experiment).

Edit: Should have read that more carefully. I did this out of the primary, but it should work in the keg too. If there's a ton of sediment down there though, it may slow your pull considerably though.

 

[Matteo57]

Thanks for the answers. I don't believe I got TOO much, just some down there....hopefully only some!

 

[jaycount]

The first time I made a blueberry I did nothing of the sort, and it was pure hell in my keg. The second time, I did what jaycount suggested here, and while it was slow to siphon, it worked wonders. I was a able to successfully pull my beer through about a gallon of blended blueberry slurry... (shhhh it was an experiment).

Edit: Should have read that more carefully. I did this out of the primary, but it should work in the keg too. If there's a ton of sediment down there though, it may slow your pull considerably though.

When siphoning out of a secondary with stuff in the bottom (dry hops, fruit) I put a hop bag on the end of my hose going into the keg, that works better than putting it on the end of the racking cane.

 

[Pyroholic]

Just a question: How are the strawberry chunks bigger than the keg straw? My racking tube and auto siphon are about the same size as my keg lines.

My guess is that you have a little sediment that built up at the bottom. I bet it'll clear up after a beer or 2.

I added blackberries to a hefeweizen last month. I put 1.5lbs (24oz) in a hop bag with 10min left in the boil, and squeezed it at flameout.