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Racking barrels with fruit; Is there a tool for the job?

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  • Racking barrels with fruit; Is there a tool for the job?

    Hi Brewers,
    We have been making sour beers aged in barrels with fruit for a couple years now, and while sometimes extracting the beer with our bulldog "pup" racking cane is a cinch (peaches), we have had some very trying experiences with other fruits (cherries & raspberries). I am familiar with the technique suggested in "American Sour Beers", of drilling a significant hole in the head and draining the barrel that way, but I would really like to avoid that if I could. We produce our sours in an extremely crowded facility, right next to all our "clean" beers, not to mention we have lots of non-brewer traffic through the brewery and barrel space and I can imagine the phone call I would get when someone inadvertently knocked a cork out... "You better come clean this up".
    I have heard of devices which slip over the end of a racking cane, narrow enough to stick in a bunghole, with a screen for keeping out fruit. Apparently one of our brewers worked with something like it at a winery. It had a screw-tightening o-ring at the top to fasten it onto the end of the racking cane.
    Has anyone seen or heard of something like this, or better yet, know of a source?
    Or perhaps someone might have some advice on how you prevent clogging up your bulldog?
    Thanks,
    Jesse Shue
    Brewmaster
    Golden Valley Brewery

  • #2
    A little bit inelegant, but at the homebrewing level I have seen people wrap a stainless steel scouring pad like this around the end of a racking cane: <http://www.webstaurantstore.com/images/products/main/71689/145885/stainless-steel-heavy-weight-scouring-pads-12-pack.jpg>. They have stretch and actually pull over the end of the cane, but a tiny bit of stainless wire would hold it in place. They're stainless, and so can be sterilized like other equipment.

    Might work in a pinch.
    Last edited by NS_Nano; 11-29-2016, 01:27 PM.

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