Fruit Additions in kegs?

[Swags]

Sounds crazy I know. Anyone tried putting fruit puree directly into Sankey kegs prior to filling? I was thinking of adding a few ounces through a funnel into an open Sankey coupler prior to filling. I would think a double cleaning cycle would be required. Considering starting with low carbonation in case there may be a little re-fermentation activity. Any disaster stories?

thanks for any input.

[kugeman]

I tried that once (in order to turn my wheat beer into a keg of blackberry wheat). Total disaster. The fruit puree did not mix thoroughly (even after rolling the keg around etc...) and it formed big clumps in the bottom of the keg. So some pints I poured were mildly fruity and some were full-on purple.

If you can find a way to make this work let me know! But for me it was horrendous.

[mmussen]

I've seen it done with bung sided kegs. Never through the sankey fitting though.

[Inthelab]

I've poured juice through a coupler, transferred beer on top of it and served immediately. Worked well enough.

[Junkyard]

I would imagine it would depend on the purée and how viscous/watery it is. If it was me doing it I would hose clamp some stainless screen to the bottom of the spear too just to make sure you don't suck up something that would clog the valve.

[PCQC]

Sounds crazy I know. Anyone tried putting fruit puree directly into Sankey kegs prior to filling? I was thinking of adding a few ounces through a funnel into an open Sankey coupler prior to filling. I would think a double cleaning cycle would be required. Considering starting with low carbonation in case there may be a little re-fermentation activity. Any disaster stories?

thanks for any input.

If they are MicroStar kegs, they'll come after you because that's against contract. When cleaning kegs here at AleSmith, we have had problems with MicroStar kegs with solids inside like fruit or spices because people try this out. If you want to do this, please try it on your own kegs. Better yet, make a cut out keg. We use our cut out keg for those additions exactly. You have an agitator and you just rack off into a Sanke. We cut out the top of a sanke and welded on a SS Tri Clamp. It looks a lot like a FermFlask or a SABCO Bright, but it's very cheap. Hope this helps!