So I’ve got an idea that I want to run by the experienced brewers on here. So I’m making a raspberry wheat beer and I plan on using about 4 lbs of raspberries (frozen and then thawed per instructions read about here) and I saw the idea about the paint strainer bag. I use glass carboys with the small opening so I can put the bag in the secondary…but I was wondering if it would work to put the bag in the bottling bucket for when I transfer from the secondary. I have read I could put something over the cane when syphoning the beer, but I thought this would be easier…my only concern would be possibly adding oxygen…but I just don’t think that would really happen. Anyway, I thought I’d bring this up if others see a problem I do not.
I do have one other question as well…I’m making a porter and am adding raspberries to it as well. Would 4 lbs be a good amount to add to that as well? I don’t want to over power the taste with raspberries, but I don’t want it to be completely masked by the porter either. Thoughts?
You can put the berries in a paint strainer bag, just be sure you do it in a bucket or a big mouth with some head space-you will get fermentation of the berries which will drive the berries and bag up into the neck of a carboy. I have started using a hop bag tied over the end of my racking cane-it works just as well, and I have less trouble with the bag full of berries during fermentation. Either way, make sure you have plenty of head space because the berries will ferment and float on top for awhile and can easily plug up a carboy with a narrow neck or an airlock. Then you get a geyser of fermenting berries. 
I won’t be able to put the bag in the secondary since it is a small opening…so that is why I was wondering about putting the bag in the bottling bucket. Does that pose an real problems?
Based on my experience anytime I,m using fruit I keep it in the buckects… way less risk of an…incident…lol…Tank :cheers:
Bucket is definitely better than a 5gal carboy. You can just put the fruit in primary toward the end of primary fermentation as well.
So…nobody has any experience with using the paint strainer bag in the bottling bucket?
Haven’t used a bottling bucket as a secondary, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t. Or you can just add the fruit to primary if you are using buckets as primary. Just because you get a “secondary” fermentation when you add fruit it does not mean you have to transfer the beer before adding fruit. Just use something with plenty of headspace so that you wont get a lot of blowoff or a plugged airlock. The fruit is going to ferment either way, so you might as well take advantage of a healthy yeast population toward the end of primary.
Hahahaha…this is getting comical. I’m not asking to use the bottling bucket as a secondary…I would still use a glass carboy as a secondary…but then I would transfer the beer (w/raspberries) into the bottling bucket just like normal…but I would have the bucket lined with the paint strainer bag and then bottle as normal. I was asking if this method would pose any problems.
I’ve used a muslin bag as a filter before. I wrapped it around the end of my siphon hose and secured it with a rubber band (all sanitized of course). This helped to keep some of the smaller chunks of hop material out of the bottling bucket. The bigger chunks shouldn’t even be picked up by your siphon and will be left in secondary
I made the raspberry beer one time when I first started homebrewing and I did not use anything and there was a lot of debris floating in the beer!
Do you mean to say that you will put the bag of berries in the bottling bucket on bottling day and then transfer your beer on top of the bag, and then bottle immediately afterwards?
Oh, sorry. Never mind. I understand now. I just had a short Edith Bunker moment.
Well, seems to me you would still have yeast in your brew and you’d be going into a bottling bucket with fruit, which has some fermentables in it. Now you’d change your priming schedule… I wonder if you would try to find out the specific gravity of your fruit just BEFORE you go to your bottling bucket. I would be careful so you don’t make glass bombs…. Maybe use campden tablets to kill off yeast? One per gallon? I use it that way as I make home made wine from fruit… Is it a meta-bisulfate that will kill yeast?... Good luck… Sneezles61 :blah:
I think it’s a great idea… I usually put the strainer bag on the end of the siphon hose with a couple of rubber bands, but I see no reason why you can’t line your bottling bucket with it and remove it once you’re done siphoning.
So did you mean this to be a joke? I only ask because you keep saying how funny people’s responses are.
If you want to use a paint strainer bag to keep the fruit chunks out of your bottles, that will work just fine. You can use it however you see fit in the bottling bucket, just keep it between the end of your racking cane and the fruit.
No, I didn’t mean it to be a joke. I found it funny that I was getting plenty of answers, but none of the answers were to the question I asked. This happens with messageboard forums sometimes…so I just chose to laugh at it.
