False bottom for aging with fruit in a corny

[lucianthorr]

I was thinking about brewing a sour imperial stout and aging it on some fruit... pretty much inspired by Wicked Weed's Black Angel but without the barrels or years of experience.
My thought was to brew a high gravity stout and then after a week or so, transfer it into a corny keg on top of a pile of fruit and some dregs from a sour and then put it somewhere until winter and see what happens.

Then I was thinking, it's going to be tough transferring to a clean keg with a dip tube buried in a bunch of soggy old fruit so I wonder if there's a good way to keep the fruit off the bottom...
I also wonder if a few pounds of fruit + 5 gallons of beer might be too much volume for a corny. But the convenience of hiding a keg away for half a year while it ages is so much more appealing than finding a safe spot for a carboy.

Wondering if anyone has any suggestions on keeping the fruit off the bottom or other methods for aging, etc. I'm kind of making this up as I go.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Without something to contain the fruit, it'll be a nightmare. You could use something like the screen-canister dry hoppers that are around now or maybe a paint strainer bag...but as you indicated, volume is going to be an issue. I think the better option is to get an extra fermenter (e.g. glass carboy, Better Bottle, but not a bucket) and do it in there rather than a keg, then rack to a keg when it's done. Also, I'm not sure how high of ABV you're planning on, but higher ABVs tend to inhibit the bugs; most sours tend to be between 3-8%. Also, keep your IBUs low so they don't inhibit the LAB.

 

[lucianthorr]

Great notes, thanks for the response! After considering the pounds of fruit I would need, I think a better bottle is definitely the better option. I'll just have to make some room in a closet to keep it while it does its thing.

I visited Wicked Weed's funkatorium a few months ago and I think I've blended my memory of their cherry imperial stout with their chocolate/cherry sour into one Voltron beer that was both high abv and soured. (Plus cherries can be pretty sour on their own)

 

[IslandLizard]

If you have plenty of spare kegs, split the batch over 2 kegs to increase your volume. If you're a bit shy on volume, add some more wort.

The best thing about kegs is you can purge the headspace with CO2. When the sours are done, just rack from the top with a piece of voile or a hop sack around the cane, leaving the fruit and trub behind.

 

[bajaedition]

I am still kinda figuring how to set up a false bottom in a corney

I do age beers in corneies, I do not however want to have anything in there that can plug up the out tube. I would suggest using a big mouth plastic fermenter you can reach in and get anything out of if it gets to be a problem

I use a Spiedel primary and use corney kegs after that, I do not transfer anything into a corney that can clog it up.

Every year I do several ciders, those I transfer into big mouth secondaries as they take 3 or 4 rackings to clear them up.

Hope that helps,