Delestage in a macro bin?

Does anyone have a good process to remove the seeds from the must, in a macro bin, during fermentation?

I've been doing delestage for five years using a 60gal elevated stainless kettle that has a bottom valve; the gravity arrangement makes it easy. I've never used a macro bin, but I would imagine if you install a side bottom 2" valve, and raise the bin for gravity draining, it would work as well. During fermentation, while draining to another vessel (I use about 6 buckets as I'm dealing with a small volume), you would have to rake the bottom of the bin towards the outlet valve to get all of the yeast and seeds suspended while flowing out. Once the entire bin is empty of liquid, it's just a matter of pumping or dumping the liquid back into the bin. The seeds will be at the bottom of the receiving vessel, and depending on their maturity, you can decide if you want to put them back into the batch or not. Using delestage, I don't even bother to do punch downs any more.

I am sure I am not telling the OP (NorCal) anything he does not know, but I found this article in WineMaking magazine that others may also find interesting: https://winemakermag.com/237-delestage-fermentation-techniques. (I was just trying to learn what in the heck delestage was! )

sour_grapes said:

I am sure I am not telling the OP (NorCal) anything he does not know, but I found this article in WineMaking magazine that others may also find interesting: https://winemakermag.com/237-delestage-fermentation-techniques. (I was just trying to learn what in the heck delestage was! )

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Thanks sourgrapes for posting that. I had no idea either. Don't think I want to use that system with 26-27 gallons of juice in 8 buckets this fall - I could spend all day draining and refilling those buckets!

I figured it out, just tip the bin over and they fall out! I jest, never did it on this ferment and there were a small bucket full of seeds at the end.