Secondary Racking Questions
 

I have a few secondary questions.

If after racking the primary I have to much air space do I just top off the container with more AJ? Do I need to worry about the fermentation of this new juice and the sediment it creates?

If after racking the primary I want to add fruit, spices, etc how do I sterilize these? Do I need to sanitize these? Are spices and fruit sanitized differently? Should fruit be added in the primary or secondary?

Thanks
Kevin

Well, you could top up with more juice, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it will cause your clearing must to cloud up again & the overall fermentation will take longer. If you continuously top up with more juice, you'll have the same problem over & over and it will take forever to be done. If you're willing to wait a bit longer, top up with juice ONCE then let it finish up & clear.

You could rack to a smaller vessel.

You can use sanitized marbles to take up space in the carbouy (don't use steel bearings).

If you want to add fruit to a cider, I'd do so in primary & hit the whole thing with campden tabs. For the spices, I'd just save them for serving time, but if you want to add them to secondary, go right ahead; you'll want to use whole versions of them though, the powdered stuff can make a nasty mess. make a sort of "teabag" for your spices so you can easily remove them without having to rack again. Hope this info helps. Regards, GF.