racking mead and cider?

I made cider using WL English Cider Yeast using no additional ingredients (followed Ed's Apfelwine directions using different juice and yeast hoping for something more apple-y and not as dry). I made a Blueberry Mead and Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (minus the ancient part)- using WL Sweet Mead Yeast for both. I also am not putting the orange rind in. I wanted to know whether I should rack these to secondaries? After reading some cider and mead recipes it seems that many do not. I wanted to make sure this is ok. I will be gone for 5 months and need to make sure that I leave the right instructions for my friend. It's just that I would never leave a beer on the yeast for that long, yet it seems to be common with different ciders and meads. Let me know what you think.

Yes, you should rack whenever you have lees 1/4 inch think or so. Usually it's about every 45-60 days after fermentation stops, but not always.

I think the JAOM recipes says not to rack it, but can't remember at the moment.

As far as your cider goes, you definately want to rack it. For my cider, I leave it in primary for about a month (until fermentation starts to slow), then rack to secondary for another month or two (until clear enough to read a newspaper through), then rack again into bulk aging for 3-6 months.

The major concern is the dead yeast breaking down (autolysis), leading to off-flavors. I'f your friend knows anything about homebrewing, just tell him to keep an eye on the clarity of the cider, and the amount of lees (sediment).

I am less refined . I just primary it (yes running the risk of Autolysis) until it clears out pretty well, usually around 3-4 months and then bottle. I have had no troubles with off flavors. In fact last years batch is still very clean, crystal clear and no off nose or flavor.

So the long and short is it is probably better to religiously rack on a good time schedule, but if you're like me you can probably get away with it just fine. I suppose I should add that I ferment my cider fairly cold, and that my basement where it sits is fairly stable. Temperature has a significant effect on how long term storage will be affected throughout the entire conditioning process.

Thanks for the advice. I dont think I will be racking for the sake of contamination prevention and ease for my friend who would be racking for me. I am out of the country for a couple months, so it's probably best for me to limit the most that could go wrong and have him just stick with my beers. I'll give ya an autolysis assessment when I get back, but let's hope it doesn't come to that. The cider and mead will have had almost five months by themselves without a secondary. I don't know what I think about that, but we'll see if I change my mind.