My first 5 batch of cider?

[mariomatt]

So I am working on 5 different one gallon hard cider recipes, one of which consists of 112 oz of unfiltered apple juice and 14 oz of pureed pitted cherries. Two more of them are identical except with 16oz custom spiced pumpkin puree.
The other two are apple cider with various spices or vanilla.
I used the same same amount of white labs english cider yeast wlp775 in all of them. They are all kept between 68 and 70 degrees.

My questions are as followed:
1.The cherry cider is fermenting at a significantly higher rate then the other five, to the point where the CO2 pushed the cherries all the way up and clogged the air lock resulting in minor eruption. I caught it fairly quickly sterilized, and air locked it again. Why is this? The pumpkin puree has more sugar then the cherries but its not having the same problems...
2. After reading several different cider recipes I am curious on how long I should let it ferment and how long it stay in a secondary?
3. Do i need to even put it in a secondary? I've got them fermenting now in a glass carbine should I even bother throwing them in secondaries or let them clear up in the glass primary?

 

[javalin]

1. My guess would be that your cherry cider has the nutrients required for optimum fermentation, similarly to the increased rate of fermentation you would get from adding yeast nutrient. The pumpkin probably doesn't have the same nutrients, since I believe they're mostly starches. Someone with more knowledge in this area may want to chime in.

2. If the above guess is correct your cherry cider should complete primary fermentation in a week or two, the others could take up to a month.

3. I would recommend putting your ciders in secondary to help clarify them. This will improve the look of your end product as well as the flavor of your brew. Adding some pectic enzyme to your primary will help this along, as will adding a clarifying agent to your secondary fermentation.

 

[mariomatt]

When I add them to the secondary should I add additional sugar or because it's a fruit base do you think it's unnecessary?

I was thinking I would have to leave in the secondary for 30 days...do you think that's sufficient?

 

[javalin]

Adding sugar to the secondary will only restart fermentation. Secondary is generally for finishing up the last bit of fermenting that needs to take place, and for allowing the cider to clarify, so adding sugar is unnecessary. 30 days should be enough time, I usually do two or three weeks.