What determines racking to secondary or not?

[Catsnstuff]

Hi everyone,
We're trying a couple of batches of Apfelwein, based loosely on Ed Wort's. I notice that his recipe says "racking to a secondary is not necessary", and indeed, we tried doing this for our first batch after several weeks and I think it was a mistake - it was still bubbling a fair bit, but after shifting it fementation slowed RIGHT down.

My question is, what determines if you should rack to secondary or not? My understanding is that it's to get rid of the layer of old yeast that might be breeding undesirables (please correct me if I'm wrong, or add anything.) Why aren't they a problem with Apfelwein?

Thanks very much in advance.

 

[caseymac91]

It's just personal preference. I prefer to skip a secondary because it finishes faster. Autolysis is not something you have to worry about.

 

[TexasWine]

I would qualify things a bit and say for Apfelwein it may be optional. For other types of home made alcohol, like the red wines I like to make, it isn't.

 

[Randzor]

As Texas said, It depends what you are making. Cider tends to oxidize, so I skip the secondary. I have noticed some people secondary when they try and do a semi sweet cider.(the thinking is you cold crash twice, and the likely hood of having yeast still in the cider is minimal.)

 

[Catsnstuff]

Thanks very much! From the sounds of it, I think we'll be experimenting with not racking to secondary. At this stage in learning, the less I muck around with it, the safer I feel.