r/cider • u/wizard_of_ale • 19h ago

Many racking fermentations

Is there anything that happens bad if when I rack I add juice to top it off and it goes into a second, third fermentation?
I racked a bit early and topped off my juice. The fermentation got active again and I’m gonna go for a third rack once it clears up and top off the juice again. (First top off was a increase of 15% juice, third should be much less closer to 5% juice increase)

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u/pbgalactic 17h ago

Just curious, what’s your purpose of multiple reracks after a secondary? As long as the yeast is viable and you don’t stabilize, It’ll re ferment and get cloudy every single time

1

u/wizard_of_ale 9h ago

I’m trying to follow Claude Jolicoeur’s recommendation of racking to slow fermentation down. I thought having so much sediment at the bottom it would be due for racking and slow things down. I think the sediment was also due to the pectinase used so I had a heavy bottom and needed quite a bit of juice to top it back up after the rack. I did the racking at the 2 week mark.

2

u/TheENGR42 19h ago

Not really, so long as everything is sanitized

1

u/freedomfever 19h ago

Yeah as long as you still have a ferment going, I shouldn’t see a problem. Actually might have some benefits as the fermentation process needs oxygen.
But if there’s no residual sugar left, it’s problematic because you can have too much oxygen available for bad bacteria

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u/Snow8517 12h ago

Generally not a problem, but at some point yeast and nutrient levels will be depleted so the fresh juice may cause some stress faults like H2S. If you do, you may want to stir any sediment to keep yeast in suspension (it will still clear quickly).