This is my first cider. I threw in some grapes I'd frozen a while ago. I bottled directly from primary. 2 weeks in the bottle and I checked on it, saw the sludge on the left. A night in the fridge and then poured off the clear cider into one glass and the sludge into another. So much sludge. A good 15-20% of the volume. Lesson learned - rack to 2ndary for clarity sake.
I've ruined more than one batch myself by leaving it too long on the lees - in either primary or secondary.
This was only 2 weeks in primary. How long does it take for lees to ruin it?
I think that's fine for primary. I might rack off of secondary every month or so. Maybe less often after the first time. It's probably overkill, but I'd hate to ruin another batch.