Equipment
Press cloths, from hair cloth to synthetics
What are cider press cloths made of and how are they looked after?
In short
A press cloth is a woven square that encloses one layer of pomace. It must be open enough to let juice through freely, tight enough to keep pulp in, and strong enough to take the shear as the layer spreads under load.
Traditional cloths were woven from horsehair or from coarse hemp and flax; modern cloths are woven monofilament or multifilament polypropylene or nylon in defined weave patterns and mesh sizes.
Cloth choice is a real variable in juice clarity and in press performance, and cloth hygiene is one of the most consequential cleaning tasks in a traditional cider house.
Hair cloths
Hair cloth — woven from horse tail and mane hair, sometimes over a hemp warp — was the standard press cloth in English and French cider making for a very long time, and the same material served in oil and cheese pressing. Hair has useful properties for the job: the fibres are stiff and springy, so the weave does not close completely under load, and they are strong in tension and resistant to rot compared with plant fibres.
They were expensive, and they were repaired rather than replaced. Museum collections hold cloths that have been patched repeatedly. They were also difficult to clean: hair cloth cannot be boiled hard without damage, and the weave holds pomace residue that is very hard to shift.
Coarse hemp and flax cloths were the cheaper alternative and are what most small farms actually used. They blind more readily, rot if stored damp, and have a short life under repeated pressing, but they cost almost nothing on a farm that grew its own hemp or bought sacking.
Modern synthetic cloths
Woven polypropylene and nylon press cloths are now standard. They are specified by fibre type, weave — plain, twill, satin — and air permeability, and the specification matters: an open weave passes juice fast but lets fine pulp through into the juice, while a tight satin weave gives a cleaner juice and a slower press. On a hammer-milled fine mash the tighter cloth is usually necessary; on coarse scratter pomace an open weave is faster and the pulp carryover is manageable.
The practical advantages over hair are large. Synthetic cloths tolerate hot detergent washing, they can be sanitised chemically, they dry quickly, they do not rot, and they are cheap enough to replace on a schedule rather than to nurse. Monofilament weaves in particular shed pomace easily and have very little internal structure for residue to lodge in.
They are not indestructible. Repeated pressing abrades the surface, edges fray, and a cloth that has split will empty its layer into the press mid-run. Cloths are inspected as they are folded, and a suspect one is retired rather than gambled with.
Care and hygiene
- Wash cloths as soon as the press is stripped, before pomace dries into the weave.
- Hot water and a detergent suitable for food contact surfaces; follow the cloth maker’s temperature limit, because polypropylene distorts well below the temperature nylon will take.
- Rinse thoroughly. Detergent residue in a cloth goes into the next pressing’s juice.
- Dry completely before storage. A damp stack of cloths in a warm shed grows mould, and mould taint transfers to juice.
- Store away from sunlight; ultraviolet degrades polypropylene, and a cloth that has spent a summer on a fence will tear under load.
Cloth and juice character
Also answered on this page
Questions this page covers, so you can tell at a glance whether it is the one you want.
- What are cider press cloths made from?
- Can I use an old sheet as a press cloth?
- How do you clean press cloths?
Related
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- How are apples pressed for cider — The fruit is first milled to a pulp, then that pulp is squeezed — traditionally in cloth-wrapped layers under a screw or hydraulic ram, and industrially in a belt or bladder press. Whole apples cannot be pressed usefully; they must be broken first.
- What is a rack and cloth press and why is the pomace built in layers — The pomace is spread on a square cloth laid in a shallow forming frame, the cloth corners are folded over to make a flat parcel, a slatted rack is laid on top, and the process repeats until a stack — the *cheese* — is built. The whole stack is then compressed, usually by a hydraulic ram.
- Why does everyone say cleaning matters more than anything else — Cleaning removes soil — pomace, lees, tartrate, protein and the biofilm growing in it. Sanitising reduces the number of viable organisms on a surface that is already clean. They are two separate operations and the second does not work without the first.
- How do i sterilise cider bottles — Wash them clean first, then sanitise with a no-rinse sanitiser or a sulphite solution, and fill while still wet with it. Bottles that look clean but have dried deposits inside are the usual source of bottle spoilage.
- What is juice settling in cider making
- What is mould taint in cider
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Somerset Rural Life Museum — cider collections
South West Heritage Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.
Where to go next
- Cider making equipment — The rest of the equipment material, grouped by what each piece is for.
- How cider is made — The methods this equipment exists to carry out.
- Troubleshooting — The faults that are traced back to equipment and to cleaning.