Glossary · Fermentation
Back-sweetening
Also written sweetening back. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Adding sugar, juice or concentrate to a fully fermented cider to reach a target sweetness. Because the added sugar is fermentable, the cider must then be stabilised or kept cold.
- Subject
- Fermentation
- Also written
- sweetening back
In more detail
The three routes to a sweet cider are not interchangeable in the glass. Back-sweetening with concentrate adds apple character as well as sugar; sweetening with sucrose adds sugar alone; keeving and arrested fermentation leave the original fruit sugar in place. Non-fermentable sweeteners avoid the stability problem entirely at the cost of their own taste profile.
A back-sweetened cider that is bottled without sterile filtration, pasteurisation or an effective sorbate-and-sulphite regime will referment, and the resulting bottle pressure is a genuine hazard.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Back-sweetening
Adding sugar, juice or concentrate to a cider that has fermented dry — a straightforward adjustment that leaves the drink microbiologically unstable until something is done about it.
Fault
Unwanted refermentation
Fermentation restarting in a sealed container, generating carbon dioxide that was not planned for and pressure that a bottle may not withstand.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Chemistry
Residual sugar
The fermentable sugar remaining in a finished cider, usually expressed in grams per litre. It is what sweetness legislation and style bands are written against.
Chemistry
Sorbate
A preservative that prevents yeast from multiplying, used with sulphite to stabilise a back-sweetened cider against refermentation. It does not kill an active population.
Fermentation
Sterile filtration
Filtration through a membrane fine enough — conventionally 0.45 micron — to remove yeast and most bacteria, allowing a sweetened cider to be packaged without refermenting.
Fermentation
Pasteurisation
Heating cider to destroy yeast and bacteria, either by flash pasteurisation before filling or by tunnel pasteurisation in the sealed container. It stabilises a sweetened product against refermentation.
Fermentation
Arrested fermentation
Deliberately stopping a fermentation before the sugar is exhausted, in order to retain natural sweetness. Achieved by repeated racking, chilling, filtration, sulphite, or a combination.
Cider
Concentrate
Apple juice from which most of the water has been removed, usually by vacuum evaporation, leaving a syrup of about 70 degrees Brix that is stable, transportable and reconstituted before use.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
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.
The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers
Claude Jolicoeur, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. ISBN 9781603584739 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against the Open Library union catalogue: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781603584739, one edition recorded. That establishes the citation points at a real book in a stated edition, which is what a citation needs and is all it establishes. No copy was opened and nothing is quoted from it. The book itself is in print and not digitised in any open collection; where CiderHQ needs a figure from this territory it uses an accessible research source instead and says so.
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.