Glossary · Serving
Cellar conditions
Also written storage conditions. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
How cider is kept before opening: cool, dark and stable. Warmth accelerates ageing and oxidation, light causes light strike in clear glass, and temperature swings can precipitate haze.
- Subject
- Serving
- Also written
- storage conditions
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Faults
Light strike
Damage caused by light, particularly in the ultraviolet and near-blue range, generating sulphur compounds that give a cabbage or skunky aroma in ciders bottled in clear or green glass.
Faults
Oxidation
The chemical damage done by oxygen to a finished cider: loss of fresh fruit aroma, browning, and the arrival of acetaldehyde, nutty and sherry-like notes.
Law and labelling
Best before
A quality date indicating how long a product remains at its best under stated storage conditions. It is not a safety date, and drinks above a certain strength are exempt from requiring one.
Faults
Protein haze
A haze formed when proteins and phenolics combine, often appearing after a temperature change in bottle. It is prevented by bentonite fining and by cold stabilisation before packaging.
Fermentation
Maturation
The period after fermentation in which a cider settles, clarifies and changes chemically — esters forming and hydrolysing, phenolics polymerising, harsh notes integrating — before it is packaged or drunk.
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.
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.
CAMRA cider and perry standards
Campaign for Real Ale · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. Registered for the consumer-campaigning vocabulary — "real cider", "full juice" — which is advocacy language rather than legal definition, and is recorded as such wherever CiderHQ uses it.