Glossary · Cider
Cider brandy
Also written apple brandy, eau-de-vie de cidre. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
A spirit distilled from cider, aged in wood or sold unaged. Calvados is the protected French form; England, the United States and Spain each have their own traditions.
- Subject
- Cider
- Also written
- apple brandy, eau-de-vie de cidre
In more detail
Because distillation concentrates whatever the cider contains, the quality of the base cider governs the spirit: volatile acidity and ethyl acetate carry over and are amplified, which is why distillers ferment cleanly rather than treating the still as a corrective.
Producing spirits requires authorisation from the tax authority in the United Kingdom and in most other jurisdictions, and is excluded from the exemptions that allow cider to be made at home.
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.
Cider
Calvados
The protected apple — and in the Domfrontais, partly pear — brandy of Normandy, distilled from cider under appellation rules that govern the orchard, the fermentation, the still and the minimum cask age.
Cider
Pommeau
A blend of unfermented apple juice and apple brandy, matured in oak, sold at around 16 to 18% ABV as an aperitif or dessert drink.
Milling and pressing
Marc
French for pressed pomace, and by extension the spirit distilled from it. *Marc de cidre* and *marc de pomme* are pomace brandies distinct from Calvados, which is distilled from cider itself.
Chemistry
Volatile acidity
The fraction of a cider’s acidity that can be distilled off — overwhelmingly acetic acid — measured separately from fixed acidity and used as an index of bacterial spoilage.
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.
Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO)
INAO · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
The Cidre Pays d’Auge cahier des charges was read in full on 2026-08-24, in the version homologated by arrêté of 17 January 2026 and published in the Journal officiel on 21 January. That qualification is not decoration. A revision adopted by the Comité national on 10 September 2025 is currently under the procédure nationale d’opposition, is clearly marked as not prejudging the final text, and specifies carbonation differently from the text in force — as grams of CO2 per litre rather than as a minimum pressure in bar. A summary citing the draft would have put a figure on the page that no producer is held to. CiderHQ records the operative text and says which one it is.
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.
UK Parliament (legislation.gov.uk) · legislation · passage verified 2026-10-08
Read on 2026-10-08. Cited for who may produce alcoholic products in the United Kingdom without approval. Sections 82 to 85 came into force on 1 February 2025 (S.I. 2025/96): production needs approval from HMRC, and the domestic-use exemption does not cover spirits. Schedule 6 defines spirits as “spirits of any description” and says nothing about the process. The earlier law did: section 12 of the 1979 Act, which required a distiller’s licence for making spirits “by distillation of a fermented liquor or by any other process”, was repealed with the saving for it ending on the same date. Current HMRC guidance was searched and does not mention freezing; how a freeze-concentrated cider is classed is therefore not stated in any text read here.