Glossary · Cider
Ice cider
Also written cidre de glace. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
A sweet, concentrated cider made by freezing — either of the juice before fermentation, or of the fruit on the tree — so that water is removed as ice and the remaining juice ferments to a high-sugar, high-acid dessert drink.
- Subject
- Cider
- Also written
- cidre de glace
In more detail
Quebec codified the category and protects it: the two recognised routes are cryoconcentration, in which pressed juice is frozen and the concentrated fraction drawn off, and cryoextraction, in which fruit is left to freeze on the tree and pressed frozen. Starting gravities are extreme by cider standards, and fermentation stops naturally when alcohol and sugar together stall the yeast.
The result is typically 9 to 13% ABV with well over 100 g/L of residual sugar. Acid is what keeps it from cloying, which is why sharp cultivars matter more here than tannic ones.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Ice cider
Cider made from apple juice concentrated by freezing, fermented slowly and stopped while a large residual sugar remains, giving a dessert-strength drink of high acid and high sweetness.
Production
Ice concentration
Freezing pressed juice and drawing off the unfrozen fraction, so that water is removed as ice and everything else in the juice is left behind more concentrated.
Production
Cryoextraction
Milling and pressing fruit that has frozen on the tree or in store, so the ice stays behind in the pomace and only concentrated juice runs from the press.
Region
Quebec
The one place in the Americas where a distinctive cider category was invented rather than imported: *cidre de glace*, made by concentrating juice through winter freezing, in a province whose ordinary cider tradition was broken by half a century of prohibition.
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.
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
Apple wine
Cider fermented to a strength closer to table wine, usually 9% ABV or more, generally by adding sugar to the juice before fermentation.
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.
University of Vermont cider research
University of Vermont Extension · university · retrieved 2026-08-24
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.