Glossary · Milling and pressing
Maceration
Also written cuvage, pomace standing. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Holding milled pomace before pressing so that enzymes soften it and phenolic and aromatic material moves from the skins into the juice. Times range from an hour to a full day.
- Subject
- Milling and pressing
- Also written
- cuvage, pomace standing
In more detail
Maceration raises juice yield because native pectinase and the mechanical collapse of tissue release bound juice. It also raises extracted tannin and colour, and it lets polyphenol oxidase work, so a long maceration gives a browner, softer, more structured must. French practice — cuvage — makes deliberate use of it in tannic blends.
The cost is time in an unprotected state: warm pomace standing for hours is an excellent substrate for acetic bacteria and moulds if the fruit was not sound.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Maceration
Holding milled pomace before pressing so that phenolics, aroma precursors and pectin have time to move out of the solid tissue and into the juice.
Production
Pomace conditioning
Letting milled pomace stand before it goes to the press so that it drains better, presses faster and gives more juice.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Milling and pressing
Pomace
Milled fruit — flesh, skin, pips and stalk fragments — before pressing, and the spent solids left in the press afterwards. Both senses are in everyday use and context distinguishes them.
Milling and pressing
Milling
Breaking fruit down into pomace so that its cells rupture and its juice can be pressed out. It is the step that determines pressing yield more than any other.
Chemistry
Polyphenol oxidase
The enzyme, released when fruit cells are broken, that oxidises phenolics to quinones in the presence of oxygen. It is the cause of the browning of cut apples and of milled pomace.
Chemistry
Pectic enzyme
A commercial enzyme preparation, usually fungal, that depolymerises pectin so that juice clarifies, presses more freely and yields more.
Milling and pressing
Pressing yield
The proportion of fruit weight recovered as juice, usually expressed as litres per tonne or as a percentage. It depends on the fruit, the mill setting, the press type and the pressure profile.
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 Français des Productions Cidricoles (IFPC)
IFPC · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The French technical institute for cider production. The authority for the French cultivar classification families, for keeving as an industrial process, and for the pectin and nitrogen chemistry that keeving depends on.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.
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.