Glossary · Milling and pressing
Must
Definition
Freshly pressed, unfermented juice, from the moment it leaves the press until fermentation begins. The word is borrowed from wine-making and shares a root with German Most.
- Subject
- Milling and pressing
In more detail
Everything measured before fermentation is measured on the must: specific gravity, titratable acidity, pH, assimilable nitrogen, and where relevant tannin. Those figures determine the whole plan for the batch — whether to blend, whether to add acid, whether to keeve, whether to feed the yeast and how much sulphite the pH permits.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Juice settling
Letting freshly pressed juice stand cold and undisturbed so that gross solids fall, then racking the cleaner juice off the deposit before pitching.
Production
Sulphiting
Adding sulphur dioxide to juice to suppress spoilage organisms and oxidative browning, at a level that only means anything once the juice pH is known.
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.
Cider
Most
In German-speaking Europe, either fresh fruit juice or the fermented drink made from it. Which one it means is settled by the country you are standing in, and in Austria it is settled by statute.
Perry
Pear must
Freshly pressed, unfermented pear juice destined for perry. It differs from apple must in its sorbitol content, its citric acid fraction and its lower assimilable nitrogen.
Chemistry
Specific gravity
The density of a liquid relative to water at the same temperature. In cider it is the routine measure of dissolved sugar before fermentation and of progress during it.
Chemistry
Titratable acidity
The total concentration of titratable acid in a juice or cider, measured by neutralising a sample with alkali to an end point and expressed as an equivalent of malic acid in grams per litre.
Fermentation
Sulphiting
Adding sulphur dioxide, usually as potassium or sodium metabisulphite, to juice or cider to suppress spoilage organisms, inhibit oxidation and enzymatic browning, and give a selected yeast a clear field.
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.
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.
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.