Glossary · Milling and pressing
Pressing yield
Also written juice yield, extraction rate. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
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.
- Subject
- Milling and pressing
- Also written
- juice yield, extraction rate
In more detail
Yield is not simply a matter of squeezing harder. Beyond a point, more pressure compacts the pomace and closes the drainage channels, so extraction stops improving and the juice that does come is increasingly astringent and solid-laden. Pressing programmes therefore ramp pressure slowly and hold at each step.
Fruit condition sets the ceiling. Sweated, softened fruit gives up its juice more readily than hard, freshly picked fruit, and pears with a high stone-cell content are more difficult than apples of the same softness.
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.
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.
Milling and pressing
Maceration
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.
Milling and pressing
Second pressing
Breaking up pressed pomace, wetting it with water, and pressing again to recover the sugar and extract left behind. The product is weak and is used for low-strength drinks or for blending, not sold as full-juice cider.
Milling and pressing
Free-run juice
Juice that drains from the pomace under its own weight before pressure is applied. It is cleaner and less phenolic than the juice recovered at high pressure at the end of a press.
Equipment
Hydraulic press
A press that applies force through a hydraulic ram, allowing high and precisely controlled pressure. It is the usual power source for a modern rack-and-cloth press.
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.
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.