Glossary · Equipment
Screw press
Also written twin-screw press, beam press. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
A press in which pressure is applied by turning a threaded screw against the cheese. Historic timber presses used a great wooden screw; modern continuous twin-screw presses use rotating augers instead.
- Subject
- Equipment
- Also written
- twin-screw press, beam press
In more detail
The two senses are quite different machines. The traditional single-screw press is a batch machine descended from the wine and oil presses of antiquity; the modern twin-screw press is a continuous unit that conveys pomace along tapering screws and is used for high throughput.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Traditional screw pressing
The wooden farm press in which one or two hand-turned screws drive a follower down onto a built cheese of pomace, tightened by degrees over hours.
Production
Twin-screw pressing
Continuous pressing in which an auger drives pomace along a perforated barrel against a restriction, extracting juice under high shear and compaction.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
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.
Equipment
Basket press
A press in which pomace is loaded into a slatted cylindrical basket and compressed from above by a plate, juice escaping between the staves. Simple, common at small scale, and lower-yielding than a layered press.
Milling and pressing
Cheese
The stack of pomace built up in a traditional press: alternating layers of pomace wrapped in cloth, or bound with straw, forming a squat block that juice runs out of under pressure.
Milling and pressing
Rack and cloth
The standard traditional pressing method: pomace is wrapped in a square cloth to form a parcel, a slatted rack is laid on top, and the layers are stacked into a cheese and pressed.
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.
Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise of Cider
John Worlidge · historical source · passage verified 2026-08-24 · covers 1676
Identified on 2026-08-24 from the 1678 edition held by the Internet Archive. John Worlidge, active 1669–1698; the work ran to further editions including 1691, so a citation to it should say which. The full title is broader than the short one CiderHQ uses and matters for what the book can be cited for: it covers other fruit wines and drinks alongside cider, so it is evidence about seventeenth-century English fruit fermentation generally rather than about cider alone.
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
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.