Glossary · Milling and pressing
Second pressing
Also written watering back, repressing. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
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.
- Subject
- Milling and pressing
- Also written
- watering back, repressing
In more detail
The historic version of this is ciderkin, the small drink made for farm labourers and children from washed pomace. The modern version underlies part of the industrial juice-content question: a second-pressing extract diluted to strength is not the same as pressed juice, and is why regulators define cider by apparent juice content rather than by what a producer chooses to call juice.
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
Ciderkin
A weak drink made by soaking pressed pomace in water and pressing it again, historically supplied to farm workers and to households as an everyday beverage of low strength.
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.
Law and labelling
Apparent juice content
The proportion of a cider that is treated as having come from apple juice, calculated for excise purposes from the product’s composition rather than measured directly at the mill.
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.
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.
Alcoholic Products Technical Guide, section 2 — alcoholic products (formerly Excise Notice 162)
HM Revenue & Customs · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
What may be called cider or perry for UK duty purposes. The substantive text now lives in section 2 of the Alcoholic Products Technical Guide rather than in the notice itself, and the passages below were read there. The widely repeated "35% juice" figure checks out — but note two things the figure alone hides: it is a tax threshold rather than a quality standard, and concentrate and dilution both count towards it.
Somerset Rural Life Museum — cider collections
South West Heritage Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24