Glossary · Serving
Serving temperature
Definition
The temperature at which a cider is poured, which alters what can be perceived: cold suppresses aroma, sweetness and bitterness, and accentuates acidity and carbonation.
- Subject
- Serving
In more detail
Light, aromatic and sparkling ciders are generally served cold, around 6 to 8 degrees Celsius; tannic, still, cask-matured ciders show more at cellar temperature, around 10 to 14. Very cold service is a way of making a simple cider refreshing and of hiding faults, both of which are legitimate reasons for it and neither of which is a reason to serve a complex cider that way.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Serving
Glassware
The vessel a cider is served in, which changes its aroma and appearance. A tapering glass concentrates volatiles at the nose; a wide, thin-walled Asturian glass is shaped for the long pour instead.
Serving
Gravity dispense
Serving cider from a tap in the cask or box by gravity alone, without pump or applied gas. It is the traditional method for still farmhouse cider and the standard at cider festivals.
Sensory
Mousse
The foam a sparkling cider forms when poured, and its persistence. Fine, long-lasting mousse is associated with bottle conditioning; coarse, quickly collapsing foam with injected gas.
Sensory
Aroma threshold
The lowest concentration at which a compound can be detected in a given medium, usually defined as the level at which half a panel distinguishes it from a blank.
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.
BJCP Beer Style Guidelines — cider and perry categories
Beer Judge Certification Program · classification framework · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24, and the edition matters. CiderHQ registered the 2015 cider guidelines; BJCP has since published a 2025 cider edition, and the old URL now redirects into the current guidelines index. A competition style guide is a dated framework rather than a standing definition, and citing the wrong edition of one is the same class of error as citing a superseded specification. CiderHQ treats BJCP as one competition framework among several and never as the universal cider taxonomy.
CAMRA cider and perry standards
Campaign for Real Ale · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. Registered for the consumer-campaigning vocabulary — "real cider", "full juice" — which is advocacy language rather than legal definition, and is recorded as such wherever CiderHQ uses it.