Glossary · Cider
Sparkling
Definition
Carrying enough dissolved carbon dioxide to form a persistent bead and a distinct prickle, whether from bottle conditioning, tank conditioning or injected gas.
- Subject
- Cider
In more detail
Nothing in the word says how the gas got there. A bottle-conditioned cider and a force-carbonated one can hold the same volume of gas and differ in bead size, foam persistence and aroma, because conditioning also leaves yeast, autolysis products and a different fill pressure behind.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Sparkling cider
Cider carrying enough dissolved carbon dioxide to produce a persistent bubble, by bottle fermentation, tank fermentation or injection.
Production
Forced carbonation
Dissolving carbon dioxide into cider under pressure to a chosen level, giving complete control of the sparkle and none of the flavour a second fermentation would contribute.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Cider
Pétillant
Lightly sparkling — enough dissolved gas to prickle on the tongue but well below the pressure of a fully sparkling cider, typically the result of a slow, incomplete secondary fermentation.
Cider
Still
Containing no perceptible dissolved carbon dioxide. Traditional farm cider and Spanish *sidra natural* are still in the glass, though the latter is aerated by the way it is poured.
Fermentation
Bottle conditioning
Carbonating cider by fermentation inside the sealed bottle, either from primed sugar or from sugar left over from an incomplete ferment. The yeast deposit remains unless the bottle is disgorged.
Fermentation
Forced carbonation
Dissolving carbon dioxide into finished cider under pressure, in tank or in line, rather than generating it by fermentation.
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.
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.
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.