Glossary · History
Stumming
Also written stum, matching. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The old practice of burning a sulphur match inside a cask before filling it, to sterilise the vessel and suppress fermentation in the cider put into it — the ancestor of modern sulphiting.
- Subject
- History
- Also written
- stum, matching
In more detail
A strip of cloth impregnated with sulphur was lit and lowered into the empty cask, filling it with sulphur dioxide gas. The technique long predates any understanding of why it worked, and it demonstrates that the effective agent of modern cellar practice was in use centuries before the microbiology.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fermentation
Sulphiting
Adding sulphur dioxide, usually as potassium or sodium metabisulphite, to juice or cider to suppress spoilage organisms, inhibit oxidation and enzymatic browning, and give a selected yeast a clear field.
Chemistry
Sulphur dioxide
The antimicrobial and antioxidant additive of cider and wine-making, added as a metabisulphite salt or as gas. In solution it exists as molecular SO₂, bisulphite and sulphite, in proportions set by pH.
Equipment
Cask
A wooden vessel of staves bound by hoops, bulging at the middle so it can be rolled and turned. Casks both store cider and shape it, admitting a slow ingress of oxygen through the wood.
Fermentation
Arrested fermentation
Deliberately stopping a fermentation before the sugar is exhausted, in order to retain natural sweetness. Achieved by repeated racking, chilling, filtration, sulphite, or a combination.
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.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.