Glossary · Fruit
Sweating
Also written mellowing, maturing the fruit. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Holding harvested fruit in a heap or a shed for days or weeks before milling, so that starch converts to sugar, flesh softens and moisture is lost.
- Subject
- Fruit
- Also written
- mellowing, maturing the fruit
In more detail
Sweating raises the specific gravity of the juice, partly by real sugar conversion and partly by water loss, and it softens the fruit so that it mills and presses more freely. Traditional practice sweated late-season bittersweets for several weeks in heaps under cover.
The risk is that sweating and rotting are the same process at different depths. Fruit held too long, too warm or too wet develops mould, raising the patulin load and the acetic burden, so the practice depends on sound fruit and cool weather.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Sweating the fruit
Deliberately heaping or storing gathered fruit so that it softens, loses water and finishes converting starch before it goes to the mill.
Production
Fruit storage before milling
Holding a gathered crop between harvest and the mill, and managing what respiration, water loss and spoilage do to it while it waits.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Bletting
The softening and internal browning of fruit after ripening, in which cell walls break down, starch and tannin change, and flesh becomes soft and sweet. Perry pears in particular are often used at or near this stage.
Fruit
Ripeness
The stage at which fruit has completed starch conversion, reached its characteristic sugar and softened enough to press. For cider fruit it is judged later than for dessert fruit, often at or after natural drop.
Orchard
Windfall
Fruit that has fallen from the tree before deliberate harvest. In cider orchards windfalls are a normal part of the crop; the question is how long they have lain and in what condition.
Chemistry
Specific gravity
The density of a liquid relative to water at the same temperature. In cider it is the routine measure of dissolved sugar before fermentation and of progress during it.
Chemistry
Patulin
A mycotoxin produced chiefly by *Penicillium expansum* in rotting apples, regulated in apple juice and apple products because of its toxicity. Sorting out rotten fruit is the principal control.
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.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
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.
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.