Glossary · Fermentation
Unfiltered
Also written cloudy, hazy. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Packaged without filtration, so the cider retains yeast and colloidal material and is usually hazy. It is a process statement rather than a quality claim, and unfiltered ciders throw a sediment.
- Subject
- Fermentation
- Also written
- cloudy, hazy
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.
Fermentation
Filtration
Passing cider through a porous medium to remove suspended solids, yeast and haze. Coarse filtration polishes appearance; fine filtration approaches microbiological stability.
Faults
Sediment
Solid material settled at the bottom of a bottle or cask: yeast, tannin-protein complexes, pectin or tartrates. Expected in bottle-conditioned and unfiltered cider, unwanted in a bright one.
Cider
Real cider
A campaigning definition, established by consumer organisations, for cider made from fresh-pressed juice without pasteurisation, carbonation, concentrate or extensive additions.
Fermentation
Lees
The deposit that settles under a fermenting or maturing cider: dead and living yeast, fruit solids, pectin, tartrate and protein. Gross lees are the coarse first deposit; fine lees are the finer yeast layer that forms afterwards.
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.
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.
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.