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Measuring guide

Planning a batch: fruit in, bottles out

How much fruit do I need, and how many bottles will I get?

In short

Roughly: a tonne of apples gives 600 to 780 litres of juice depending almost entirely on the press, and about a tenth of that juice is lost between the press and the bottle. So 100 kg of fruit is somewhere near 65 litres of juice and 80-odd bottles — with "somewhere near" doing real work in that sentence.

The number that matters more than the total is where the losses fall. Volume disappears in steps: at the press, at the first racking off gross lees, at each racking after that, and in the filler. A maker who has not counted them discovers at the second racking that they have twenty-two litres and a twenty-five litre vessel, and the choice is then between a headspace and a container they do not own.

Every figure here is a range and none of them is a specification. Press yield is a property of the press at least as much as of the fruit; orchard yield is the least predictable number in cider; and losses depend on how much sediment a particular batch throws.

Who this is for. Somebody deciding how much fruit to buy, pick or press, or working out whether their vessels will still be full in February. It assumes nothing beyond arithmetic. (no experience assumed · 5 steps)

Where scale changes the answer

The proportions hold at any scale; what changes is what a shortfall costs. At twenty litres a topping-up gap is solved with a bottle of the same cider. At two thousand it is a tank you cannot fill, and the answer is planned in advance as variable-capacity vessels or an inert-gas headspace rather than improvised in the cellar.

What each reading tells you, and what it does notFive measurements, the question each actually answers, and the question each is routinely asked and cannot answer. Every entry in the second column is a real and common error.What it detectsWhat it cannotSpecific gravityDissolved solids, so sugarWhether it has finishedRefractometerSugar, before fermentingAnything after it startsTitratable acidityHow sharp it will readThe pHpHSpoilage risk, sulphiteHow sharp it tastesFree SO₂Almost nothing aloneWhether it is protectedEvery entry on the right is a common error, not a theoretical one.
Five measurements, the question each actually answers, and the question each is routinely asked and cannot answer. Every entry in the second column is a real and common error.
Described in full
Layout
Five rows, one per measurement, each split into what it detects and what it cannot. The second half of each row is the substance: a measurement misused is worse than one not taken, because the number looks the same either way.
Specific gravity
Tells you dissolved solids, and so sugar in a juice and alcohol when read against a starting figure. It does not tell you whether a fermentation has finished — that needs two readings days apart — and in a perry it includes sorbitol, which never ferments.
Refractometer
Tells you sugar concentration in unfermented juice from two drops. It does not work once fermentation has begun: ethanol bends light differently, so a fermenting sample reads as though it holds far more sugar than it does. This is the commonest instrument error in home cider-making.
Titratable acidity
Tells you how much acid is present, and so how sharp the cider will read. It does not tell you pH, and the two can move apart — a malolactic fermentation lowers acidity a little and raises pH considerably more.
pH
Tells you microbial risk and how much of any free sulphur dioxide is in its active molecular form. It does not tell you how sharp the cider tastes, and an uncalibrated meter gives a plausible wrong answer rather than an obviously wrong one.
Free sulphur dioxide
Tells you almost nothing on its own. Only alongside pH does it become molecular SO₂, which is the figure that has an antimicrobial meaning. The same free reading protects a sharp juice and leaves a low-acid bittersweet one effectively unprotected.

The path

Each step says what happens, why it matters downstream, and what you are actually deciding. The links under a step are where the depth is.

  1. 1. How much fruit, and what a tonne actually means

    Working backwards from a target volume is the more useful direction, because the target is usually fixed by a vessel you already own. The conversion is the press yield, and the honest range is wide: a traditional screw or basket press might give 550–650 litres per tonne, a rack-and-cloth or hydraulic press 650–720, and a modern belt press 720–780.

    That spread is not fruit variation. It is the press, and it is the single largest controllable variable in the whole calculation. Milling matters too — pomace milled too coarsely holds juice the press cannot reach, and milled too finely turns to a paste that seals under pressure and holds it in.

    In counted fruit rather than weighed: a cider apple runs roughly 100 to 150 grams, so a tonne is somewhere between seven and ten thousand apples. That number is worth working out once, because it converts an abstract weight into a picture of how long the day will be.

    Why it matters: Fruit is bought or picked once, and a shortfall discovered at the press cannot be corrected that season.

    What to measure

    • Fruit needed for a target volume, at your press type — How much to buy or pick. Choose the yield figure for the press you will actually use, not an average. Work it out.
    • Juice from a weight of fruit you already have — The same relation the other way round, for when the fruit is what is fixed. Work it out.
    • Fruit an area of orchard will crop — A planning figure, and the least reliable number in cider. Biennial bearing alone can halve it between one year and the next. Work it out.

    Go deeper

    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.

    • 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.

  2. 2. Where the volume goes

    Juice out of the press is not cider into bottles, and the difference is larger than most people plan for. The gross lees after primary fermentation can be five to ten per cent of the volume on a heavily sedimented batch — more if the fruit went in dirty. Each racking after that costs two to four per cent. The filler and the hoses hold a litre or two whatever the batch size, which matters proportionally more the smaller you are working.

    A working figure for a careful small-scale transfer is around four per cent per racking, with the first racking off gross lees costing considerably more. Three rackings on twenty-five litres is around three litres gone, which is a bottle and a half of every dozen.

    The consequence is a vessel problem rather than a volume problem. Headspace is the first-named cause on the volatile acidity record and appears in the prevention list of oxidation, acetification and film yeast; a batch that has shrunk below what its container holds needs a smaller container or topping up, and both have to be arranged before the racking rather than after.

    Why it matters: Working the losses out in September is free. Discovering them in March is a choice between a headspace and a vessel you do not own.

    What to measure

    • Cider lost across the rackings still to come — How much to hold back, or how much smaller the next vessel needs to be. Work it out.

    Tools for this step

    Go deeper

    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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

  3. 3. Bottles, and what to prime them with

    Bottle count is the last arithmetic and the easiest to get wrong by forgetting the losses above it. A batch that measured twenty-five litres at the press is not twenty-five litres at the filler, and counting bottles from the press figure leaves you a dozen short of the caps you bought.

    If the cider is to be sparkling, the priming sugar is calculated on the volume actually being bottled and at the temperature the cider is actually at — both of which have moved since the press. A cider racked cold already holds most of a light carbonation, and priming it as though it held none roughly doubles the result.

    Closures and glass are decided here too, and by the pressure rather than by preference. Anything above about three volumes needs Champagne glass; a crown-capped beer bottle is rated to roughly four bar, which an ordinary sparkling cider reaches at around 35 °C.

    Why it matters: This is the step where a planning error becomes a physical one, because the wrong glass does not fail gracefully.

    Hazard

    Plan the glass around the pressure rather than around what is in the shed. A crown-capped beer bottle holds roughly 4 bar, which an ordinary sparkling cider passes in a warm room; a still-wine bottle is not a pressure vessel at all. Confirm a stable gravity before priming anything, because priming an unfinished cider adds a measured charge on top of an unmeasured one.

    What to measure

    • Bottles from the volume you will actually have — How many to buy and sanitise, with a realistic allowance for what stays behind. Work it out.
    • Priming sugar at the bottling volume and temperature — How much to add, with the dissolved gas already present subtracted. Work it out.

    Go deeper

    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.

    • 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.

  4. 4. Planning to blend, and planning to adjust

    Fermenting components separately and blending at the end needs more vessels than fermenting one mixed press, and the vessel count is the part people forget. Four varieties fermented apart is four vessels, four airlocks and four sets of racking losses — and the headspace penalty in small vessels is proportionally worse, so dividing twenty-five litres four ways makes the topping-up problem four times harder rather than the same.

    It is still usually the right decision, because it defers every blending choice until the components can be tasted and it isolates a fault to one vessel rather than to the batch. But it is a decision about equipment as much as about cider.

    Two adjustments are worth planning for rather than improvising. *Dilution is occasionally wanted where a juice is unexpectedly high in sugar and would ferment to a strength you did not intend — and it brings acid, tannin and aroma down in exactly the same proportion, which is why it is a last resort. Sugar addition* raises a low-gravity juice, is restricted or prohibited under some designations, and adds alcohol without adding anything else.

    Why it matters: Both adjustments are cheap to plan and awkward to improvise, and one of them is regulated.

    What to measure

    • Where a proposed blend lands on strength, acid or gravity — What the components will make before you commit them. Blends are linear in analysis and not in perception, so this narrows rather than settles. Work it out.
    • Water needed to bring a strength down — How much dilution a target needs — and, by implication, how much of everything else you are giving up. Work it out.
    • Sugar needed to raise a juice to a target gravity — The addition and the alcohol it produces. Where it is permitted is a separate question from whether it works. Work it out.

    What can go wrong here

    Go deeper

    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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

  5. 5. How wrong these numbers can be

    Every figure on this page is a range presented as a point, and it is worth knowing which ranges are wide. Press yield varies by roughly a third between press types on identical fruit. Orchard yield is the least predictable number in cider — biennial bearing alone can halve a crop between one year and the next, and frost at blossom can remove it entirely.

    Losses are the most variable of all, because they depend on how much sediment a particular batch throws, which depends on the fruit, the ferment and how carefully it was transferred. The four per cent per racking used here suits a reasonably clear cider moved carefully; a heavily sedimented first racking off gross lees can cost twice that.

    The practical response is to plan with a margin rather than to seek a better figure. Buy the fruit for slightly more juice than you want, keep a smaller vessel available for the shrinking batch, and buy more closures than the bottle count says. None of those costs much and each removes a decision that would otherwise have to be made badly, at speed, in a cellar.

    Why it matters: A plan built on point estimates fails at whichever estimate was furthest out, and the estimate furthest out is almost always the one nobody thought was uncertain.

    Go deeper

    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.

Where to go next

Guides that follow on from this one.

Questions this answers

Shown so you can tell whether this is the guide you wanted.

Where to go next

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.