Learning path

Cider science

You can explain a cider’s taste from its chemistry and microbiology, and say where the science is settled and where it is not.

Who this is for

You want the mechanisms: why cider tastes, smells and behaves as it does.

13 pages, each assuming only the ones before it. Every step is an ordinary page on the site; at the foot of each one is the way to the next.

The steps

Apple juice, chemically · Science
The starting material: sugars, acids, phenolics, nitrogen.
The acids · Science
Malic acid and what fermentation does to it.
Sugar and perceived sweetness · Science
Why measured sugar and tasted sweetness part company.
Tannin · Science
Bitterness and astringency are two different molecules’ work.
Fermentation · Science
The yeast’s chemistry, and what it leaves behind.
Nitrogen · Science
The nutrient apple juice lacks, and its consequences.
Where flavour comes from · Science
Fruit, yeast, bacteria and time, each traced.
Aroma families · Science
The compounds behind the words a taster uses.
Oxidation · Science
Oxygen’s chemistry, from browning to sherry notes.
Sulphur dioxide · Science
The molecular form that does the work, and why pH governs it.
Carbonation and taste · Science
Dissolved CO₂ as an ingredient, not a texture.
Fault or feature · Science
Where chemistry ends and convention begins.
What is not known · Science
The open questions, stated as such.

Understand cider — You drink cider, or are curious about it, and have never been told what it actually is.
Make your first cider — You have a demijohn or a fermenting bucket, juice or fruit, and no experience — and you want a sound first batch rather than a lucky one.
Become a better cider maker — You have made a few batches and want them to be good on purpose rather than by luck.
Understand perry — You have heard perry is not pear cider and want to know what it is instead.
Orchards and fruit — You want to understand where cider fruit comes from: the tree, the orchard and the year.
History and culture — You want the story: where cider came from, who drank it, and the customs that still survive.