Learning path

Understand cider

You can say what is in a glass of cider, read its label in any of the main producing countries, and tell a fault from a style.

Who this is for

You drink cider, or are curious about it, and have never been told what it actually is.

14 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

What cider is · Explainer
The definition, and why it changes at every border.
The fruit · Explainer
Why the apple decides more than the maker does.
How it is made · Explainer
The whole process once, end to end, before any of it in detail.
What fermentation does · Science
Sugar into alcohol, and everything else that changes on the way.
Sweetness · Explainer
The label word that means least, and what it means in each country.
Bubbles · Explainer
The three routes to carbon dioxide, which a label rarely names.
Strength · Explainer
Why one cider is 3% and another 12%, and what the number does to the drink.
Cloudy and clear · Explainer
What haze is, so that it stops looking like a fault.
Farmhouse and commercial · Explainer
The two ends of the trade, and what separates them in the glass.
Reading a label · Explainer
Everything above, put to work on a real label.
Tasting · Explainer
How to notice what you are drinking rather than just whether you like it.
Serving · Explainer
The one serving decision that changes the taste most.
Fault or style? · Science
Why the same smell is a fault in one cider and the point of another.
Cider beyond English · Explainer
Where to go next: the traditions behind the other words for it.

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