can i ferment cider in a plastic barrel, and how do i know it is safe

Plastic fermenters are usually high-density polyethylene, polypropylene or, for carboys, polyethylene terephthalate. All three are used throughout the food industry and none of them are a problem in themselves.

can you make cider from ordinary eating apples

Yes, and a great deal of cider is made that way. Dessert apples give a lighter, sharper cider because they carry little tannin, where cider apples were selected for the bitterness and body tannin provides.

do i need a ph meter for cider, and how do i keep it accurate

A pH meter consists of a glass electrode that develops a small voltage proportional to hydrogen ion activity, a reference electrode, and a meter that converts that voltage into a pH reading.

does cider contain sulphites

Most does. Sulphur dioxide is added to protect juice and finished cider, and fermentation itself produces a small amount even when none is added. European labels must declare it above 10 mg per litre.

does cider taste of the apples it was made from

Partly, and less than most people assume. The fruit contributes the acid, nearly all the tannin, the sugar and a set of aroma compounds, but a large part of the fruit’s own volatile aroma is lost during fermentation, stripped out by escaping carbon dioxide or metabolised by yeast.

how are apples pressed for cider

The fruit is first milled to a pulp, then that pulp is squeezed — traditionally in cloth-wrapped layers under a screw or hydraulic ram, and industrially in a belt or bladder press. Whole apples cannot be pressed usefully; they must be broken first.

how are cider apples classified

The English scheme sorts fruit on acid and tannin into sweet, bittersweet, sharp and bittersharp. It is not the only system: France, Spain and the perry pear literature each divide fruit differently, so a class only means something once you name the scheme.

how did cider become an industry rather than a farm product

Between the 1870s and the 1920s a group of firms in Herefordshire, Somerset, Devon and Norfolk began buying fruit from farms instead of pressing their own, working at a scale no farm cellar could reach, and selling a product that tasted the same from one cask to the next. Consistency, not quality, was the thing they were selling.

how do i carbonate my cider

Either add a measured dose of sugar at bottling and let the remaining yeast make the gas, or push carbon dioxide into it under pressure in a keg. The first needs pressure-rated bottles; the second needs gas and a regulator.

how do i know if a cider bottle is dangerously over-carbonated, and what should i do about it

A bottle that is refermenting beyond what its glass was designed for can fail, and glass failing under pressure produces fragments travelling fast enough to cause serious injury, particularly to the eyes.

how do i know when my cider has finished fermenting

Take two hydrometer readings several days apart: if the gravity has not moved, the ferment is over. Airlock activity is not a reliable test, because a slow ferment can produce gas too slowly to see.

how do i make cider at home

Press or buy apple juice with no preservative in it, put it in a clean vessel with an airlock, and either let the wild yeast start or pitch a cultured strain. The hardest parts for a beginner are cleanliness and patience, not equipment.

how do i use a hydrometer to measure cider

A hydrometer floats at a depth determined by the density of the liquid it is in. Sugary juice is denser than water, so the hydrometer floats high; as fermentation converts sugar to alcohol the density falls and it sinks.

how do i work out the abv of my cider

Take a hydrometer reading before fermentation and another when it finishes, and multiply the difference in gravity points by about 131. From 1.050 to 0.998 is 52 points, which is roughly 6.8 per cent.

how do you taste cider systematically rather than just drinking it

Systematic tasting is a matter of doing the same things in the same order every time, so that differences between ciders show up as differences in the notes rather than as differences in how the ciders happened to be approached.

how do you work out the units in a cider, and why do uk and us measures differ

A UK unit is 10 ml — about 8 grams — of pure ethanol, and units are calculated by multiplying the volume in litres by the ABV. A 568 ml pint at 6 per cent is 3.4 units.

how does cider ferment

Yeast consumes the sugar in apple juice and produces roughly equal masses of ethanol and carbon dioxide, along with the esters and higher alcohols that give cider much of its aroma. In a wild ferment several yeast species take turns before Saccharomyces finishes the job.

Apples are milled to a pulp, pressed to release juice, and the juice is fermented by yeast until most of its sugar has become alcohol. Everything after that — racking, blending, sweetening, carbonating, packaging — is a choice rather than a necessity.

how long does cider last

An unopened commercial cider is usually at its finest within a year of packaging, and filtered, pasteurised products carry a stated date. Strong, tannic, bottle-conditioned ciders can improve for several years.

how long does cider take to ferment

A warm ferment with cultured yeast can finish in one to two weeks; a cool wild ferment in a cellar may take three months or more. Slow is not the same as stuck — the test is whether gravity is still falling.

how long does it take to make cider

Primary fermentation usually runs from about two weeks to three months depending on temperature and yeast, and most ciders then need several more months of settling and maturation before they are worth drinking.

how long does opened cider last

A day or two refrigerated and stoppered. Carbonation is lost first, then the cider begins to oxidise, and a bottle left open at room temperature can pick up acetic character within days.

how long does unopened cider keep, and does it depend on the style

It depends heavily on the style, and the range is wide: a light, filtered, low-tannin cider is usually at its best within six to twelve months of packaging, while a tannic, bottle-conditioned traditional cider can hold and develop for several years.

how many apples do i need for a gallon of cider

As a working figure, a gallon of juice takes roughly seven to eight kilograms of apples, which is somewhere between forty and sixty average fruit. The true number depends far more on the press than on the apples.

how many calories are in cider

Roughly 40 to 60 kcal per 100 ml for most ciders, so a UK pint falls somewhere around 200 to 250 kcal. Alcohol contributes about 7 kcal per gram and residual sugar about 4, so both strength and sweetness matter.

how many traditional orchards have been lost, and what is being done about it

Traditional orchards in England and Wales declined severely over the twentieth century, through grubbing-up grants, conversion to other agricultural uses, development and simple neglect. The scale is now documented rather than guessed, because the habitat has been mapped.

how many units are in a pint of cider

A UK pint of 4.5 per cent cider contains about 2.6 units; at 6 per cent it is about 3.4. One UK unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol, so units scale directly with both strength and volume.

how much cider can i drink and still drive

There is no answer to that question that CiderHQ or anyone else can give you. No calculation from units, body weight, time elapsed or how you feel establishes an individual’s blood alcohol concentration, and none of them establishes that you are safe to drive.

how much priming sugar for cider

Around 6 to 8 grams of sugar per litre gives a light sparkle and roughly 10 to 12 gives a champagne-like fizz — but the cider already holds dissolved gas depending on its temperature, and that has to be counted.

how old is cider in asturias

Apple orchards and cider appear in Asturian documents from the medieval period onwards, and by the early modern centuries cider was the ordinary drink of much of the region — a matter of climate and land as much as of custom, since northern Spain grows apples far better than it grows vines.

how old is perry and where does it come from

Perry — fermented pear juice, made from tannic and often inedible perry pears rather than from dessert fruit — is recorded in England from the medieval period and was made across northern France and the Low Countries as well. Its English heartland is a small area of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the Welsh border where the soils and climate suit the trees.

Most cider is between about 3% and 8.5% alcohol by volume — mainstream products around 4 to 5.5%, traditional West Country cider and Spanish sidra natural often 5.5 to 8%, French cidre frequently lower. The ceiling is not arbitrary: apple juice rarely carries enough sugar to ferment past roughly 8.5%.

is a bruised apple character in cider a fault

The brown, soft, faintly sweet note of enzymatic browning, met wherever apple tissue or juice has met air.

is a farmyard character in cider a fault

The composite animal-and-straw note of volatile phenols with short-chain fatty acids, central to traditional farmhouse character.

is a rotten egg character in cider a fault

Hydrogen sulphide from yeast under nitrogen stress — the commonest sulphur fault and the most correctable.

is a vinegar character in cider a fault

Acetic acid from acetic acid bacteria oxidising ethanol in the presence of air — the classic cider spoilage.

Cider made from apples contains no gluten, because apples contain none. The exceptions are ciders with barley or wheat-derived additions, some hopped or flavoured products, and shared production lines — so the label, not the category, is what settles it.

Cider itself is a plant product, but some producers clarify it with animal-derived finings such as gelatine, isinglass or chitosan. Vegan status therefore depends on the fining regime, which is why some ciders are certified and others are not.

is it safe to drink cider during pregnancy

The UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance is that if you are pregnant or think you could become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, in order to keep risks to the baby to a minimum.

is mass-market cider made from apple juice

Partly. Most high-volume cider is made from apple juice concentrate reconstituted with water, fermented, and adjusted with sugar, water and sweeteners to a target strength and sweetness. The finished drink can contain a minority of apple juice by volume and still be sold as cider in the United Kingdom.

Questions readers ask about cider

What cider is

The questions people ask before they ask anything else.

what is cider: Cider is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting the juice of apples. In Britain, Ireland and most of Europe the word on its own means the fermented drink; in the United States it usually means unfermented apple juice, and the fermented drink is called hard cider.
what is hard cider: Hard cider is the American term for fermented apple juice — the drink that in Britain is simply called cider. The qualifier exists because in the United States "cider" already means the unfermented juice.
what is perry: Perry is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting the juice of pears, traditionally of specific perry pear cultivars rather than eating pears. It is to pears what cider is to apples, and has its own history in the three counties of England and in Normandy.
what is a cider apple: A cider apple is a cultivar grown for fermenting rather than eating, usually because it carries far more tannin than a dessert apple. Most are unpleasant to eat raw, which is exactly what makes them useful in a vat.
what is cider actually made from: At minimum, apple juice and yeast. Everything else — sulphite, nutrients, sugar, water, concentrate, colouring, flavouring — is optional and varies enormously between a farmhouse press and a large plant.
what makes a cider apple different from an eating apple: A cider apple is a variety selected for the qualities that matter in a fermented drink rather than the qualities that matter on a plate. In practice that means much more tannin, frequently lower acid, a good sugar concentration and juice that gives a drink with structure instead of one that tastes like thin apple juice.
what does everything on a cider label mean: Every cider label carries a strength figure and a volume, and almost all carry an allergen statement where sulphites are present above the declarable threshold. Beyond that, what a label must say — and what it is permitted to say — differs sharply between jurisdictions.
what is scrumpy: Scrumpy is an informal West Country word for strong, still, usually cloudy farmhouse cider. It has no legal definition, so it describes a style expectation rather than a guaranteed method.
what does made from concentrate mean on a cider: It means the juice was evaporated to a syrup after pressing, stored or shipped, and then rewatered before fermentation. Concentration removes most of the volatile aroma, so the finished cider depends more on what is added back than on the fruit.
what is calvados: Calvados is apple brandy distilled from Normandy cider under a French protected designation, and aged in oak. It is a spirit, not a cider, though every bottle begins as one.
what is ice cider: Ice cider is made by concentrating apple juice by freezing before fermentation, so that the ferment starts from a very high sugar level and stops sweet. It is a Quebec speciality with a protected definition there.
what is cider vinegar: Cider vinegar is cider whose alcohol has been oxidised to acetic acid by acetic acid bacteria. The same organisms that make it deliberately are the ones that spoil a cider accidentally.
what is sidra natural: Sidra natural is the still, dry, unfiltered cider of Asturias and the Basque Country, bottled without added carbonation and poured from a height to rouse it. It is tart, funky and made to be drunk in small measures poured one at a time.
what is a perry pear: A perry pear is a pear cultivar grown for fermenting, characteristically small, hard, astringent and gritty with stone cells. Almost none of them are worth eating.
what is keeving: Keeving is a technique for starving a ferment of nitrogen so that it stops before all the sugar is gone, leaving a naturally sweet cider. Pectin is made to gel and float as a brown cap, carrying nutrients and yeast out of the juice with it.
what is fruit cider: Fruit cider is cider flavoured with another fruit, either as juice, purée or flavouring, added after fermentation. How much apple has to remain varies by jurisdiction, and in some markets very little does.
what is sweet cider in america: In the United States and Canada, sweet cider means fresh, unfermented, usually unfiltered apple juice, with no alcohol in it. In Britain the same phrase means a fermented cider with residual sugar.
what is pear cider: Pear cider is a modern marketing term for fermented pear drinks, often made from dessert pears or pear concentrate. Traditionalists reserve the word perry for drinks made from perry pear cultivars, and the two are not interchangeable.
why do cider apples taste so bad if you bite one: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
if cider is just fermented apple juice, why does it not taste like apple juice: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does dry cider in one country taste sweeter than dry cider in another: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is one cider 4% and another 8%: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does 50% apple juice on a cider label mean: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is cider made from concentrate worse: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does craft cider mean anything: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does single variety mean on a cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why do cider makers blend: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is the difference between farmhouse cider and the stuff in cans: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is wild fermented cider better: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is keeving and why does it make cider sweet: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does bottle conditioned mean on a cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is some cider fizzy and some flat: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i find out what kind of cider i like: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what do people get wrong about cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is cider always made from apples: Almost always, and not universally. French national law defines cidre as fermented apple must or a mixture of apple and pear must, and the Cidre de Normandie indication explicitly admits perry pears — traditionally used to acidify the juice.

Also answered on this site:

How it is made

The process, from fruit to bottle.

how is cider made: Apples are milled to a pulp, pressed to release juice, and the juice is fermented by yeast until most of its sugar has become alcohol. Everything after that — racking, blending, sweetening, carbonating, packaging — is a choice rather than a necessity.
how do i make cider at home: Press or buy apple juice with no preservative in it, put it in a clean vessel with an airlock, and either let the wild yeast start or pitch a cultured strain. The hardest parts for a beginner are cleanliness and patience, not equipment.
how long does it take to make cider: Primary fermentation usually runs from about two weeks to three months depending on temperature and yeast, and most ciders then need several more months of settling and maturation before they are worth drinking.
what are the stages of making cider: Nine: orchard, harvest, milling, pressing, juice assessment, fermentation, maturation, blending and packaging. Sugar, acid and tannin are largely fixed by the time the fruit is picked; sweetness, carbonation and clarity stay adjustable almost to the closure.
how do you make perry at home: Perry is made much as cider is, but perry pears must usually be left to sit after picking until they soften, and their juice is slower to clear and slower to ferment. Sorbitol in the juice does not ferment, so a dry perry still tastes faintly sweet.
how are apples milled for cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
do you add sugar when making cider: You do not have to: apple juice already contains enough sugar to ferment to roughly five or six per cent. Sugar is added when a maker wants more alcohol than the fruit will give, and in some jurisdictions how much may be added is restricted.
do you have to add yeast to cider: No — apple juice carries enough wild yeast to ferment on its own, and much traditional cider is made that way. Adding a cultured yeast buys predictability and speed, at the cost of some of the complexity a mixed population gives.
why is sulphite added to cider: Sulphur dioxide suppresses spoilage bacteria and wild yeast before fermentation and protects the finished cider from oxidation. How much of it is active depends strongly on pH, which is why low-acid juice is harder to protect.
how is cider carbonated: Either by dissolving carbon dioxide into finished cider under pressure, or by letting a small second fermentation produce the gas inside a sealed bottle or tank. The first is faster and more repeatable; the second leaves sediment and a finer bead.
how is sparkling cider made: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how is cider sweetened: Most sweet cider is fermented dry and then sweetened afterwards with juice, concentrate, sugar or a non-fermentable sweetener, and stabilised so the yeast cannot start on it again. Keeving is the main way of arriving at sweetness without adding anything.
how do you stop cider from fermenting: By removing the yeast, by chilling, by filtering it out, by pasteurising, or by a combination — and in practice a home maker cannot reliably stop a ferment mid-way with chemicals alone. Sorbate prevents yeast multiplying but will not stop an active ferment.
what is racking in cider making: Racking is siphoning cider off the sediment it has thrown into a clean vessel, leaving the lees behind. It clarifies the cider and, in traditional practice, is also used to slow a ferment by removing yeast with the lees.
how do you blend cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do you sterilise cider making equipment: Clean first with a detergent to remove residue, then sanitise the clean surface — sanitiser applied over dirt does nothing. Most spoilage in home cider is traceable to a vessel, tap or siphon that was rinsed rather than cleaned.
what is priming sugar: Priming sugar is a measured dose of sugar added at bottling so that the remaining yeast produces carbon dioxide inside the sealed bottle. Too much of it is the usual cause of burst bottles.
what equipment do i need to make cider: At the smallest scale: a way to crush the fruit, a way to press it, a fermenting vessel with an airlock, a siphon, and a hydrometer. Everything else is refinement.
what do you actually need to make cider: A way to break the fruit, a way to press it, a vessel that can be sealed and a hydrometer. Everything else is refinement, and the two that most often decide whether a batch survives are a full vessel and a clean one.
what are the stages of cider making: Fruit, milling, pressing, a set of decisions about the juice, fermentation, maturation, blending and packaging. Only the middle three are unavoidable; everything else is a choice, and most cider in the world has been made without most of them.
how do i improve my cider: By narrowing variables rather than adding techniques: know the juice analytically before fermenting it, deal with nitrogen deliberately, ferment cooler than feels necessary, and blend from separately fermented components rather than co-fermenting a mixed press.

Also answered on this site:

The apples

Which fruit, why that fruit, and what makes it different from the apples in a shop.

what apples are used for cider: Traditional West Country cider uses bittersweet and bittersharp cultivars grown only for pressing, such as Dabinett, Yarlington Mill and Kingston Black. Elsewhere — and in most large-scale production — dessert and culinary apples make up much or all of the blend.
how many apples do i need for a gallon of cider: As a working figure, a gallon of juice takes roughly seven to eight kilograms of apples, which is somewhere between forty and sixty average fruit. The true number depends far more on the press than on the apples.
what does a rootstock actually do, and what do the m numbers mean: Every named apple cultivar is propagated by grafting a shoot of it onto the root system of a different tree. That root system, the rootstock, controls vigour and therefore final tree size, how quickly the tree comes into bearing, how long it will live, how well it anchors itself, and how it tolerates waterlogging and certain soil-borne diseases.
why are traditional orchards treated as an important wildlife habitat: A traditional orchard is a mosaic. Above the ground it behaves like wood pasture — widely spaced, open-grown, ageing trees with dead limbs, rot holes and decaying heartwood — and beneath it is permanent, usually unimproved grassland that has not been ploughed or heavily fertilised for decades. Both components are scarce in the modern lowland landscape, and the combination is scarcer still.
what are the best apples for cider: There is no best apple, because a cider is a blend of properties rather than a fruit. What a blend needs is tannin, acid and sugar in some balance, and the classification systems exist to say which fruit supplies which — a bittersweet brings tannin and body, a sharp brings acid and a safer pH.
what varieties of cider apple are there: Several hundred are named in England alone, and CiderHQ holds records for 293 cider apples and 81 perry pears. They are conventionally sorted by class rather than listed: sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp under the English scheme, with different schemes in France and Spain.
what is dabinett: The most widely planted English cider apple: a late bittersweet with soft, full tannin that ferments into a cider needing very little added to it. Long Ashton measured it at 0.18 per cent acid and 0.29 per cent tannin.
can you make cider from any apple: You can ferment the juice of any apple, but the result differs sharply. Fruit with little tannin gives a thin, simple drink, which is why blends usually combine sharp, sweet and bitter fruit rather than relying on one type.
what is a dabinett apple: Dabinett is a Somerset bittersweet cider apple, soft in tannin and reliable in the orchard, and the single most widely planted cider cultivar in modern England. It is one of the few bittersweets that makes a balanced cider on its own.
what is kingston black: Kingston Black is a Somerset bittersharp with an unusual balance of acid and tannin, long regarded as capable of making a complete cider unblended. It is difficult to grow well, which is why it is scarcer than its reputation suggests.
how much juice do you get from apples: A well-run rack-and-cloth or hydraulic press returns roughly 60 to 70 per cent of the fruit weight as juice; a small basket press often manages far less. Yield is a property of the press at least as much as of the fruit.
when are cider apples harvested: In the northern hemisphere the cider harvest runs from about September to November, with late bittersweets such as Dabinett and Vilberie coming in last. Cider fruit is generally picked riper than dessert fruit, and often gathered from the ground.
what is a bush orchard and what changed when cider growers started planting them: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is a frost pocket, and why is the bottom of a valley the wrong place for an orchard: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how is a changing climate affecting cider orchards: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is cider made in the west of england, normandy and asturias rather than everywhere: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what are pollination groups, and what happens if a cider variety flowers alone: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what happens in a cider orchard through the year: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what happens inside a cider apple as it ripens: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do you know when cider apples are ready to pick: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what happens if there is a frost when apple trees are in blossom: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does apple scab matter if the fruit is only going to be pressed: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is apple canker and why is it such a problem in cider country: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
can you press rotten apples, and what actually goes wrong if you do: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does dead wood in an old orchard matter, and what is the noble chafer: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how much orchard has actually been lost, and how do we know: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what makes a good site for a cider orchard: Frost drainage first, then soil depth and water. A hollow that traps cold air on a May night can lose a crop at blossom, and no later decision recovers it.
do cider apple trees need another variety to pollinate them: Almost always. Most apples are self-incompatible, and several important cider varieties are triploid, which means they produce poor pollen and need two compatible partners rather than one.
how should a cider tree be pruned: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
are cider orchards good for wildlife: Traditional orchards can be, and are recognised as a priority habitat in the United Kingdom: old standard trees carry deadwood, and the grassland beneath is often unimproved. A dense modern bush orchard managed intensively is a different proposition.
how much sugar is in cider apples: Usually between about 10 and 16 degrees Brix, which is roughly 1.040 to 1.065 specific gravity and 5 to 8.5 per cent potential alcohol. A 158-accession survey at the United States national apple collection found a mean of 12.3 and a range from 4.9 to 18.8.
how many apples do you need to make cider: Roughly 1.3 to 1.8 kilograms of fruit per litre of juice, depending on the fruit, the mill and the press. CiderHQ does not publish press yield figures because the ones in circulation come from equipment marketing rather than from a comparative trial.
can you make cider from rotten apples: Visibly rotten fruit should be sorted out before milling. Some of the moulds involved produce patulin, a mycotoxin regulated in apple juice that survives pasteurisation and concentrates in and around the rotted tissue — so the control is what goes into the press, not what is done afterwards.
what is somerset redstreak: A mid-season English bittersweet, measured by Long Ashton at 0.19 per cent acid and 0.28 per cent tannin and marked in that table as a vintage-quality fruit. Not the same as the seventeenth-century Redstreak, which is a separate record here.
can you make cider from bramley apples: You can, and it is normally blended rather than used alone. Bramley is a sharp — Long Ashton recorded 0.85 per cent acid and 0.08 per cent tannin — so it raises acid and drops pH in a bittersweet must, and gives a thin, aggressive cider on its own.
why is golden russet used for cider: Because it carries more sugar than almost anything else in the New England repertoire. A late-1970s Geneva analysis of finished cider from it gave 17.0 degrees Brix at pressing, the highest in that table, alongside 0.55 per cent acid.
what is harrison apple: A New Jersey cider apple, nearly lost and revived, and the highest-phenolic fruit in a Virginia study of twenty cultivars at 926 mg/L against a Golden Delicious of 218. It is the clearest single number CiderHQ holds for why a cider apple is a different object from an eating apple.

Also answered on this site:

Perry

A separate drink from a separate fruit, and the vocabulary that goes with it.

what is perry made from: Perry is made from the juice of perry pears — small, hard, tannic cultivars grown for pressing and not for eating. Dessert pears will ferment, but they give a thinner and less structured drink.
what are perry pears: Pear cultivars selected for fermenting rather than eating: small, hard, often astringent, and generally inedible raw. They are a distinct group from dessert pears, and the National Perry Pear Collection holds 121 named varieties, most of them from three English counties.
what is the difference between perry and cider: Perry is fermented pear juice and cider is fermented apple juice, and four chemical differences follow: pear juice carries sorbitol that will not ferment, citric acid that apple juice lacks, much less usable nitrogen, and tannin that reads as drying grip rather than as bitterness.
is perry the same as pear cider: Not necessarily. Perry traditionally means a drink made from perry pear cultivars; pear cider is a modern commercial term that also covers drinks made from dessert pears or pear concentrate. Neither phrase is protected in most markets.
what pears are used to make perry: Named perry pear cultivars such as Blakeney Red, Yellow Huffcap, Barland and Butt, most of them concentrated historically in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Monmouthshire.
what does perry taste like: Perry is typically lighter and more floral than cider, with lower tannin, a rounder texture and a faint sweetness even when dry. Good perry tastes of pear only obliquely.
why is perry not simply cider made from pears: Because the chemistry differs, not only the fruit. Pears carry sorbitol, which yeast cannot ferment, so a fully fermented perry can still taste sweet — and pear juice carries citric acid as well as malic, which a single total-acid figure does not distinguish.
why does dry perry taste sweet: Because part of what tastes sweet in pear juice was never fermentable. Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol that Saccharomyces does not ferment, so it survives intact and is still there when the yeast has finished — a perry can be chemically dry and taste sweet.
why do perry ferments get stuck: Usually nitrogen. A survey of Three Counties perry pears found free amino nitrogen from 70 milligrams per litre down to 1, with proline — which yeast cannot use without oxygen — frequently exceeding everything usable put together. A juice that looks rich in amino acids can have nothing the yeast can eat.
when do i pick perry pears: When the fruit begins to fall, and then press within a day or two. Perry pears ripen from the core outwards, so cutting a sample fruit in half is the only reliable check — brown or mealy tissue at the centre means the window has closed however the outside feels.
how is making perry different from making cider: Four things: the ripeness window is days rather than weeks, the juice carries citric acid that lactic bacteria metabolise, unfermentable sorbitol leaves it tasting sweet, and the pomace presses differently. The gravity arithmetic used for cider overstates a perry’s alcohol.

Also answered on this site:

Milling and pressing

Getting the juice out, and what the method changes.

how are apples pressed for cider: The fruit is first milled to a pulp, then that pulp is squeezed — traditionally in cloth-wrapped layers under a screw or hydraulic ram, and industrially in a belt or bladder press. Whole apples cannot be pressed usefully; they must be broken first.
what is rack and cloth pressing: Pomace is spread onto cloths, folded into parcels and stacked with wooden or plastic racks between them to make a cheese, which is then pressed as a whole. It is slow, labour-intensive and gives clean, high-yielding juice.
what is pressing yield: Pressing yield is the proportion of fruit weight recovered as juice. It varies from under half on a poorly loaded basket press to around seventy per cent on a well-run rack-and-cloth or belt press.
what kind of press do you need to make cider: Any press that applies pressure to milled fruit will work. What separates them is how much air the juice meets on the way out: a rack-and-cloth cheese is largely sealed and slow, a belt press is fast and open, and a bladder press is the one that is both closed and reasonably quick.

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Fermentation

What happens in the vessel, and what a maker can and cannot control.

how does cider ferment: Yeast consumes the sugar in apple juice and produces roughly equal masses of ethanol and carbon dioxide, along with the esters and higher alcohols that give cider much of its aroma. In a wild ferment several yeast species take turns before Saccharomyces finishes the job.
how long does cider take to ferment: A warm ferment with cultured yeast can finish in one to two weeks; a cool wild ferment in a cellar may take three months or more. Slow is not the same as stuck — the test is whether gravity is still falling.
what temperature should cider ferment at: Most cider is fermented cool, commonly between about 12 and 18 °C. Cooler ferments keep more fruit aroma and run slower; above the low twenties the cider tends towards hot, solvent-like higher alcohols.
why did my cider stop fermenting: The usual causes are a shortage of yeast-available nitrogen, a temperature that has dropped, too much sulphite at the start, or a yeast that has reached its alcohol limit. Check the gravity before assuming anything is wrong: many ciders simply finish.
how do i know when my cider has finished fermenting: Take two hydrometer readings several days apart: if the gravity has not moved, the ferment is over. Airlock activity is not a reliable test, because a slow ferment can produce gas too slowly to see.
how do i restart a stuck cider fermentation: Warm the batch gently, then build an active starter and acclimatise it to the cider in stages rather than pitching dry yeast straight in. Yeast dropped into a cold, alcoholic, nutrient-poor liquid usually dies without restarting anything.
why is my cider fermenting so slowly: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what gravity should cider finish at: A cider fermented dry usually finishes between about 0.996 and 1.000, slightly below water because alcohol is less dense. A perry finishes higher because its sorbitol never ferments.
why is my airlock not bubbling: Most often the lid or bung is not airtight and the gas is escaping elsewhere, or the ferment is simply slow. A hydrometer settles the question in a way the airlock cannot.
how can i tell if my cider is fermenting: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is malolactic fermentation: Malolactic fermentation is a bacterial conversion of sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid, releasing carbon dioxide. It lowers total acidity and raises pH, and in cider it is often the source of a farmyard or buttery note as well.
what is a stuck fermentation: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what happens if cider ferments too warm: A hot ferment drives off fruit aroma and produces more fusel alcohols, which read as solvent or spirit-like harshness. It also raises the risk of the ferment running away and blowing the airlock out.
what should i ferment cider in: Anything inert, cleanable and closable: glass demijohns, food-grade plastic, stainless steel, or a wooden cask if you can keep it sound. Vessel shape and material change how much oxygen the cider sees and how fast it clears.
do i need an airlock to make cider: You need something that lets carbon dioxide out without letting air and vinegar flies in. An airlock is the usual answer; a loosely covered vessel works during a vigorous ferment but not once it slows.
how does wild fermentation work: The yeasts that ferment a wild batch come mostly from the mill, press, vessels and cellar rather than from the skins of the fruit. A working cider house therefore carries its own resident population, which is part of why its ciders taste consistent.
what does a hydrometer tell you about cider: It measures density, from which you can infer how much sugar is left. Comparing a starting and a finishing reading gives the alcohol produced; a single reading on its own tells you very little.
what is specific gravity: Specific gravity is the density of a liquid compared with water. Fresh apple juice usually sits around 1.045 to 1.060; as sugar becomes alcohol the figure falls, ending slightly below 1.000 in a dry cider.
can you make cider from shop bought apple juice: Yes, provided the juice contains no preservative — check for potassium sorbate or benzoate on the label. Pasteurised juice ferments perfectly well once yeast is added, because pasteurisation removes the organisms but not the sugar.
what pressure is inside a bottle conditioned cider: The Traditional Welsh Cider specification puts bottle-conditioned cider at 1.5 to 3.0 bar at 0 °C and bottle-fermented cider at 4.0 to 6.0 bar. Any bottle used for a secondary fermentation must withstand a sustained 6 to 12 bar at 25 °C — which is a sparkling-wine bottle, not a still-cider one.
what is yan and why does cider juice run short of it: Yeast assimilable nitrogen is the nitrogen yeast can actually use. Apple juice is usually short of it — in one Virginia survey of 108 samples, 94 per cent fell below the level wine practice treats as a minimum — which is why cider ferments stall more readily than wine ferments.
what does sulphite actually do in cider: It suppresses spoilage organisms and binds oxidation products, but only the undissociated molecular fraction is antimicrobial, and how much of that exists depends sharply on pH. At pH 3.8 a dose is a small fraction as effective as the same dose at pH 3.2.
how do i know when cider fermentation has finished: Stable gravity readings several days apart, not the airlock going quiet. A ferment that has stalled and a ferment that has finished both stop bubbling, and only a hydrometer tells you which one you have.
what should i measure when making cider: Specific gravity and temperature cover most questions. pH and titratable acidity become worth measuring once you are blending or deciding about sulphite, and free sulphur dioxide only means anything alongside pH.
why has my cider not started fermenting: Check the gravity rather than the airlock first — a lid that is not sealing makes an active ferment look dead. If nothing has moved, the ordinary causes are a preservative in the juice, a temperature below about 8 °C, yeast killed by rehydrating it into cold juice, or a wild population that simply needs longer.
why has my cider started fermenting again: Something has given the yeast back what it was short of, and the usual answer is spring: a ferment that stalled in a cold cellar has dormant rather than dead yeast, and the first warm week restarts it. In a vented vessel that is harmless; in sealed bottles it is a pressure problem with no ceiling except the sugar available.
why is my cider still sweet: Three ordinary explanations: the ferment stopped short, which the gravity shows; the fruit was a perry pear and unfermentable sorbitol is doing it; or the cider is dry and reads sweet because ripe-apple aroma is perceived as sweetness. A bone-dry cider full of esters is routinely described as sweet.
why is my cider so sour: Smell it first, because that separates the only cause that is still getting worse. Fixed acid has no aroma, so sharpness with a vinegar note in the nose is volatile acidity rather than a blending problem. Otherwise it is an acid-dominant blend or a malolactic fermentation that has not happened.

Also answered on this site:

Yeast

Wild and cultured, and what each one actually decides.

what yeast should i use for cider: CiderHQ does not recommend brands. The choice is between a neutral, reliable strain that lets the fruit show, an aromatic wine strain that adds its own esters, and no addition at all. Alcohol tolerance, cold tolerance and nitrogen demand are the properties worth comparing.
which yeast ferments cider: Saccharomyces cerevisiae finishes almost every cider fermentation, whether it was pitched or arrived from the press house. In a spontaneous ferment it is not the first organism present, only the one that survives the alcohol it makes.
can you use bread yeast to make cider: It will ferment, but baker’s yeast is bred for gas production in dough rather than for flavour in a low-nitrogen, acidic liquid. It typically gives a coarse, bready result and tolerates less alcohol than a wine or cider strain.
what is wild yeast: Wild yeast is any yeast that arrives with the fruit or lives in the mill, press and cellar rather than being added deliberately. In cider it is a mixed population, not one organism.
what is saccharomyces cerevisiae: Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast that finishes almost every cider ferment, whether it was added or arrived from the cellar. It tolerates more alcohol than the wild yeasts that start the job and displaces them as alcohol rises.
what is brettanomyces: Brettanomyces, correctly Dekkera in its spore-forming form, is a slow yeast that ferments sugars other strains leave behind and produces volatile phenols smelling of farmyard, leather or sticking plaster. In cider it is common and not always unwanted.
does the yeast change the flavour of cider: Substantially. Strain choice governs how much of the fruit’s aroma survives, how many esters are created, whether sulphury notes appear, and how far the cider ferments. Two strains on the same juice give recognisably different drinks.
which bacterium carries out malolactic fermentation in cider: Oenococcus oeni, in cider as in wine. Genome studies find that the cider strains are genetically distinguishable from the wine ones and that the strain most basal to the whole species was isolated from cider.
do i have to add yeast to make cider: No — apple juice carries its own yeast and will ferment without help, which is how cider was made for most of its history. For a first batch a pitched yeast is still worth it, because an unpredictable ferment teaches you very little about your own decisions.

Also answered on this site:

Blending

Why most cider is a blend, and what a blender is deciding.

why is cider blended: Because very few apples carry acid, tannin and sugar in workable proportions on their own. Blending is how a maker reaches balance deliberately, and how a producer keeps a product consistent across seasons.
what proportions of apples should i blend: There is no universal ratio, and CiderHQ does not publish one as if there were. A common West Country starting point is a majority of bittersweet fruit with enough sharp fruit to bring the pH down and the acid up.
how do i balance acid and tannin in a blend: Acid and tannin do different jobs and cannot substitute for each other: acid gives freshness and microbiological safety, tannin gives structure and length. A blend short of acid tastes flabby however tannic it is.
why do you blend cider apples: Because almost no single cultivar carries acid, tannin and sugar in usable proportions at once. A bittersweet blend has tannin and body and no lift; a sharp blend has lift and no structure. Blending assembles what one fruit rarely supplies.

Also answered on this site:

Sweetness

The one word on a label that means least, and what it means in each country.

what does dry cider mean: Dry means little or no residual sugar, so the cider tastes of acid, tannin and fruit rather than sweetness. There is no single legal threshold, and a producer’s "dry" can be sweeter than another’s "medium".
what does medium cider mean: Medium sits between dry and sweet, with enough residual sugar to soften acid and tannin without dominating. Like dry and sweet it is a descriptive term rather than a defined one in most markets.
what does brut mean on a cider: On a French cidre, brut means dry, and in practice it also implies a higher alcohol than doux because more of the sugar has fermented. Its French thresholds are not the same as champagne’s.
is there sugar in dry cider: A fully fermented dry cider retains very little fermentable sugar — usually well under two grams per litre. It may still contain unfermentable sugars such as sorbitol, especially if pears were involved.
how much sugar is in cider: It ranges from almost none in a dry cider to well over a hundred grams per litre in an ice cider. Mainstream sweetened ciders commonly sit in the tens of grams per litre, but the figure is rarely printed on the label.
how do i make my cider sweeter: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i sweeten cider without it fermenting again: Either remove or kill the yeast — sterile filtration or pasteurisation — or use a non-fermentable sweetener. Sorbate alone is not enough: it prevents yeast multiplying but does not kill what is already there, and needs sulphite alongside it.
does dry mean the same thing in every country: No. Dry, brut, seco, trocken and herb are set by different systems with different thresholds, and some are not defined at all. There is no single sweetness ladder that runs across borders.
what is back sweetening: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is keeved cider: A cider made naturally sweet by starving the yeast rather than by adding sugar. Keeving strips nutrients out of the juice before fermentation, so the ferment slows and stops with fruit sugar still in it, and nothing has been put back.
what is the point of keeving: To make a cider that is sweet because its fermentation stopped, rather than sweet because sugar was added back. Keeving strips nitrogen out of the juice so the yeast runs short, and the sweetness that remains is fruit sugar that never fermented.

Also answered on this site:

Bubbles

Where the carbon dioxide comes from and what the method changes.

how do i carbonate my cider: Either add a measured dose of sugar at bottling and let the remaining yeast make the gas, or push carbon dioxide into it under pressure in a keg. The first needs pressure-rated bottles; the second needs gas and a regulator.
how much priming sugar for cider: Around 6 to 8 grams of sugar per litre gives a light sparkle and roughly 10 to 12 gives a champagne-like fizz — but the cider already holds dissolved gas depending on its temperature, and that has to be counted.
why is my bottled cider flat: Either there was no viable yeast left to ferment the priming sugar, or the bottles are not sealing, or it is simply too cold and needs longer somewhere warmer. Two to three weeks at room temperature is the usual minimum.
how long does cider take to carbonate in the bottle: Typically two to four weeks at room temperature, longer in a cold store. The gas continues to dissolve for some time after the sugar is gone, so a cider often improves in the weeks after it first shows fizz.
what bottles can i use for sparkling cider: Only bottles designed for pressure: champagne bottles, heavy beer bottles and pressure-rated swing-tops. Still wine bottles and reused screw-top bottles are not built for it and can fail without warning.
where does the fizz in cider come from: Either from fermentation trapped in a sealed container, or from carbon dioxide dissolved into the cider under pressure before filling. The French cider appellations permit only the first, and require at least 1.0 to 1.5 bar at 20 °C depending on the name.
how much pressure builds up in a bottle of cider: Enough to matter. Every gram of sugar fermented in a sealed bottle produces gas, and a bottle not rated for it can fail. The French cider appellations require a minimum of 1.0 to 1.5 bar at 20 °C, and a bottle-conditioned cider can go well beyond that if it was filled with more sugar than intended.
what pressure will my cider bottles be at: It depends on the carbonation and the temperature, and the temperature matters more than people expect. An ordinary sparkling cider at 2.8 volumes is around 2.3 bar at 20 °C and about 4.5 bar at 40 °C — past what a crown-capped beer bottle is rated for.
can i use beer bottles for sparkling cider: A crown-capped beer bottle is generally rated to around 4 bar, which covers a light to moderate carbonation stored cool. Above about 3 volumes, or anywhere that gets warm, it does not — and glass rated for pressure fails abruptly rather than progressively.

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Strength and alcohol

How strong cider is, how strength is measured, and why it varies so widely.

how strong is cider: Most cider is between about 3% and 8.5% alcohol by volume — mainstream products around 4 to 5.5%, traditional West Country cider and Spanish sidra natural often 5.5 to 8%, French cidre frequently lower. The ceiling is not arbitrary: apple juice rarely carries enough sugar to ferment past roughly 8.5%.
how many units are in a pint of cider: A UK pint of 4.5 per cent cider contains about 2.6 units; at 6 per cent it is about 3.4. One UK unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol, so units scale directly with both strength and volume.
how do i work out the abv of my cider: Take a hydrometer reading before fermentation and another when it finishes, and multiply the difference in gravity points by about 131. From 1.050 to 0.998 is 52 points, which is roughly 6.8 per cent.
how many units are in a bottle of cider: A 500 ml bottle at 5 per cent contains 2.5 units. Multiply the volume in litres by the ABV to get UK units directly — half a litre times five is two and a half.
what is a unit of alcohol: In the United Kingdom, one unit is 10 ml — about 8 grams — of pure alcohol. It is a British measure; other countries use standard drinks of different sizes, so advice written for one does not transfer to another.
is cider stronger than beer: Usually slightly. Mainstream cider tends to sit at 4.5 to 5.5 per cent against 3.8 to 5 for mainstream beer, and traditional farmhouse cider is often well above both. Neither category has a fixed strength.
what is the formula for abv: The simple form is (OG − FG) × 131.25. It is accurate for ordinary cider gravities and drifts high above about 1.070, where a more elaborate formula is needed.
how strong will my cider be: Apple juice at a typical starting gravity of 1.045 to 1.060 ferments dry to roughly 5.5 to 8 per cent. A perry finishes weaker for the same starting gravity, because some of its sugar is sorbitol and never ferments.
what counts as cider for uk duty: UK duty law defines cider by minimum apple juice content and by an alcohol band; above the top of that band the drink is taxed as made-wine instead. The juice requirement is why so much mainstream cider sits close to the minimum.
what counts as hard cider in the us: The United States hard cider tax class sets limits on alcohol, on carbonation, and on which fruits may be used. A cider that exceeds any of them is taxed as wine, which is why some American ciders are kept deliberately just under the line.
how accurate is the abv on a cider label: Less accurate than most people assume. UK and EU labelling rules allow ciders and perries a tolerance of one full percentage point either way, so a cider declared at 5.0% may lawfully be anywhere between 4.0% and 6.0%. Still grape wine is held to half that.

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What is in the glass

Calories, sugar, allergens and additives. Nothing here is health advice.

is cider gluten free: Cider made from apples contains no gluten, because apples contain none. The exceptions are ciders with barley or wheat-derived additions, some hopped or flavoured products, and shared production lines — so the label, not the category, is what settles it.
is cider vegan: Cider itself is a plant product, but some producers clarify it with animal-derived finings such as gelatine, isinglass or chitosan. Vegan status therefore depends on the fining regime, which is why some ciders are certified and others are not.
how many calories are in cider: Roughly 40 to 60 kcal per 100 ml for most ciders, so a UK pint falls somewhere around 200 to 250 kcal. Alcohol contributes about 7 kcal per gram and residual sugar about 4, so both strength and sweetness matter.
does cider contain sulphites: Most does. Sulphur dioxide is added to protect juice and finished cider, and fermentation itself produces a small amount even when none is added. European labels must declare it above 10 mg per litre.
how do you work out the units in a cider, and why do uk and us measures differ: A UK unit is 10 ml — about 8 grams — of pure ethanol, and units are calculated by multiplying the volume in litres by the ABV. A 568 ml pint at 6 per cent is 3.4 units.
what does the body do with alcohol, and why is it’s only cider a mistake at 7.5 per cent: Ethanol is absorbed from the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream within minutes, and it is eliminated chiefly by liver enzymes at a rate that is roughly constant and cannot be increased at will.
how much cider can i drink and still drive: There is no answer to that question that CiderHQ or anyone else can give you. No calculation from units, body weight, time elapsed or how you feel establishes an individual’s blood alcohol concentration, and none of them establishes that you are safe to drive.
is it safe to drink cider during pregnancy: The UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance is that if you are pregnant or think you could become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, in order to keep risks to the baby to a minimum.
what are the health risks of alcohol, and what does ciderhq say about them: The World Health Organization states that there is no form of alcohol consumption that is risk-free, and its International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies alcoholic beverages, and the ethanol in them, in Group 1 — carcinogenic to humans — the same classification given to asbestos and tobacco.
how many carbs are in cider: A dry cider carries very few carbohydrates because almost all its sugar has fermented; a sweetened cider can carry a great deal. The figure follows residual sugar, which is rarely stated on the label.
is sugar added to shop bought cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how much apple juice does cider have to contain: It varies by jurisdiction. The United Kingdom sets a minimum juice content in its duty definition; several other countries set higher minimums, and some set none at all.
how many calories are in cider, and where do they come from: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how much sugar is in cider, and what determines it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is cider gluten-free, and can someone with coeliac disease drink it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what are the sulphites in cider, who reacts to them, and what does the label declaration mean: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how is alcohol-free cider made, and does alcohol-free mean no alcohol at all: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does cider interact with medication: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what was the strong white cider problem, and what happened to it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what questions does ciderhq refuse to answer, and why: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does cider contain gluten: Cider is fermented fruit juice and contains no cereal, so it carries no gluten from its ingredients. A few products add barley-derived material or are handled on shared equipment, so a coeliac reader should check the label rather than the category.

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When something has gone wrong

Faults, spoilage, and the things that look like faults and are not.

why does my cider taste like vinegar: Acetic acid bacteria have reached the cider and, given air, are converting its alcohol into acetic acid. The cause is almost always oxygen — an unfilled vessel, a leaking bung, or a slow transfer.
why is my cider cloudy: Most persistent haze in home cider is pectin that was never broken down, though yeast, starch, protein and bacteria all cause haze too. Cloudiness is not in itself a fault: much traditional cider is deliberately unfiltered.
why did my cider bottles explode: Because fermentable sugar was still present, or too much priming sugar was used, and the pressure exceeded what the bottle could hold. Never bottle a cider whose gravity is still falling, and never use bottles not designed for pressure.
is a farmyard character in cider a fault: The composite animal-and-straw note of volatile phenols with short-chain fatty acids, central to traditional farmhouse character.
my cider tastes of sticking plaster — what went wrong: The sharp antiseptic-and-adhesive note of 4-ethylphenol, the principal volatile phenol of Brettanomyces activity in cider.
my cider tastes of nail varnish — what went wrong: The sharp solvent lift of ethyl acetate above threshold, the commonest volatile fault-adjacent note in cider.
why does my cider smell of butter: The buttery note of diacetyl, produced by lactic acid bacteria during malolactic conversion.
is a bruised apple character in cider a fault: The brown, soft, faintly sweet note of enzymatic browning, met wherever apple tissue or juice has met air.
is a rotten egg character in cider a fault: Hydrogen sulphide from yeast under nitrogen stress — the commonest sulphur fault and the most correctable.
is a vinegar character in cider a fault: Acetic acid from acetic acid bacteria oxidising ethanol in the presence of air — the classic cider spoilage.
what is volatile acidity: Volatile acidity is the fraction of a cider’s acid that will evaporate, in practice mostly acetic acid together with its ester ethyl acetate. A little is normal; a lot reads as vinegar and solvent.
can you fix a cider that has gone vinegary: Not really. Volatile acidity cannot be removed at small scale, and blending it away only dilutes it. The realistic options are to accept it, to blend a lightly affected batch into a much larger sound one, or to let it finish becoming vinegar.
why does my cider smell like nail varnish: That is ethyl acetate, formed when acetic acid combines with ethanol. In small amounts it reads as pear drops; above threshold it smells of solvent or nail varnish remover and usually accompanies rising volatile acidity.
why does my cider smell of rotten eggs: Hydrogen sulphide, produced by yeast under stress — most often nitrogen shortage, but also excessive sulphite or high temperature. It is common during fermentation and easiest to deal with immediately.
how do i get rid of the sulphur smell in my cider: Racking with a little splashing usually blows off free hydrogen sulphide while it is still fresh. Once it has reacted into mercaptans the smell becomes rubbery and no longer responds to aeration.
why has my cider gone brown: Browning after fermentation means oxygen has reached the cider and its phenolics have oxidised, usually alongside a flat, sherry-like aroma. Browning of fresh juice at the press is a different and normal process.
what is oxidation in cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is mousiness in cider: Mousiness is a fault caused by tetrahydropyridines produced by Brettanomyces and some lactic acid bacteria. It tastes of stale grain or a mouse cage and appears in the aftertaste rather than in the aroma.
what is pectin haze: Pectin haze is a fine, permanent cloudiness caused by pectin left in suspension after pressing. It does not settle out with time and is prevented rather than cured, by treating the juice with pectic enzyme.
how do i clear a cloudy cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is there sediment in the bottom of my cider bottle: In a bottle-conditioned cider the sediment is yeast and is expected — pour carefully and leave the last centimetre. In a filtered cider it means something has grown since bottling.
why does my cider gush out when i open it: Either the cider is over-carbonated, or it is warm, or nucleation sites such as yeast and haze are releasing the gas all at once. Chilling the bottle thoroughly before opening solves most cases that are not genuine over-carbonation.
why did my sweetened cider start fermenting again: Live yeast met the sugar that was added back. Sweetening is only stable if the yeast has been removed by sterile filtration, killed by pasteurisation, or held in check by sorbate together with sufficient sulphite.
is my cider safe to drink: Almost every cider fault spoils flavour rather than creating a hazard: acidity and alcohol together make cider a hostile environment for pathogens. The genuine risks are patulin from rotten fruit, over-pressurised bottles, and anything that has been contaminated after fermentation.
something is wrong with my cider — what is it: Start from what you can actually observe — the smell, the taste, the appearance and the behaviour in the glass — rather than from a guess about the cause. The fault finder narrows a description down to the faults that match it.
my cider tastes of musty — what went wrong: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of corked: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of horse blanket: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is a smoky character in cider a fault: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
my cider tastes of medicinal — what went wrong: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of solvent: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what causes a butterscotch smell in cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
my cider tastes of sherry — what went wrong: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of walnut: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is a wet cardboard character in cider a fault: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
my cider tastes of struck match — what went wrong: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of drains: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
my cider tastes of glue — what went wrong: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of mousy: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell of nail varnish or solvent: Almost always ethyl acetate, the ester of acetic acid and ethanol. It is made by stressed yeast and by acetic acid bacteria, and it is perceptible at a small fraction of the concentration the acid itself needs, so it usually announces a problem before the vinegar does.
what turns cider into vinegar: Acetic acid bacteria oxidising ethanol, in two steps that both consume oxygen. This is why acetification is an air problem: a full sealed vessel does not acetify however many bacteria it contains.
how do cider makers keep patulin out: By sorting rotten fruit out before milling, because patulin comes from moulds growing on damaged apples. Fermentation reduces what gets through, so fermented cider carries no limit where juice does.
how much acetic acid is normal in cider: A small amount is present in every cider and contributes lift. Sound Asturian sidra natural has been measured at 0.2 to 0.3 g/L, and a clean modern cider much above about 0.7 g/L is generally showing a fault rather than a style.
what does a nitrogen-starved cider taste like: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does my cider smell musty or of damp cellar: Usually mould, and usually from the fruit rather than the cellar. Damaged or rotten apples carry moulds whose metabolites survive pressing, which is why sorting before milling is a food-safety step as well as a quality one — the same moulds produce patulin.
how do i work out what is wrong with my cider: Deal with any pressure sign first, then establish whether it is a fault at all — several alarming things are normal — then gather observations across more than one sense before naming anything. A diagnosis from a single smell is a guess wearing a name.
can a faulty cider be saved: Usually not. For most cider faults the compound is already formed and nothing takes it back out; blending down into a larger volume of sound cider is often the only real option. The faults that can be fixed are the ones still in progress rather than complete.
is making cider at home dangerous: The one real hazard is pressurised glass, which fails by fragmenting. Rotten fruit is a genuine food-safety question because patulin survives fermentation, and carbon dioxide is dangerous in an enclosed space at any scale above a demijohn. The methanol and botulism fears do not apply to fermentation.

Also answered on this site:

Keeping cider

How long it lasts, where to keep it, and what changes while it sits.

how long does cider last: An unopened commercial cider is usually at its finest within a year of packaging, and filtered, pasteurised products carry a stated date. Strong, tannic, bottle-conditioned ciders can improve for several years.
how long does opened cider last: A day or two refrigerated and stoppered. Carbonation is lost first, then the cider begins to oxidise, and a bottle left open at room temperature can pick up acetic character within days.
what temperature should cider be stored at, and how much does a warm cupboard actually cost: A cool, stable 8–14 °C is the target for almost every cider and perry, and stability matters at least as much as the number: repeated cycling between warm and cold does more harm than a steady temperature a few degrees above ideal.
how long does unopened cider keep, and does it depend on the style: It depends heavily on the style, and the range is wide: a light, filtered, low-tannin cider is usually at its best within six to twelve months of packaging, while a tannic, bottle-conditioned traditional cider can hold and develop for several years.
how do i know if a cider bottle is dangerously over-carbonated, and what should i do about it: A bottle that is refermenting beyond what its glass was designed for can fail, and glass failing under pressure produces fragments travelling fast enough to cause serious injury, particularly to the eyes.
does cider go off: It deteriorates rather than becoming unsafe. Alcohol and acidity make cider hostile to pathogens; what happens with time is oxidation, loss of aroma and eventually acetification.
can you drink out of date cider: A best-before date on cider is about quality, not safety. An out-of-date bottle is very unlikely to make anyone ill; it is likely to taste flatter and more oxidised than it should.
does cider need to be refrigerated: Unopened, no — cool and dark is enough for most cider. Unpasteurised, unfiltered cider keeps far better cold, and anything opened should go in the fridge.
how should i store cider: Cool, dark and at a steady temperature. Light causes light-strike in clear glass, warmth accelerates oxidation, and temperature swings push cider past the closure of a bottle that is not tightly sealed.
what temperature should cider be stored at: Somewhere around 8 to 14 °C is ideal, and steadiness matters more than the exact figure. Above about 20 °C a cider ages noticeably faster and any residual yeast may restart.
does cider get better with age: Some does. Tannic, dry, bottle-conditioned ciders and ice ciders can gain for several years. Light, fruit-driven and commercially filtered ciders lose their aroma and do not gain anything in exchange.
how long does homemade cider keep: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does light damage cider, and is green glass as good as brown: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how long does cider last once the bottle is opened: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does cider get better with age, and which styles are worth keeping: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.

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Serving

Temperature, glass and pour.

what temperature should cider be served at: Roughly 8 to 12 °C suits most cider: cold enough to be refreshing, warm enough that aroma survives. Tannic, still, complex ciders show better towards 12 to 14 °C; sweet sparkling ciders are usually served colder.
how do you taste cider systematically rather than just drinking it: Systematic tasting is a matter of doing the same things in the same order every time, so that differences between ciders show up as differences in the notes rather than as differences in how the ciders happened to be approached.
should cider be served cold: Chilled rather than cold. Very low temperatures suppress aroma and mute sweetness while sharpening acid and bitterness, which flatters a simple cider and hides a complex one.
what glass should cider be served in: There is no single traditional cider glass. A tulip or small wine glass concentrates aroma; a straight half-pint suits draught cider; and several regions have their own vessels, from the Asturian culín glass to the Frankfurt Geripptes.
how do you pour spanish cider: The bottle is held high overhead and the cider allowed to fall a long way into a wide glass tilted below, so it breaks on the glass wall. Only a mouthful is poured at a time and it is drunk immediately.
why do they pour cider from a height: The long fall knocks dissolved carbon dioxide out of solution and aerates the cider, briefly softening its sharpness and raising a light foam. The effect lasts only seconds, which is why the pour is small.
how do you pour bottle conditioned cider: Stand the bottle upright for a day, chill it, and pour in one continuous movement, stopping when the sediment reaches the shoulder. Some traditions deliberately rouse the sediment instead, and both are defensible.
how do you taste cider properly: Look at it, smell it before swirling and again after, take a small sip and let it cover the whole tongue, and pay attention to what happens after swallowing — tannin, bitterness and mousiness all announce themselves late.
does the shape of the glass actually change how cider tastes, or is it just tradition: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does the asturian long pour actually do to the cider, and why is it drunk immediately: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i open a bottle-conditioned cider without losing half of it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i safely open a cider with a cork and a wire cage: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what should i actually be noticing when i taste a cider, and in what order: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how should cider be served with food at the table: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is traditional draught cider: Still or lightly conditioned cider served from a cask or a bag-in-box rather than under gas pressure, so whatever sparkle it has came from its own fermentation. It is the format most West Country farmhouse cider is sold in.

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Cider with food

What the pairing is doing, and how much of it the evidence supports.

what food goes with cider: Cider’s acidity cuts fat, its carbonation scrubs the palate and its tannin binds protein, which is why it works so well with pork, cheese and fried food. Match intensity first, then decide whether you want contrast or echo.
what cheese goes with cider: Cheddar and cider is the classic West Country pairing, and it works because acid cuts the fat while tannin meets the protein. Washed-rind and blue cheeses need a sweeter or stronger cider to stand up to them.
does cider go with pork: It is the most reliable pairing in cider. Pork is fatty and mildly sweet, cider is acidic and often faintly sweet, and the two have been eaten together in every cider region for centuries.
what food goes with dry cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does cider go with curry: Sweetness tames chilli heat and tannin sharpens it, so a medium or sweet cider with low tannin is the direction that works. A dry, tannic cider makes a hot dish taste hotter and more bitter.
why does a sharp cider work with fatty food: Acid stimulates saliva and disrupts the coating fat leaves in the mouth, so each mouthful starts closer to clean than the one before. It is a mechanism of contrast rather than of similarity, and it is why a sharp cider handles pork and cheese.
what cider goes with smoked salmon: The mechanisms that apply are acid against fat and carbonation against texture: smoked salmon is oily and salty, and a dry sparkling cider with real acidity clears the palate between mouthfuls where a sweet or tannic one fights the smoke.
what cider goes with pizza: Pepperoni pizza brings fat, salt and moderate heat together, so the useful properties in the drink are acidity and carbonation with sweetness held low to moderate. Heavy tannin adds to the chilli rather than cutting the fat.

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What a word means

Questions that turn out to be about vocabulary rather than about cider.

what is tannin in cider: Tannin is the loose name for the polyphenols that give cider bitterness, astringency and structure. In apples they are mostly procyanidins, and bittersweet cultivars carry several times as much of them as dessert fruit.
what does abv mean: Alcohol by volume: the percentage of the liquid’s volume that is pure ethanol. A 500 ml bottle at 5 per cent ABV contains 25 ml of alcohol.
what is astringency: Astringency is a tactile sensation, not a taste: tannin binds the proteins that lubricate the mouth, and the surfaces feel rough and dry. Bitterness is a taste and can occur without it.
do cidre sidra most and apfelwein all mean cider: No, and they fail in three different ways. Some have binding legal content in one country and none in the next. Some denote a different drink — Austrian Zider is juice blended with fruit wine, not fermented juice. And Most means the fermented drink in Austria while attaching to the unfermented side of the trade in Switzerland, which is the opposite meaning in adjacent countries.
what makes a cider real rather than industrial: Neither "real" nor "craft" is a legal term anywhere. The campaigning definition of real cider is about method — fresh juice, no concentrate, no injected gas — while craft has no agreed boundary at all, and a large producer may meet the first without anybody calling them the second.
does fruit cider count as cider: It depends on the jurisdiction and on how much apple juice survives. United Kingdom excise law requires at least 35 per cent apple or pear juice for the cider rate, so a heavily flavoured product may be taxed and labelled as something else entirely.

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Classification

The schemes, their thresholds, and why they disagree about the same apple.

how are cider apples classified: The English scheme sorts fruit on acid and tannin into sweet, bittersweet, sharp and bittersharp. It is not the only system: France, Spain and the perry pear literature each divide fruit differently, so a class only means something once you name the scheme.
what is a bittersweet apple: Under the English scheme a bittersweet apple is high in tannin and low in acid — conventionally above about 0.2 per cent tannin and below about 0.45 per cent acid. It gives body and bitterness but needs sharp fruit alongside it.
what is a bittersharp apple: A bittersharp apple is high in both tannin and acid, the rarest of the four English classes and the reason a few cultivars such as Kingston Black and Foxwhelp can carry a cider on their own.
what is the long ashton classification: It is the four-way division of cider fruit into sweet, bittersweet, sharp and bittersharp, set out by the research station at Long Ashton near Bristol on measured acid and tannin thresholds. It remains the default English scheme.
how are cider styles classified: There is no single scheme. Ciders are grouped variously by sweetness, by carbonation, by how they are made, by region of origin, and by competition categories — and these cut across each other rather than nesting neatly.
why do the same apples get classified differently in different countries: Because the schemes cut on different thresholds and in different units. Long Ashton splits four ways on acid and tannin; the French scheme splits five ways and reports acidity as sulphuric rather than malic. A cultivar can also genuinely change class when grown in another climate.

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Difference between

Pairs of things people are told are the same, or told are different.

what is the difference between cider and perry: Cider is fermented apple juice and perry is fermented pear juice. Perry is lower in tannin, higher in unfermentable sorbitol so it tastes faintly sweet even when dry, and considerably harder to make.
what is the difference between cider and hard cider: None, once you know which country you are in. In the United States "cider" means unfermented juice and "hard cider" means the alcoholic drink; in Britain and Ireland "cider" alone means the alcoholic drink and there is no separate word for the juice.
what is the difference between cider and apple juice: In Britain, cider is fermented and apple juice is not. In the United States the distinction is different again: "cider" there usually means fresh, cloudy, unfiltered juice, while "apple juice" means the filtered, pasteurised kind.
can you make cider from ordinary eating apples: Yes, and a great deal of cider is made that way. Dessert apples give a lighter, sharper cider because they carry little tannin, where cider apples were selected for the bitterness and body tannin provides.
is pear cider the same as perry: Not necessarily. Perry traditionally means fermented juice from perry pear cultivars, while pear cider is a marketing term that has also been used for apple cider flavoured with pear, and neither name is legally defined in the United Kingdom.
what is the difference between wild and cultured fermentation in cider: A wild fermentation is carried by the yeasts already on the fruit and in the press house, in a succession of species; a cultured one is started by pitching a single chosen strain. Wild ferments are slower, more variable and can carry aromas a single strain does not make.
what is keeving, and how does it differ from an ordinary fermentation: Keeving deliberately strips nitrogen out of the juice before fermentation so the yeast runs out of nutrient and stops with sugar still present. The result is naturally sweet without anything being added, where an ordinary fermentation runs to dryness and any sweetness has to be put back.
what does dry mean on a cider label: Dry means little or no sugar is left after fermentation. In Britain the word is a producer judgement against a voluntary trade scale, while in France the equivalent tiers are legal categories fixed by measurement.
why is spanish cider so different from english cider: Asturian and Basque cider is fermented dry, is usually not carbonated, and is poured from a height to aerate it in the glass. English cider is more often sweetened, more often carbonated and rarely poured that way, and the two traditions use different fruit and different classification systems.
what makes french cidre different from english cider: French cidre is generally sweeter, lower in alcohol and naturally sparkling, because the French tradition arrests fermentation by stripping nutrients from the juice rather than fermenting to dryness. English cider is more often fermented out and then blended or back-sweetened.
what is the difference between cider and beer: Cider ferments the sugar already present in fruit; beer must first convert grain starch into sugar by mashing, and is then boiled with hops. That difference is why cider contains no gluten and beer normally does.
what is the difference between french cidre and english cider: French cidre is usually sweeter, weaker and more carbonated, because fermentation is arrested while sugar remains. English cider is more often fermented dry and finished still or lightly sparkling, and is stronger for it.
what is the difference between a cider apple and an eating apple: Tannin, principally. A cider apple may carry several times the polyphenol content of a dessert apple, which makes it bitter and astringent to eat and gives structure and keeping quality to the cider.
what is the difference between dry medium and sweet cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
wild yeast or added yeast — which is better for cider: CiderHQ does not rank methods. Wild fermentation gives more complexity and more risk; a pitched culture gives predictability and a cleaner, narrower result. Which is appropriate depends on the fruit, the cellar and the tolerance for failure.
is cider from concentrate different from fresh pressed: Concentration removes water and, with it, most of the volatile aroma; the aroma is either added back or lost. Fresh-pressed cider carries the character of the fruit and the season, which concentrate is designed to eliminate.
how does english cider differ from french: English cider is generally drier, stronger and less carbonated; French cidre is usually sweeter, weaker and more sparkling, and far more of it is keeved. Both rely on bittersweet fruit, but they stop the ferment in different places.
is cider more like wine or beer: Structurally cider is closer to wine: both are single-fermentation fruit drinks with no mashing step, and cider making borrows most of its vocabulary and equipment from winemaking. It sits with beer only in strength and in how it is sold.
what does hard cider mean, and why is plain cider not alcoholic in america: In the United States, cider usually means unfiltered apple juice, so the fermented drink is distinguished as hard cider. Everywhere else the unqualified word already means the alcoholic drink.
can you make perry from ordinary pears: You can, and the result is usually thin. Eating pears are low in tannin and in acid, so they give a soft perry without the structure that perry pear cultivars provide.
what is the difference between a bittersweet and a bittersharp apple: Both are high in tannin; the difference is acid. Under the Long Ashton scheme a bittersweet sits below roughly 0.45% acid and a bittersharp above it, so a bittersharp brings sharpness as well as bitterness to a blend.
what is the difference between a standard and a bush cider orchard: A standard is a tall tree on a vigorous rootstock, planted at perhaps a hundred to the hectare and slow to crop; a bush is a small tree on a dwarfing rootstock at several hundred to the hectare that crops quickly. The French appellations cap both densities and require a share of the fruit to come from standards.
what counts as a traditional orchard, and how is it different from a modern one: A traditional orchard is widely spaced standard trees on vigorous rootstocks, often grazed beneath and cropping after a decade or more. A modern bush orchard is dense, small trees on dwarfing rootstocks, cropping in three or four years and picked by machine.
how does the french classification of cider apples differ from the english one: The English scheme cuts fruit four ways on acid and tannin; the French scheme cuts it five ways and separates amère from douce-amère, a distinction English has no word for. The French thresholds are also stated in grams per litre with acidity as sulphuric acid, so the numbers do not compare directly.
what is the difference between pdo and pgi on a cider label: A protected designation of origin requires every stage of production to happen in the named place; a protected geographical indication requires only that one stage does. That is why the French appellations of origin forbid concentrate and added water while the French geographical indications permit both.
what does real cider mean, and is it the same as craft cider: Neither is a legal term. Real cider is a campaigning definition about method — fresh juice, no concentrate, no injected gas — while craft cider is a market description with no agreed boundary at all.
is single varietal cider better than a blend: Neither is better. A single varietal shows one fruit clearly and depends on that fruit being balanced on its own; a blend lets a maker set acid, tannin and sugar deliberately, which is why most traditional cider is blended.
what is the difference between bottle-conditioned and force-carbonated cider: A bottle-conditioned cider gets its gas from a fermentation finishing inside the sealed bottle, and leaves a yeast deposit; a force-carbonated one has carbon dioxide dissolved into it under pressure before filling. The first keeps changing in the bottle and the second does not.
does pasteurising cider change the way it tastes: Pasteurising stops fermentation and microbial change permanently, which secures a sweetened cider against refermenting. It also fixes the cider as it was on the day, so it will not develop further in bottle.
is unfiltered cider better than filtered: Neither is better as such. Filtration removes yeast, haze and some flavour compounds and makes a cider stable; leaving it unfiltered keeps more texture and aroma and leaves the cider alive in the bottle.
why is sulphite added to cider, and what happens if it is not: Sulphite suppresses spoilage organisms and binds oxidation products, and its effectiveness depends sharply on pH — at pH 3.8 it is a fraction as potent as at pH 3.2. Unsulphited cider is entirely possible and is the tradition in several regions, but it carries more risk and less shelf life.
what is the difference between cider from whole juice and cider from concentrate: Concentrating juice removes water and most of the volatile aroma with it, so a cider made from reconstituted concentrate depends more on what is added back than on the fruit. Whole juice cider is fermented from the liquid as it left the press.
how do cider makers make a cider sweet without it refermenting: Back-sweetening adds sugar to a finished dry cider, which then has to be stabilised or pasteurised or it will referment in the bottle. An arrested fermentation stops before the sugar is gone, by cold, by racking or by keeving, so the sweetness was never added.
is cloudy cider a sign that something is wrong: Usually not. Cloudiness can be suspended yeast, pectin or fine fruit solids, all of which are harmless, and unfiltered cider is cloudy by design — but haze that appears in a cider that was clear is worth investigating.
is fruit cider still cider: It depends on the jurisdiction and on how much apple juice is left. In the United Kingdom a product must contain at least 35% apple or pear juice to be taxed as cider, so a heavily flavoured drink may be sold as something else.
how does new world cider differ from european cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
when is a cider faulty and when is it just traditional: The same compound can be either, and the deciding factor is the tradition the cider belongs to and the concentration. Volatile acidity that would condemn a modern fresh-fruit cider is expected in a traditional Asturian one, and neither judgement is wrong.

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Law and labelling

What a label has to say, what it may say, and whose law is being quoted.

do i need a licence to make cider: Making cider for your own consumption needs no licence in the United Kingdom. Selling it does: you must register with HMRC and account for duty unless you fall under the small producer exemption, whose threshold is set in law and changes.
can i sell homemade cider: Not without registering. Selling alcohol requires duty registration, food business registration and, in most cases, a premises or personal licence — none of which applies to cider made only for yourself.
how much cider can i make before paying duty: The United Kingdom has long exempted very small commercial cider makers from registration below an annual volume threshold. The figure is set in legislation and has changed more than once, so it should be checked with HMRC rather than taken from a website.
how much apple juice does uk cider have to contain: A minimum of 35% apple or pear juice overall, for the drink to be cider or perry for UK duty. Concentrate and dilution both count towards it, and it is a tax threshold rather than a quality standard — a drink can lawfully be sold as cider while being nearly two-thirds water and sugar.
what counts as cider in australia and new zealand: The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code defines cider and perry for a joint market covering both countries, which is unusual — most cider definitions are national. It sets what the drink may be made from and how it must be described rather than where it may come from.

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Places

Where cider is made, and what each tradition makes.

where does cider come from: Cider is made wherever apples grow well and grain does not, which historically meant western Britain, Normandy and Brittany, the Basque Country and Asturias, and a belt of German-speaking central Europe. Colonial settlement carried the practice to North America and later to the southern hemisphere.
where is cider made in england: Overwhelmingly in the West Country — Somerset, Herefordshire, Devon, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire — with smaller traditions in Kent, Sussex, East Anglia and the north.
where is cider made in france: Principally in Normandy and Brittany, with smaller traditions in the Perche, Maine, Savoie and the French Basque Country. The Pays d’Auge and the Domfrontais both carry protected appellations.
what is normandy cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where is cider made in spain: Chiefly in Asturias and the Basque Country along the northern coast, with smaller traditions in Galicia, Cantabria and Navarre — the wet, cool part of Spain where apples do better than vines.
what is asturian cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where is hard cider made in the united states: The main concentrations are New England, New York State, Michigan, Virginia and the Pacific Northwest — regions with a colonial orchard history or a modern apple industry, and often both.
why is apfelwein associated with frankfurt: Hessen kept a dense landscape of scattered orchard trees around Frankfurt and a network of pressing works to work them, and the drink became a city institution with its own glass, its own jug and its own taverns.
why was cider so important in new england: Apples grew where grapes and barley struggled, water was often unsafe, and every farm could press. Cider was the ordinary drink of colonial New England until temperance and then industrial brewing displaced it.
why is quebec known for ice cider: Because the winters are cold enough and long enough to concentrate apple juice by freezing reliably, which is the one thing ice cider needs and most cider regions cannot supply.
why does the united kingdom drink so much cider: The United Kingdom accounts for a large share of world cider consumption, which is a fact about a long orchard tradition in the west of England meeting twentieth-century industrial production and a duty system that treated cider favourably.
is cider made in cornwall: Yes, at the western end of the West Country tradition. Cornish orchards are small and wind-exposed, which shapes the fruit as much as the soil does, and the county has its own named cultivars rather than a share of Somerset’s.

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History

Questions about the past, including the ones with contested answers.

why does cider mean apple juice in america: Colonial America drank cider as a staple, and when temperance and later Prohibition suppressed the alcoholic drink the word stayed attached to the unfermented juice that mills went on selling. "Hard cider" then had to be coined for what the word once meant on its own.
what was devon colic and what caused it: Devon colic was chronic lead poisoning, contracted from cider that had taken up lead from the equipment used to make and store it. It produced violent abdominal pain, obstinate constipation, wasting, paralysis of the wrists and, in severe cases, convulsions and death.
how old is perry and where does it come from: Perry — fermented pear juice, made from tannic and often inedible perry pears rather than from dessert fruit — is recorded in England from the medieval period and was made across northern France and the Low Countries as well. Its English heartland is a small area of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the Welsh border where the soils and climate suit the trees.
is wassailing an ancient pagan ritual: There is no evidence that it is. The word descends from an Old English and Norse drinking greeting meaning ‘be in good health’, and the orchard custom — visiting the trees in midwinter, drinking their health, pouring cider on the roots, making noise — is documented in England from the early modern period.
how did cider become an industry rather than a farm product: Between the 1870s and the 1920s a group of firms in Herefordshire, Somerset, Devon and Norfolk began buying fruit from farms instead of pressing their own, working at a scale no farm cellar could reach, and selling a product that tasted the same from one cask to the next. Consistency, not quality, was the thing they were selling.
what was long ashton research station and why does it matter to cider: The National Fruit and Cider Institute opened at Long Ashton, near Bristol, in 1903, to apply laboratory analysis to an industry that had until then run entirely on custom. It became part of the University of Bristol, was renamed Long Ashton Research Station, and worked on cider fruit, juice chemistry, fermentation and orchard practice for most of the twentieth century.
why are cider apples called bittersweet and bittersharp: Because a research station in Somerset sorted them that way. Long Ashton analysed pressed juice for total acid and for tannin, set a threshold on each, and placed every fruit in one of the four resulting quadrants: sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp.
why were so many orchards grubbed up after the war: Because it paid. Post-war and later European schemes offered grants for clearing orchards, and an ageing standard orchard was in any case worth less per acre than almost anything that could replace it — arable, improved grass, or a modern bush orchard with a fraction of the labour requirement.
is mass-market cider made from apple juice: Partly. Most high-volume cider is made from apple juice concentrate reconstituted with water, fermented, and adjusted with sugar, water and sweeteners to a target strength and sweetness. The finished drink can contain a minority of apple juice by volume and still be sold as cider in the United Kingdom.
what has happened to cider in the last thirty years: The volume category was transformed in the mid-2000s by serving cider cold over ice in a tall glass, marketed heavily, and then by fruit-flavoured products from around 2010. Cider became a mainstream long drink competing with lager, and the category grew accordingly.
why did colonial americans drink so much cider: Because apples grew where barley and hops did not. Seedling apple trees established readily across the northern colonies, needed no malting floor and no imported ingredient, and produced a keepable alcoholic drink from a crop the farm already had.
was johnny appleseed real, and did he plant eating apples: John Chapman was entirely real: a nurseryman who from the 1790s planted fenced seedling apple nurseries ahead of the settlement frontier in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, and sold or traded the young trees to arriving settlers. He was also a devout follower of Emanuel Swedenborg who distributed religious tracts on his rounds.
why do americans call apple juice cider: Because in American usage the word stayed with the pressing rather than with the fermentation. Cider originally meant the pressed juice and what it became; when temperance made the alcoholic product unmentionable, and technology made unfermented juice keepable, the name attached to the juice and the fermented drink had to be distinguished as hard cider.
how many traditional orchards have been lost, and what is being done about it: Traditional orchards in England and Wales declined severely over the twentieth century, through grubbing-up grants, conversion to other agricultural uses, development and simple neglect. The scale is now documented rather than guessed, because the habitat has been mapped.
how old is cider in asturias: Apple orchards and cider appear in Asturian documents from the medieval period onwards, and by the early modern centuries cider was the ordinary drink of much of the region — a matter of climate and land as much as of custom, since northern Spain grows apples far better than it grows vines.
why does normandy make cider instead of wine: Northern France did grow vines in the Middle Ages. Over the following centuries the region shifted decisively to orchards, under pressure from a cooling climate, from better and cheaper wine reaching northern markets by river and sea, and from the simple fact that apples cropped more reliably on Norman land.
how old is cider: Fermented apple drink is almost certainly prehistoric, because apple juice ferments without help. The documentary record is much shorter: firm written evidence for cider as a named, deliberately made drink begins in the early medieval period.
who invented cider: Nobody. Apple juice left to itself ferments, so the drink was discovered rather than invented, probably many times independently wherever apples grew.
did the normans bring cider to england: The Conquest is better evidenced as a moment of exchange than as an introduction: cider was probably already made in England, but Norman cultivars, terminology and orchard practice do appear in the record afterwards.
where does the word cider come from: It descends through Old French sidre from Latin sicera, itself from a Hebrew word for strong drink used in the Bible. It originally meant intoxicating drink in general, not apple drink specifically.
why were there riots over a cider tax in the 1760s: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why did english cider decline after its seventeenth-century high point: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
has cider always been taxed in britain: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is perry so much rarer than cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why are modern cider orchards planted with small trees: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
did johnny appleseed wear a tin pot on his head: No, and the text everyone is unknowingly citing says so. The image comes from an 1871 magazine article, and in that article the tin cooking vessel is the experiment that failed — it did not shade his eyes — and was replaced by a peaked pasteboard hat. Even the pasteboard hat is an unsourced description written twenty-six years after his death.
did the temperance movement destroy american cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
did prohibition agents cut down america’s cider orchards: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how did american cider come back: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
who decided cider apples are bittersweet or bittersharp, and does everyone use the same system: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
did basque sailors drink cider at sea, and did it stop scurvy: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where does calvados come from and how old is it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does frankfurt drink apfelwein: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
does ireland have a cider tradition: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how does anyone work out which apple variety a tree is: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
were cider apple varieties lost, and can they be found again: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what brought perry back from near-extinction: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why did perry almost disappear: The trees take decades to crop, the fruit is unpressable for most of a short window, and none of that survived the economics of the twentieth century. Perry pear orchards were grubbed out faster than cider orchards and replanted less.

Also answered on this site:

Custom and culture

Wassailing, the long pour, the cider house and what people drink out of.

what is a traditional orchard and why does it matter so much for wildlife: A traditional orchard is one of widely spaced large trees on vigorous rootstocks, standing over permanent grassland that is grazed or cut, managed with little or no chemical input and left to grow old.
what is craft cider and how did the movement start: The craft cider movement is the growth, from roughly the 1990s onwards and accelerating after 2010, of small independent producers making cider as a considered product rather than as a commodity.
what counts as real cider, and who decides: Different jurisdictions draw the line in very different places. France requires cider to be made from apple or pear juice; the United Kingdom sets a minimum apparent juice content well below 100 per cent; the United States defines hard cider chiefly for tax purposes by composition, carbonation and strength.
why does cider have class associations in britain: Because it has held at least three distinct social positions in four centuries: a fashionable drink of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century gentry, a component of agricultural wages in the nineteenth and early twentieth, and from the later twentieth century the category associated with high-strength, very low-cost alcohol.
what is wassailing: Wassailing is a midwinter orchard custom in which a chosen apple tree is toasted, noise is made to drive off harm, and cider is poured on the roots or soaked bread hung in the branches. It survives in the West Country and has been widely revived.
how is traditional west country cider served from the barrel: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is a community orchard and what are they for: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
who is trying to save traditional orchards, and how: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why are cider apples named after places and people: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does scrumpy actually mean, and is it stronger than other cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how did people learn to make cider before there were courses and books: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
who has written about cider, and how much of it can be trusted: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is cider bound up with identity in some countries and not others: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why do asturians pour cider from a height: The pour — escanciar — aerates a still, dry, unfiltered cider and briefly raises the aroma and softens the acid. It is drunk immediately in a small measure because the effect fades within seconds.

Also answered on this site:

The science

Mechanism rather than adjective, including where the mechanism is not established.

what does fresh-cut apple mean in a cider tasting note: The smell of a cut apple surface, produced within seconds of the fruit tissue being broken by six-carbon aldehydes released from membrane fats.
where does a green apple aroma in cider come from: A harder, sharper apple note than fresh-cut apple, driven by (E)-2-hexenal and reinforced by high malic acid.
where does a ripe apple aroma in cider come from: Full orchard-apple aroma from the acetate esters an apple accumulates through ripening and carries into the finished drink.
what does bittersweet apple mean in a cider tasting note: The soft, low-acid, faintly earthy ripe-fruit character of traditional West Country cider fruit, inseparable from its phenolic weight.
where does a fresh pear aroma in cider come from: Clean, watery, faintly green pear aroma, the base fruit note of perry and of pear-fruited cider.
what does pear drop mean in a cider tasting note: The sweet-shop confectionery note of isoamyl acetate with ethyl acetate behind it — a fermentation product, not a pear one.
what is malic acid and why does it matter in cider: Malic acid is the acid of apples and supplies almost all the sharpness a cider has. It also sets pH, which decides how well sulphite works and how exposed the cider is to spoilage, so it does far more work than its taste suggests.
what is apple juice actually made of: By mass, apple juice is around 85–90% water. Most of the rest is sugar — fructose predominantly, with glucose and sucrose — and it is that sugar which sets how much alcohol the juice can produce.
does cider taste of the apples it was made from: Partly, and less than most people assume. The fruit contributes the acid, nearly all the tannin, the sugar and a set of aroma compounds, but a large part of the fruit’s own volatile aroma is lost during fermentation, stripped out by escaping carbon dioxide or metabolised by yeast.
what is the difference between bitterness and astringency in cider: Bitterness is a taste, detected by receptors on the tongue. Astringency is not a taste at all: it is a mechanical sensation caused by tannins binding and precipitating the proline-rich proteins in saliva, which strips away the lubricating film in the mouth.
what acids are in cider and what does each taste like: Malic acid is the dominant acid in apple juice and in most cider, and it tastes sharp, clean and persistent — the acidity of a green apple. Lactic acid, produced when bacteria convert malic acid, is softer and rounder and reads as creamy rather than sharp.
what is still unknown about cider: A great deal, and rather more than the confident tone of most cider writing suggests. Four gaps are large enough to affect what can honestly be said on almost any page of this site.
what makes cider bitter: Procyanidins — chains of catechin and epicatechin units — are the main bitter and astringent compounds in cider. Short chains taste more bitter, long chains feel more astringent, and bittersweet apples are rich in both.
what does sulphur dioxide do in cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is molecular so2: Molecular sulphur dioxide is the small undissociated fraction of free SO₂ that actually does the antimicrobial work. How much of the free SO₂ takes that form depends on pH, and the relationship is steep.
why does ph change how much sulphite i need: Only the undissociated molecule is antimicrobial, and the proportion in that form falls sharply as pH rises. A low-acid bittersweet juice at pH 4 therefore needs several times the free SO₂ of a sharp juice at pH 3.3 for the same protection.
what is malic acid: Malic acid is the dominant acid in apples and the source of a cider’s sharpness. It takes its name from Malus, the apple genus, and it is what bacteria convert to lactic acid in a malolactic fermentation.
why does cider smell of apple skin: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does pressed apple juice mean in a cider tasting note: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider smell of sweet apple: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what makes a cider taste of dessert apple: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where does a cooked apple aroma in cider come from: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider smell of ripe pear: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider smell of lemon: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does banana mean in a cider tasting note: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what makes a cider taste of apple blossom: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where does a honey aroma in cider come from: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider smell of clove: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does hay mean in a cider tasting note: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where does a oak aroma in cider come from: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider smell of bread dough: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider contain lactic acid: Because malolactic bacteria converted the malic acid into it. Malic acid has two acid groups and lactic acid has one, so roughly half the titratable acidity disappears and the cider tastes softer.
why is sorbitol important in perry: Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol that pears carry in quantity and that Saccharomyces cannot ferment. It passes through the whole fermentation untouched, so a perry can taste sweet while being dry by measurement.
what are procyanidins in cider: They are the condensed tannins of apples: chains of catechin-type units whose length decides how much of the phenolic load reads as bitterness and how much as astringency. Two ciders with identical total tannin can taste nothing alike.
what does pectin do in cider: Pectin is the structural polysaccharide that holds fruit cells together. In juice it holds haze in suspension, and it is the molecule keeving depends on: strip its methyl groups and it will gel with calcium and float the nutrients out of the juice.
why do cider makers measure both ph and acidity: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does a cider with more sugar taste less sweet: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why is perry sweet even when it is fermented dry: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why does cider need yeast nutrient: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why has my cider stopped fermenting: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does oxygen do to cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why do cider makers add sulphite, and how much: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how does ciderhq describe what a cider tastes like: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what are the standard aroma categories for cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is that a fault or is it meant to taste like that: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
which sugar is most of the sugar in apple juice: Fructose, by a long way. Apple juice carries roughly twice as much fructose as glucose, with a smaller amount of sucrose, and fructose is the sweetest of the three on the tongue.
why does some cider dry my mouth out: Astringency, which is not a taste. Tannin cross-links the proteins that lubricate the mouth, and the loss of lubrication is what registers as drying. Longer procyanidin chains do more of it, which is why two ciders with the same total tannin can feel quite different.
is bitterness the same as astringency in cider: No. Bitterness is a taste registered by receptors; astringency is a physical loss of lubrication. In model cider at a fixed 750 mg/L of procyanidin, astringency rose steadily with chain length while bitterness peaked at the tetramer and fell away on either side.
which acids are in cider and where do they come from: Malic acid from the apple accounts for most of it, with quinic and citric behind. Fermentation adds succinic acid, and if malolactic bacteria get to work the malic acid is converted to lactic — which halves the acid quantity and raises the pH.
what pH should cider juice be: Most cider juice sits between about 3.2 and 4.0, and where it sits matters more than the number looks. Sulphite loses most of its effect above roughly pH 3.8, so a low-acid bittersweet must at pH 4.2 is a different microbiological proposition from a sharp must at 3.4.
how much acid should cider have: Commonly quoted targets sit around 4 to 6 grams per litre as malic acid, but acid and pH are separate questions and neither predicts the other. Perceived sharpness follows the acid; microbial risk and sulphite effectiveness follow the pH.
what do tannins do in cider: They provide bitterness, astringency, colour and the capacity to age. Which of the first two dominates depends on chain length rather than on quantity: shorter procyanidins taste bitter, longer ones dry the mouth by cross-linking salivary proteins.
why do two sources give different acid figures for the same apple: Because a measurement is a statement about a fruit, a place, a season and a method, not about a cultivar. Kingston Black reads pH 3.51 in the Skagit Valley and 4.23 in the Finger Lakes, and neither figure is an error. CiderHQ publishes both and averages neither.

Also answered on this site:

Equipment

Presses, mills and cellar kit, for the reader who is making some.

what is a rack and cloth press and why is the pomace built in layers: The pomace is spread on a square cloth laid in a shallow forming frame, the cloth corners are folded over to make a flat parcel, a slatted rack is laid on top, and the process repeats until a stack — the cheese — is built. The whole stack is then compressed, usually by a hydraulic ram.
which type of cider press should i use: No press is best. Each one sits at a different point on four trade-offs: how much juice it recovers, how much air the juice meets, how hard it works the solids, and how much labour and capital it needs.
what should i know about stainless steel fermentation tanks: A stainless tank is a welded vessel, usually cylindrical, in an austenitic stainless grade chosen for corrosion resistance in acidic, chloride-containing conditions. It contributes nothing to the cider and lets no oxygen in.
can i ferment cider in a plastic barrel, and how do i know it is safe: Plastic fermenters are usually high-density polyethylene, polypropylene or, for carboys, polyethylene terephthalate. All three are used throughout the food industry and none of them are a problem in themselves.
what vessel should i ferment cider in, and does the shape matter: The material question comes down to three properties: how much oxygen crosses the wall, whether the vessel adds or absorbs flavour, and whether the surface can genuinely be cleaned and sanitised.
how do i use a hydrometer to measure cider: A hydrometer floats at a depth determined by the density of the liquid it is in. Sugary juice is denser than water, so the hydrometer floats high; as fermentation converts sugar to alcohol the density falls and it sinks.
do i need a ph meter for cider, and how do i keep it accurate: A pH meter consists of a glass electrode that develops a small voltage proportional to hydrogen ion activity, a reference electrode, and a meter that converts that voltage into a pH reading.
which bottles are safe for sparkling cider: A bottle intended for sparkling wine is a different object from a still-wine bottle. It is heavier, thicker, has a deep punt to distribute stress, a reinforced neck and finish designed for a crown cap or a mushroom cork, and it is manufactured and tested against a design pressure.
why does everyone say cleaning matters more than anything else: Cleaning removes soil — pomace, lees, tartrate, protein and the biofilm growing in it. Sanitising reduces the number of viable organisms on a surface that is already clean. They are two separate operations and the second does not work without the first.
what equipment do i actually need to make cider at home: At kitchen scale, most people start with bought juice and a demijohn, because that removes the two hardest problems — milling and pressing — and leaves the fermentation to be learned on its own.
what are carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon used for in cider making, and how dangerous are they: Air is what damages finished cider, and the cheapest way to remove air is to displace it with a gas that will not react with the cider. That is the whole purpose of inert gas in a cider house.
what do i use to crush apples: A purpose-made scratter or apple mill, driven by hand or by motor. Apples are too hard and too round for a domestic food processor to handle in quantity, and they must be broken before they can be pressed.
how do i sterilise cider bottles: Wash them clean first, then sanitise with a no-rinse sanitiser or a sulphite solution, and fill while still wet with it. Bottles that look clean but have dried deposits inside are the usual source of bottle spoilage.
what was the big circular stone cider mill, and how did it work: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what is a hammer mill and why do modern cider mills use one: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how did old cider presses work before hydraulics: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is a basket press good enough for making cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how does a pneumatic cider press work and what does it do to the juice: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why was cider fermented in big wooden vats, and does anyone still do it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why was so much traditional cider made in old whisky, rum and brandy barrels: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
is a glass demijohn a good vessel for making cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
do i need an airlock, and what does it actually do: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
can i use a refractometer to track cider fermentation: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i measure the acidity of cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how is free and total sulphur dioxide measured in cider: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
which measurements can i do myself and which need a laboratory: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what kind of pump should be used for cider, and can a pump damage it: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i move cider off the lees without a pump, and what tubing is safe: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what kinds of filter are used on cider and what does each remove: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does it take to bottle cider, at home and at scale: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do crown caps work and what capper do i need: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what kinds of keg are used for cider and how do the fittings work: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what do caustic and acid cleaners actually do, and how are they handled: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what sanitiser should be used on cider equipment: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do you clean a cider barrel or a wooden vat: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what does a farm cider mill or a commercial cidery actually consist of: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why do cider apples need washing, and how is it done: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
where does the juice go between the press and the fermenter: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i control fermentation temperature without buying a jacketed tank: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i stop air sitting on top of a half-empty tank: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how do i know my hydrometer, refractometer and meters are still telling the truth: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
how is cider carbonated with gas rather than with yeast: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
why can a carbonated cider not be bottled with an ordinary filler: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what can i use instead of proper cider making equipment: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.
what needs doing to cider equipment between one harvest and the next: Answered in the section of the page linked above, where the evidence for it sits.

Also answered on this site:

If your question is not here

Search — matches questions typed as you would say them, and resolves cultivar and style names through their aliases.
Glossary — for questions that turn out to be about a single word.
Comparisons — for questions of the form “what is the difference between”.
Troubleshooting — for questions about something that has gone wrong in a fermentation.