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Sediment and secondary deposit

What is the sediment in a cider bottle, and does it mean something has gone wrong?

In short

In most cases it is yeast and fine fruit solids, either carried in at bottling or produced by a secondary fermentation in the bottle, and it is entirely normal in an unfiltered or bottle-conditioned cider.

A deposit that appears in a cider that was previously brilliantly clear is more interesting, and can be phenolic material precipitating with age, protein or pectin coming out of suspension, or — the one case worth acting on — a microbial growth.

Sediment is not a safety question. What it can indicate, in the specific case of a sweet cider developing a deposit and pressure together, is a refermentation, and that is a pressure question rather than a sediment one.

What settles, and where it came from

Yeast is the commonest and the easiest to identify: a pale, buff or cream-coloured layer that is soft, easily roused into a swirling cloud, and settles again over hours. In a bottle-conditioned cider it is the yeast that performed the secondary fermentation. In an unfiltered still cider it is whatever survived racking.

Fruit and process solids — fine pulp fragments, fragments of pectin gel, material carried over from pressing — settle as a darker, denser and often grittier layer beneath or mixed with the yeast. They are inert.

Phenolic precipitate is the deposit of age. As procyanidins polymerise they become less soluble and eventually drop out, forming a fine deposit that is often reddish-brown and, in an older bottle, may adhere to the glass. This is the visible sign of the process that softens a tannic cider over years, and its appearance is a good sign rather than a bad one.

Protein, pectin and starch hazes settle poorly or not at all. Where they do settle they form a light, flocculent, sometimes almost gelatinous deposit. These are carried in from the fruit and the process, and they are cosmetic faults rather than spoilage.

Crystalline deposits are less common in cider than in wine but do occur, particularly in ciders with high potassium and where the bottle has been very cold. They are hard, gritty and glassy, and they are harmless.

Telling normal from not

Reading a deposit
AppearanceMost likely causeSignificance
Pale buff layer, soft, swirls easilyYeastNormal in unfiltered and bottle-conditioned cider
Fine reddish-brown deposit in an older bottlePhenolic precipitateNormal ageing in a tannic cider
Gritty dark layer under a paler oneFruit and process solidsNormal in unfiltered cider
Light flocculent haze that will not settleProtein, pectin or starchCosmetic fault carried from production
Hard glassy crystalsSalt precipitation, often after cold storageHarmless
New deposit plus rising pressure in a previously still ciderRefermentation in the bottleHandle with care; treat as a pressure hazard
Slimy, viscous, ropy texture through the ciderBacterial polysaccharideA fault; the cider is spoiled
Surface film or skin, rather than a bottom depositFilm yeast, needing oxygenA fault; usually indicates a poor seal or a part-full container
A deposit appearing with pressure is the one case to take seriouslySediment on its own is a cosmetic and stylistic matter. A previously still cider that develops both a deposit and internal pressure is refermenting in a bottle that may not be built for it. Move such bottles somewhere cold, keep them away from people, and open them carefully, away from your face, over a sink.

Whether to drink it

Yeast deposit is edible and is drunk deliberately in several traditions. It adds a soft, bready, savoury character and a fuller texture, and it makes the cider hazy. Some ciders are better for it and some are muddied by it, and the only way to know is to taste both fractions.

The other deposits are less appealing but equally harmless. Phenolic precipitate is gritty rather than flavourful; protein haze contributes nothing; crystals are simply unpleasant in the mouth.

Where a deposit is unwanted, the answer is standing the bottle upright and pouring carefully rather than filtering or straining, both of which aerate the cider and remove more than the sediment.

Why producers make different choices

A filtered, stabilised cider will carry no deposit at all, which is a commercial necessity for a product sold in clear glass through general retail: consumers reliably read sediment as spoilage even where it is not.

An unfiltered cider retains more phenolic and colloidal material, and many producers argue that filtration strips texture and aroma alongside the solids. Where a cider is sold unfiltered, the deposit is a consequence of that decision and is usually declared on the label.

A bottle-conditioned cider must have live yeast in the bottle to produce its carbonation, so a deposit is unavoidable unless the bottles are disgorged in the traditional-method manner. Disgorging removes it at considerable cost and effort, which is why relatively few cider producers do it.

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