Style
Unfiltered cider
Cider packaged without filtration, retaining suspended yeast and fine solids and the body and aroma that come with them.
- Family
- Defined by how it is made
- Sweetness
- Made across the range
- Carbonation
- Made both still and sparkling
- Strength
- 4–8% ABV
- Serve at
- 9–13 °C
- Where
- Made in several countries
The word describes what was not done. It is not defined in law anywhere, and a cider may be unfiltered and yet nearly bright because it has been racked patiently, or filtered and yet hazy because a haze formed afterwards.
What makes it this style
- The cider reaches the pack without passing through a filter; clarity, where present, has been achieved by settling and racking alone.
- Suspended yeast, protein and phenolic material remain in the liquid.
- Body and aroma retention are higher than a filtered version of the same cider, because filtration removes colloidal material that carries both.
- The pack is expected to throw a deposit and the label usually says so.
What varies inside the category
Every style covers a range. This is what legitimately differs between two examples that are both correctly called by this name.
- Turbidity, from a faint haze to a genuinely opaque cider — the word covers all of it.
- Whether fining agents were used, which is a different operation from filtration and is often still described as unfiltered.
- Microbiological stability. A cider with live yeast and any residual sugar can restart, so unfiltered and sweet is a demanding combination.
- Shelf life, which is generally shorter and more variable than for a filtered equivalent.
- Whether the haze is intended or is a fault — pectin, starch and protein hazes all look similar and mean different things.
Sensory profile
Scored as bands rather than points, because the category genuinely covers a range and a single figure would claim a precision it does not have.
| Dimension | Typical | Range | Variation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweetness | Dry | Highly variable | |
| Acidity | Moderate | Some variation | |
| Bitterness | Slight | Highly variable | |
| Tannin | Moderate | Highly variable | |
| Astringency | Slight | Highly variable | |
| Body | Medium | Some variation | |
| Carbonation | Slight prickle | Highly variable | |
| Alcohol | Moderate | Some variation | |
| Freshness | Settled | Some variation | |
| Fruit character | Present | Highly variable | |
| Phenolic character | Noticeable | Some variation | |
| Fermentation character | Evident | Highly variable | |
| Oxidative character | Trace | Highly variable |
What you are likely to smell and taste
Each descriptor links to what actually produces it.
About Unfiltered cider
Filtration removes things, and the question that defines this category is what a maker is willing to lose. A tight filtration takes out yeast cells and bacteria, which is why it is a stabilisation tool, but it also takes out colloids: fragments of yeast cell wall, protein–polyphenol complexes, and the fine suspended matter that carries a good deal of a cider’s aroma and most of its perceived weight. A filtered cider is more stable, brighter and more consistent, and it is thinner.
Traditional practice reached clarity by time instead. Successive rackings drop the cider off its lees into clean vessels; each racking removes solids and, incidentally, nutrients, so the cider clarifies and the ferment slows together. A cider handled this way for a year can be nearly bright without ever meeting a filter, which is why unfiltered and cloudy are not synonyms even though they are used as though they were.
The visual expectation has shifted with fashion. For much of the twentieth century, haze in a commercial cider signalled a fault, and the industry invested heavily in achieving brilliance. More recently a visible haze has come to signal minimal intervention, and some producers now present turbidity as evidence of authenticity. Both readings are cultural rather than technical. A haze is only informative if you know what is causing it: yeast in suspension is expected, a pectin haze indicates incomplete pectin breakdown, a starch haze indicates immature fruit, and a microbial haze indicates a problem.
The practical consequence for a drinker is in handling. An unfiltered cider will compact its deposit over time and can be poured off it, or roused into the glass — traditions differ, and both are defensible. It is more sensitive to temperature and to age than a filtered cider, and it is more likely to differ between two bottles of the same batch.
Tasting it
What to attend to here specifically, and what is routinely misread. The second list is the more useful one.
What to look for
- What the haze is made of, because it decides everything. Pectin and yeast are cosmetic; a microbial haze is not, and they look identical.
- Body and aroma, which is what filtration removes along with the haze. An unfiltered cider should be demonstrably fuller than the same cider filtered, or the choice bought nothing.
- Whether the cloudiness is stable. A haze that is deepening is a different finding from one that has always been there.
What gets misread
- Reading cloudiness as a quality signal in either direction. It is a processing decision, and both filtered and unfiltered cider is made carefully and carelessly.
- Reading a settling deposit as a fault. An unfiltered cider drops solids over time and that is the material behaving as it does.
Cool rather than cold, and decide before pouring whether the sediment is coming with it. Poured off the lees it is a clearer, lighter drink; roused in, it is fuller and hazier. Both are legitimate and they are not the same cider.
What it is mistaken for, and how to tell
One observation per pair, chosen because it separates them. Several of these are not styles at all — a commercial term, a legal category, or a fault wearing the same description.
- A microbial haze — Whether it is getting worse. A deliberate haze is static; a spoilage population increases and usually brings a smell.
- Pectin haze — These are frequently the same thing. In an unfiltered cider a pectin haze is the expected state rather than a finding.
- A cider that is cloudy because it is young — Time. A young cider clears; an unfiltered one was left cloudy on purpose and stays.
How it is made
The methods that define or commonly produce this style.
Racking
Moving cider off the sediment it has thrown, which both cleans the liquid and — by taking yeast and nitrogen away with the deposit — slows what is left of the ferment.
Juice settling
Letting freshly pressed juice stand cold and undisturbed so that gross solids fall, then racking the cleaner juice off the deposit before pitching.
Fining
Adding a reactive agent that binds a target colloid and carries it to the bottom, chosen according to whether the problem is tannin, protein or a phenolic taste fault.
Lees ageing
Deliberately holding a cider or perry on its fine yeast deposit so that autolysing cells release material that changes texture and foam behaviour.
Bottling
Transferring finished cider into glass, where the dominant variable is how much oxygen the liquid picks up in the few seconds it takes to fill and close each bottle.
Bag-in-box
A collapsing laminate bladder in a card outer, the standard farmgate and draught format, which keeps air out during dispense but lets oxygen through the film over weeks.
What can go wrong
Faults this style is particularly exposed to, given how it is made.
Pectin haze
A persistent, slightly viscous haze that will not settle, caused by pectin from the fruit remaining in solution as a colloid.
Starch haze
A persistent haze caused by starch carried in from under-ripe fruit, which has not yet been converted to sugar and stays suspended in the cider.
Protein haze
A fine haze that forms as protein and tannin combine into insoluble complexes, often appearing in a cider that had already been clear.
Microbial haze
Cloudiness caused by a growing population of spoilage organisms, and therefore a symptom of something worse rather than a clarity problem in itself.
Excessive sediment
More deposit in the bottle or vessel than the presentation intends, ranging from a normal conditioning yeast layer to a loose sludge that clouds every pour.
Unwanted refermentation
Fermentation restarting in a sealed container, generating carbon dioxide that was not planned for and pressure that a bottle may not withstand.
Related styles
Bottle-conditioned cider
Cider that completes a fermentation inside its sealed bottle, generating its own carbonation and, in most cases, leaving a yeast deposit behind.
Wild-fermented cider
Cider fermented by the yeast population already present on the fruit and in the cellar, without an added cultured strain.
Traditional draught cider
Cider dispensed from cask, bag-in-box or gravity without added gas, in the form that British cider has historically been drunk in pubs and at the farm gate.
Scrumpy
A colloquial West Country word for rough farm cider that has never had a fixed definition and now carries as much marketing weight as descriptive meaning.
Sidra natural
The still, dry, unfiltered cider of Asturias and the Basque Country, wild-fermented from local high-acid fruit and poured from a height to raise a momentary sparkle.
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- 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 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.
- 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 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 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.
- How do i clear a cloudy cider
Where to go next
- All styles — The full range, grouped by what defines each one.
- Sweetness decoder — What the word on the label means, in the system that defines it.
- Serving — Temperature, glass and how to open it without losing half of it.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
CAMRA cider and perry standards
Campaign for Real Ale · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. Registered for the consumer-campaigning vocabulary — "real cider", "full juice" — which is advocacy language rather than legal definition, and is recorded as such wherever CiderHQ uses it.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.