what is cider?

well its a shame theres no sticky for this, but what exactly is it, just fermented apple juice? basically an apple wine?

also can it be made with other things?

Is fermented apple juice like you said. It can be a wine, but most people won't classify it as such if the abv isn't high.

You can use other fruit juices like pear juice, but they are not called a cider.

Cider in the US is generally considered unfiltered apple juice. Fermented cider is called Hard Cider.

In the UK I believe Cider is considered hard by default. Not sure what they call unfiltered juice.

There is a wiki entry for it I think.

Cider made from pears is called Perry.

At a certain ABV, like 12% or higher cider may be called an apple wine. Apple wine is often used as the base for other fruit flavored wines.

I've read that the difference between a cider and apple juice is where it comes from. In the US it's called apple juice, elsewhere it's called cider. Don't quote me on this but I had the same question when attempting to make a hard cider. I figured since its a cider that I had to use "cider" rather than apple juice. NOT!

In The USA, hard apple cider is defined as having ABV below 7%. Anyting over 7% is considered wine by The US Federal Government. How we were getting Strongbow at 7.5% when it first came out is beyond me. I am guessing rules are different in Great Britain and somebody didn't catch it for a while.

Homercidal said:

Cider in the US is generally considered unfiltered apple juice. Fermented cider is called Hard Cider.

In the UK I believe Cider is considered hard by default. Not sure what they call unfiltered juice.

There is a wiki entry for it I think.

Cider made from pears is called Perry.

At a certain ABV, like 12% or higher cider may be called an apple wine. Apple wine is often used as the base for other fruit flavored wines.

Click to expand...

hurleyburley said:

In The USA, hard apple cider is defined as having ABV below 7%. Anyting over 7% is considered wine by The US Federal Government. How we were getting Strongbow at 7.5% when it first came out is beyond me. I am guessing rules are different in Great Britain and somebody didn't catch it for a while.

Click to expand...

UK rules allow 'cider' to be up to 8.5% I think. The legal definition of 'cider/hard cider' in the US is vague, inconsistent, and rather outdated, but you are correct about the basics.


To me, Cider is a fermented apple juice beverage in the 2.5%-10% ABV range with little to no chapetalization and commonly carbonated. Similar, but different to Apple Wine, which is typically 10%+ ABV and still. All other fermented fruit juices regardless of ABV are called Wines, expect for Perry, which is a cider made from pears.

Here's how I understand the terminology:
Hard Cider - US term only, referring to fermented apple juice. Not found abroad.
Cider - Abroad, this refers to a fermented apple juice. In the US it can refer to both raw juice and fermented apple juice (AKA hard cider).
Apple Juice - Abroad, this is raw, cloudy juice of the apple. In the US this usually refers to filtered & stabilized apple juice.

Personally, I think the foreign terminology makes more sense and that we in the US should get in line to avoid confusion. To foreigners 'hard cider' is redundant, much like saying 'ATM machine'.

Just to confuse the subject even further. I had what was labeled as a Pear Cider recently, in the US, that was quite tasty.