Northwood Cider: It’s About Time!

Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
Photography By: The Gnarly Gnome and Northwood Cider

I’ve never been very knowledgeable about cider – much like I’ve always secretly just thought of wine as fermented grape juice, I have to confess that I’ve always seen cider just as fermented apple juice.  Don’t take that the wrong way, I enjoy drinking it, plenty.  I have just never had the full understanding of what makes it ‘tick’ in the way that I do other beverages that I enjoy.  I have made a couple of visits to Cincinnati’s newest (and still only dedicated) cidery, Northwood Cider – and I’ve been determined to learn a bit more with those visits.

As it turns out, the world of cider is a lot more varied and enjoyable than a lot of us might think it is.  There’s also some really great news coming out of Northwood that we have to talk about in just a minute…

Maybe I’m Not So Wrong On The Surface.

It’s definitely a bit of an oversimplification, but cider sort of is just fermented apple juice.  Technically speaking: the definition of cider is, according to Dictionary.com

“the juice pressed from apples (or formerly from some other fruit) used for drinking, either before fermentation (sweet cider) or after fermentation (hard cider), or for making applejack, vinegar, etc.”

You can see just by common wine knowledge that they are similar drinks – only wine is made from grapes.  In fact, if we want to keep going, we could talk about Perry, which is a “cider” made from Pears.

In that way – it’s pretty simple.  Not unlike most alcoholic beverages, though, we get a ton of variations and complexities from the other parts of the equation – namely ingredients.  It makes me really, really curious to take a deep dive into cider in the near future.  You can bet that I’ll take you along, too.

Now, Northwood Cider.

We’ve been long overdue for a dedicated cidery here in Cincinnati.  When you look at cities the size of ours, it’s an oddity that they don’t have a place focused just on cider.  I’m thrilled to finally have that happening here, and the folks at Northwood seem to be extremely proud to carry that torch. They opened their doors in November of 2022 in Norwood and have been working their butts off since to not only get the word out but to find new ways to show people all the things that cider can be. By using only 100% fresh-pressed apples (none of that juice concentrate b.s.) they are trying to introduce people to cider through the lens of real, great, ciders.

The taproom (do we still call them taprooms with cider?) is bright and open when you walk in. Not unlike a lot of your favorite craft breweries, the production space is right off the taproom space, so you can still feel like you’re in the mix of things. Where things take the obvious turn from the breweries that you might be familiar with is that instead of a tap list of a bunch of beers with maybe a cider or a seltzer to satisfy the non-beer drinkers, things are done the absolute opposite. The menu is filled with several different types of cider: dry, sweet, other fruits added, experimental, dry hopped… and then on top of that they offer guest taps for the “non-cider” drinkers.

If you’re a cider fan already, you’re going to love it. If you, like me, are just super curious and dying to try more, well… you’re probably going to love it.

Getting In Your Fridge

Here’s the big news out of Northwood. They’ve been working hard to get cans ready for you to take home. The cans are making an appearance in the taproom starting this Saturday (April 15th) and will be available for you to take home – as well as seeing some regional distribution soon after. They’re not slowly backing into this, either. They’re releasing six different ciders off the bat at the event:

  • 1903 – Dry Cider
  • Coastal – Blood Orange And Pineapple Cider
  • Gem – Sweet Cider
  • HLA – Cherry and Raspberry Cider
  • Patch – Berries and Basil Cider
  • Squeeze – Strawberry Lemonade Cider

And rest assured, these folks are always playing around with new things – which means we’ll hopefully see other varieties in the future, too.

The event is going to be a blast too, with a food truck, games, prizes, the full party deal. It sounds like a great opportunity for anyone to head out and see what they’re up to if you ask me!

All About Northwood Cider

Norwood Taproom
2075 Mills Ave
Norwood, Ohio 45212
For More Information
NorthwoodCider.com

Test
Test
Test

Read all about Northwood Cider here on the website!


Leave a Comment.