‘Sorry About That’ Say Owners of North Loop Business
By Mike Binkley, North Loop Neighborhood Association
When they opened Number 12 Cider in the North Loop last November, childhood buddies Colin Post and Steve Hance felt the need to apologize. In fact, they printed the apology on the back of their cider menus, addressed to people in the New Brighton neighborhood where they grew up. Specifically, those with apple trees.
More than a few of those apples disappeared into the young hands and stomachs of Colin, Steve and their friends who would climb trees around the north end of Long Lake.
Now, looking back, they don’t know if that’s what sparked their interest in apples, but as adults they both became cider-making hobbyists. Steve, an attorney, said it got to the point that he’d have so many batches of cider in his basement—100 to 200 gallons worth—he stopped naming the different types. He simply gave them numbers.
A batch labeled “Number 12,” made from random apples they foraged in Mora, won them a blue ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair. That’s how their business came to be known as Number 12 Cider.
Colin, who’s taking a break from his career as a teacher, said cider is becoming especially popular on the east and west coasts, and he believes it’ll be “the next thing” in alcoholic beverages here in the North as well.
