Northville Winery and Brewing Co.
On Monday, December 7th we held our monthly club meeting at the Northville Winery and Brewing Company, Robb Nelson was a great host and answered several of our club members questions. The Northville Winery originated in 1982 in the Parmenter’s Cider Mill, Rob and Carina Nelson (Robb’s parent’s) started making their own product almost 10 years ago and they have been expanding and building on their success ever since.
The Northville Winery started making their own wine in the 1990’s followed by Hard Cider in 2006 and opened the microbrewery in 2014. All the grapes and apples are brought in from the West side of Michigan with all the pressing done in the cider mill and fermenting and bottling in the winery building. Every bottle is filled and labeled by hand. The winery produces several alcoholic wines, hard ciders, beer and will be adding a small distillery soon!
You could really tell that Robb is extremely passionate about what he does and many of us were blown away that there was so much to know about making cider. Robb shared that the acidity of the fruit can really impact the flavor and fermentability of the cider. Sweeter desert apples like Honey Crisp or Gala are sweeter so tend to be more fermentable whereas early harvest apples and Jonathan variety apples tend to be more acidic with lower fermentable sugars which results in them having longer term stability once bottled. The first hard cider that Robb produced is what is now called Rockin’ Cock Hard Cider and is still one of his favorites and one of their best sellers.
Beer and Cider flight
We were able to sample several of the ciders such as Rockin’ Cock, Half Nelson (hopped cider), Crimson Dew and Blue River. Also two of the beer offerings that Robb has made which included Rock Me Hopadeus IPA and Stout Stout Let it All Out.
Even though the beer offering right now is small they will be expanding that in the future but The Northville Winery and Brewing Co. has so much more to offer as far as wine and cider that it’s well worth the trip to check it out. You can find out more at their website, http://www.thenorthvillewinery.com and you can see more photos from out club meeting in our photo gallery.