Around Town | Red Clay Ciderworks

I was invited to a tour and cider tasting event at Red Clay Ciderworks (RCC, for short) a few weeks ago.  A tour and free tasting 4 minutes away from our apartment? See, it really wasn't that hard to convince me. Jake and I have said for years that it would be so cool if we had a neighborhood bar to go to during the week, or on the weekend where you are a regular. Like, Cheers -- everyone know your name, you run into friends there, etc but then life happened and we barely have enough time to eat dinner together and get a work out in before it's time for bed and to do it all over again.  Sometimes adulting isn't as fun as you thought it would be when you were a kid, wishing you could grow up faster.  Case in point, we cannot sleep in and stay in our pajamas all day. The bills have to be paid and work has to get done. 

But -- on the off chance we do have some free time on the weekend, you might find us at Red Clay Ciderworks. Let me explain.  I have never been a beer drinker. Ok.. scratch that, in college, I did drink my share of disgustingly cheap beer. But, once I grew up and discovered wine, my beer drinking days were over.  Jake prefers beer over wine and even has a pipe dream to open up a beer shop with his brother one of these days. But... cider is the perfect in-between for both of us. RCC has so many different options - they have a sweet cider for me and a more hoppy cider for him. It's basically like a match made in heaven. So, without further ado, onto some photos from the tasting and tour of their shop.

Making cider seems like making wine in some ways, but beer in other ways. They "brew" the cider in these gigantic tanks using local apples from North Carolina. 

All packed up and ready to head out to various restaurants in the Charlotte area -- including Seoul Food -- which I have been dying to try!

A few of the various options on tap. I love that the Charlotte brewery scene is so collaborative and not competitive. They all serve each other's stuff. Very cool!

As I mentioned in my Instagram post, my favorite cider was Cherry Bobbin Trolls which is made with tart cherries from Michigan. A close second was the Southend Sweet which is sweeter than your usual cider but not too sweet.  I definitely cannot wait to go back and try some new flavors. I love that everything is seasonal (+ local) too.  Hooray for RCC!

Red Clay Ciderworks is located just South of South End (see what I did there?!) at 245 Clanton Road in Charlotte, NC.

Cheers,