Furry friends and summertime sips: Hamilton craft cidery, hobby farm is ideal post-COVID destination

One of Hamilton’s newest craft cideries is steadily expanding and the creative duo behind this exciting new brand is looking forward to a summer of growth and community engagement.

Tall Post Craft Cider, located along Hendershot Road in Binbrook (right beside Murphy’s Country Produce) started out in 2019 producing approximately 200 litres of cider a week out of a shipping container on Tigchelaar Berry Farms.

Today, Tall Post has moved its operations into a beautiful red barn on the farm and is currently capable of producing approximately 4,000 litres of the fermented apple juice that is made entirely of Ontario-grown fruit.

“I wanted to make a quality beverage at a great price point that comes direct from the source,” said Aaron Post, Tall Post’s founder and the towering man for whom the cidery is named.

Post’s passion for innovative agricultural production, small business and his fascination with small-batch distillation set him on the path to establishing Tall Post.

“I leaned on the expertise of my mentor (Jeff Tigchelaar) who has supported me every step of the way,” he told InTheHammer.

“It started in the shipping container with $20,000 and it’s been growing ever since.”

Since the move to the barn, Post has made his home in the cosy shipping container where his cidery began.

As a small cidery, Tall Post has the ability to make a lot of limited-run flavours and currently, they expect to have around 30 flavours coming up over the summer.

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For now, Tall Post has 10 or so regularly produced flavours like Strawberry, True North, Wild Draft and Jordan Juice that are their staples.

In addition to ramping up production this summer, Post is hoping to see Tall Post grow into a destination for craft cider enthusiasts who not only want to sample some of Post’s innovative ciders but who are looking to explore a beautiful rural property and hobby farm which is home to bunnies, very friendly goats and chickens.

“It’s the perfect post-COVID activity,” Post said, adding that in the coming weeks, they hope to be able to bring some food trucks onto the property on Fridays and Saturday evenings so people can come and eat good food, try some great cider and take in their surroundings.

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Jacob Valk, who is Post’s childhood friend and who manages Tall Post’s social media, sales and business development, said the next step in their path is to get the Tall Post Cider onto store shelves and restaurants.

“There’s been a lot of interest,” Valk told IntheHammer. “That is a project that I hope to take on over the summer.”

For now, Valk and Post are still waiting for a license to be approved that would allow for them to serve people by the glass on-site at Tall Post (they anticipate this kind of service to be available by July 1st) but in the meantime, the cidery remains open for walk-ins and the farm is ripe for exploring.

“We’re really looking forward to having people to the farm this year,” Valk said. “And to share some of the new [ciders] we have in the works.”

For more information on Tall Post, visit the website or give them a follow on social media.