Where to Find Craft Beverages in Licking County

Megan Leigh Barnard

With the perfect mix of small-town charm and big-city benefits, Central Ohio offers a high quality of life and low cost of living with exemplary infrastructure, top-notch schools, friendly neighbors and uncommon natural beauty. 

In addition, the area makes for a compelling location for entrepreneurs, especially those in the business of making craft beverages in Licking County. 

DankHouse Brewing Co. 

Josh Lange, owner and operator at DankHouse Brewing Company in Newark, delved into craft-brewed beverages because of an innate interest. 

“My wife, Heather, and I co-own the business, and it started because we had an interest in craft beer, specifically the industry. Our family vacations were centered around places we could see and try new beers,” Lange says. “The more we visited, the more we realized they were family-friendly – not like a typical bar – and wanted to teach ourselves to brew beer.” 

The entrepreneurs turned to the internet to teach themselves their craft, and the hobby evolved into their business in 2017. 

“Our initial intentions were to open a bar/craft beer store, but those plans got derailed,” Lange says. “We opened with a minimal operation – every dollar we had went into the place – but we did incredibly well at the start.” 

DankHouse Brewing is known for its family-friendly atmosphere, fun activities (like a nine-hole disc golf course and music venue) and unique brews. 

“We never had any classical training, so we have more freedom to include fun ingredients. We make everything from stouts that taste like brownies to sours that mimic pineapple upside-down cake and IPAs with fruit,” Lange says. “Every day is an experiment.” 

Their first significant expansion doubled their business size and prompted them to buy a new brewing system. 

“We had these monster plans, and the (pandemic) shutdowns happened,” Lange says. “We turned our business model upside down and took our beer online.” 

The shift was met with great success, thanks to the Licking County community. 

“It’s been incredible with the amount of support from our community,” Lange says. “Newark has always been our home. I couldn’t imagine our business elsewhere, and we are proud of what our small team accomplishes and gives back to the community.” 

Seek-No-Further Cidery 

Trent Beers, owner of Seek-No-Further Cidery in Granville, opened his business in June 2021 after 15 years of working in corporate graphic design. 

“I was ready to shake things up and learn something new,” Beers says. “I experienced other cideries in many cities and realized something was missing in Central Ohio.” 

Finding the perfect location in a New England-style barn and connecting with cider-maker Garrett Huber felt like serendipity, persuading Beers to go all in. 

“Starting a craft beverage business enabled me to not only expand my horizons as an entrepreneur but also use my 20+ years of experience in graphic design and marketing to create my brand,” Beers says. “COVID shifted our opening date and required a lot of focus to keep working toward the dream of opening, but it forced us to maximize every inch of our small space. We replaced all our tanks within six months, nearly tripling in size.” 

Seek-No-Further Cidery crafts authentic New England-style hard cider made from the finest apples. They specialize in dry and hard ciders, using heirloom apples from local and small orchards in New England. “Local legend tells of a particular orchard in Granville, Massachusetts, where a grove of famous seek-no-further apple trees rose above fertile farmland. Declared by some to be the best apple in the world, these multi-colored globes sweetened the plates and palates of many a New Englander, dating back to the 1790s,” Beers says. 

Now, Seek-No-Further Cidery beckons seekers of all stripes with carefully crafted hard cider made from the best apples in the country. 

“Our flagship ciders are expertly crafted based on the quality of the apples sourced, as opposed to other cideries that might use a bulk juice blend and then add flavoring,” Beers says. 

And like DankHouse Brewing Company, they couldn’t be successful without the community’s support, which Beers says, “has been helpful with promoting our business and its various events.”