Number 12 Cider is closing and ending production next month after six years in the North Loop.

The craft cidery and taproom near Target Field is slated to close after a Dec. 21 celebration, when everything will be marked down, and DJ Glen (Glen Wachowiak) and The Supreme Ruler of Sound (Steve Fligge) will spin reggae and other throwback music.

Number 12 opened in 2018, and right when it started to gain its footing around late 2019 or early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the business “never got over the hump,” co-owner Steve Hance told Downtown Voices on Monday. He listed changes in consumer trends, with more people opting for seltzer over cider, and perceptions of crime in the area as “setbacks” experienced by the business over the past several years.

“We decided rather than, you know, letting things fall apart at some point that we would take it into our own hands and pick a date and shut it down and do it responsibly,” Hance said. “During the next couple of months, we're just going to try to celebrate the positives as opposed to the negatives.”

Hance and his best buddy since childhood, Colin Post, launched Number 12 in Buffalo, Minnesota in 2015 and moved it to the North Loop in 2018. But the seeds of their business were planted way back when they were 8-year-olds stealing apples from neighbors’ trees in New Brighton.

“We've always had a passion for cider, and that's why we started the business,” Hance said. “We feel like we created what we set out to create here: a destination cidery. We made the products that we wanted to make and had the atmosphere we wanted to have.”

Hance hopes to see another food and beverage business in the space, which boasts a 1,000-square-foot patio, where Number 12 operates a wood-fired pizza truck, Little Tomato, hosts corn hole in the summer, and puts out fire pits in the winter.

When they’re no longer cidery owners, Hance and Post plan to return to their original careers, lawyer and teacher, respectively. The duo posted a farewell video on Number 12's Instagram page on Monday.

“We’re still best pals after 46 years and a business together, so it worked out alright,” Hance said during the interview with Downtown Voices.

Number 12 is located at 614 N. Fifth St., where it’s open Monday from 4-9 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 4-10 p.m., Friday from 4-11 p.m., Saturday from 12-11 p.m., and Sunday from 12-8 p.m.