Cincinnati, Ohio – In the Cincinnati area, two local liquor producers, Woodstone Creek and Northside Distilling Co., have resolved a court dispute about which one was the first distillery in the city.

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Woodstone Creek, which makes wine and spirits and is located at 4712 Vine St. in St. Bernard, took Northside Distilling to court in 2022. They went to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas to stop Northside from saying they were the first to make spirits in Cincinnati after Prohibition ended.

Linda Outterson, who runs Woodstone Creek, shared in an email that they settled the issue outside of court. The details of the settlement weren’t shared, but Northside agreed to withdraw their claim. They also agreed not to bad-mouth each other, which was part of the settlement agreement.

Aaron Haslam, the person in charge at Northside Distilling, hasn’t commented on the matter.

“We achieved our goal. Northside knows the limits of their actions pertaining to Woodstone Creek,” Outterson said in the email. “And, tempting fate might have been the wrong decision on their part.”

Woodstone Creek argued in their legal complaint that they were Ohio’s first officially recognized small distillery. They said this happened after they worked with state lawmakers to get a law passed that allowed for small distilleries. Woodstone got its license to make spirits in 2002.Top of Form

Northside Distilling Co. started up in 2013 and by 2015, they were selling their own distilled spirits. They initially set up their still in a barn located in the Northside area and in 2017, they opened a place for distilling and tasting at 922 Race St. in the downtown area.

Woodstone Creek’s legal action mentioned that Northside Distilling put up a banner at their downtown location claiming to be “Cincinnati’s first distillery since Prohibition,” and they also made similar statements on the internet.

Linda Outterson from Woodstone Creek didn’t just stop there. She also sent warning letters to Middle West Spirits in Columbus for saying they were Ohio’s first craft distillery in a news piece from March 2023; and to Indian Creek Distilling in New Carlisle, Ohio, for calling themselves the state’s oldest distillery. Middle West Spirits got its start in 2008, while Indian Creek Distilling’s history goes back to 1820, even though it started its current operations in 2012.

A representative from Middle West Spirits chose not to say much, but did express that Middle West respects the tradition, skill, and community of whiskey production and wouldn’t knowingly mislead customers or speak ill of other distilleries.

Jeremy Tomb, a lawyer for Indian Creek Distilling, stated in an email that his clients recognize Woodstone Creek’s role in shaping today’s distillery scene in Ohio. However, they refuse to be intimidated into downplaying their own significant and rightful place in the history of distilling in Ohio.

“I want to make it clear, Woodstone is not a competitor of Indian Creek Distillery,” Tomb wrote. “They are a modern distillery with no known history that precedes this century. Indian Creek Distillery has the oldest operating copper kettle stills known in the Northern Hemisphere (let alone Ohio), and can trace its distilling history back to the early 1800s.”