Who We Are, And How We Came To Be.

Let's rewind about four decades and go grab a beer. Let's find a good beer. Forget local, we'll settle for domestic. Turns out, that was no easy feat, until Dock Street Brewing Company was founded, joining the ranks of just barely a handful of craft breweries in the entire country, and pioneering the way for what are now tens of thousands of local microbreweries.

In 1985, amidst a proverbial sea of watered down and adjunct-plagued lagers, Rosemarie Certo and Jeffrey Ware founded Dock Street Brewing Company, one of the first post-prohibition craft breweries in the country - and Philly’s first all-grain brew pub. 

Fast-forward about a decade, and Dock Street Brewery was nestled in at 2 Logan Square in Philadelphia. The upscale brewpub, with a French chef and swanky, Center City clientele, was achieving the founders’ goals of “elevating the status of beer” to a gourmet beverage.

By 1996 and Dock Street would become the 26th largest microbrewery in the country, producing over 25,000 barrels of beer a year, distributing to 24 states, and earning medals in the world's most prestigious beer competitions.

Dock Street was sold in 2000, but then reacquired by Certo in 2002. For a decade or so, Dock Street produced two of our flagship brews, Dock Street Royal Bohemian Pilsner and Dock Street Amber Ale. In 2007, Certo oversaw the completion of a new brewpub at the corner of 50th and Baltimore Avenue, in the beautiful, progressive West Philadelphia neighborhood.

We’ve come a long way since our first location at 18th and Cherry - 1.5 miles, to be exact - but to this day, countless craft beer drinkers credit Dock Street as the beer that turned them away from watery macro-brews and domestic light lagers. Now, we’re known as much for our fearless experimental beers like Dock Street Walker (brewed with goat brains in honor of our favorite show, The Walking Dead) as for staples like our Dock Street Bohemian Pilsner or our Dock Street Rye IPA, which Beer Advocate ranks among the Top 15 Rye Beers in the World. (An impressive feat, considering that only about 500 barrels of the Dock Street Rye IPA are brewed a year and sold exclusively in Philadelphia.)

Our name, Dock Street, was chosen in honor of the seaport district which was, in the late 1700's, the largest producer of beer in the then-newly-formed country. Today, we still brew with the spirit of Philadelphia's sudsy history, and Dock St. (below, in 1908) in mind. 

brick and mortar:

DOCK STREET SOUTH

Today, Dock Street Brewery practices our craft in Philly’s Point Breeze neighborhood. In August 2019 we opened Dock Street South, a brewery, mess hall + restaurant, lounge, and coffee bar in a 10,500 square foot warehouse that formerly housed a brewery over a century ago, then functioned as a tile factory, then a taxi repair shop.

All brewing and canning is done on site. Brewery tours are offered, schedule one HERE today. Many of our drafts travel less than 65 feet from conditioning tanks in the brewery straight to the pint glasses and mouths of our patrons, making our offerings quite literally some of the freshest beers available.

Complementing our award-winning brews is impressive lineup of hand-tossed, wood fired pizza, char-grilled burgers, numerous vegetarian and vegan friendly options, fries and bites, Pennsylvania wines, and beer cocktails. Neighbors and travelers alike enjoy our spacious and airy mess hall, the adjacent “pizza room” with our open kitchen showcasing our pizzaiolos at work and a peak into our operations via a wall of windows overlooking the brewery.

Dock Street South houses events year round, from public events like Maker’s Markets, Free Music Fridays, Quizzo every Wednesday, and so much more, plus private parties including weddings, showers, graduations, birthdays, meetings - whatever you’re celebrating!

dock street fishtown

Our newest location, Dock Street Fishtown, opened in April 2023! This 1000 square foot taproom located in the heart of Philly’s exciting, creative, and vibrant Fishtown neighborhood features eight freshly brewed draught beers on tap, four lines dedicated to draught wine and cider, and beautiful craft cocktails. Snack on Mediterranean small plates while you sip and people watch from the floor to ceiling windows facing Front Street, and grab some takeout beer from our ample selection of nearly a dozen packaged brews in 16oz cans.

IN MEMORIUM: DOCK STREET WEST + Dock Street cannery

From 2007 to 2022, Dock Street Brewery called a 110-year-old converted firehouse at the corner of 50th and Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia home. The neighborhood is true to Dock Street’s bohemian philosophy, with its progressive and eclectic counterculture.

In 2017-2020, we added a cannery and tasting lounge in an airy garage next door to the main brewpub on 50th Street in West Philadelphia. The mixed-use space functioned as an expansion of our brewery, plus an event space for amazing micro-weddings, rehearsals, baby showers, work mixers. We also regularly hosted public events too, like Comedy at the Cannery and our award-winning reading series, Creative at the Cannery, plus random-but-awesome pop-ups such as glass blowing demos, ceramics pop-ups, and more.

Dock Street West officially closed on May 28, 2022. We found that with our huge new expansion in Point Breeze, Dock Street South, we had outgrown our beloved Firehouse. The brewing equipment was redundant and occupied nearly 2/3 of the building, so we focused our attention on Dock Street South and expanding into new parts of the city such as Fishtown.

West Philly will forever be part of our hearts and our story!

OUR BEERS

Our award-winning beers are among the top-rated in the world, and have earned us dozens of National and International Gold, Silver and Bronze medals along the way.

We make dozens of different draught + packaged beers each year, and are definitely not slowing down now that we expanded with our new 10,500 square foot brewing facility and brewpub, Dock Street South. Stop by either of our taprooms for a beautiful, fresh pour to enjoy with our thoughtfully hand-crafted food.

Our brewers are constantly coming up with new recipes, experimenting with ingredients, or reviving old classics from our nearly forty-year portfolio of brews. We have a solid roster of year-round staples which we complement with more creative, eclectic brews, featuring anything from wild yeasts and bacteria, fresh fruits and veggies, chocolate, coffee, spices, teas, various wine and spirit barrels, brains (this one time), Himalayan Pink Salt, and even the musical stylings of Wu Tang Clan.

In addition to draught beer, we also package over a dozen beers on our state of the art on-site canning line at Dock Street South. Staples like our Dock Street Bohemian Pilsner and Dock Street Golden IPA are available year-round in 16oz cans, as well as a steady stream of seasonals and one-offs for your drinking enjoyment!