By Kristin Hunt

Copyright phillyvoice

Before Rosemarie Certo co-founded Dock Street Brewing Co., she was a beer drinker. And when she searched for American brews in the 1980s, all she found was “a sea of bland beers.”

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The stuff she’d tried on trips to Europe — back when you could travel England or Germany for “$5 a day,” she remembered — tasted much better. Her favorite was Bass Pale Ale, a classic British beer known for its full-bodied, nutty profile. Her then-husband Jeffrey Ware preferred the crisp Czech brew Pilsner Urquell. So when he brought a brewing kit home one day, the couple landed on the idea of bringing the same level of quality and character they’d found abroad to Philadelphia.

Their resulting brainchild, Dock Street, launched in 1985. It’s now an award-winning craft brewery and the oldest in the city, poised to celebrate its 40th anniversary this month. The couple’s early arrival on the scene put them in a class of pioneering beermakers, of which Certo was one of the few women, who sought to reinvent the ales and lagers available in the United States.

“I think all of us were a product of a counterculture environment and wanting to make America really different than it was,” Certo said. “We wanted to go back to our handcrafted roots.”

It also provided her a roadmap for her future. Certo had grown restless teaching high school English and already pivoted careers once, to corporate and commercial photography. Though she had no background in business — she had studied literature and philosophy at Penn State University and photography at Moore College of Art & Design — her Sicilian family had been olive oil and wine merchants. She was confident she could make the leap. Ware, a sculptor, was less sure.

“My partner said, well, none of us have studied business,” Certo remembered. “And I said, well, your grandparents came from Russia, and they started a clothing factory. They never did that before. My family used to make wine and olive oil. So we’ll make beer in the USA.”

They took their name from the Old City seaport district where beer flowed in the 1700s, incorporating sailors, ships and anchors into their branding The early days involved a lot of convincing. Certo recalled persuading customers “one by one” that a case of Dock Street beer was worth buying over an import. Eventually, she and Ware had made enough converts to open a brewpub at 2 Logan Square. Dock Street was one of the largest craft breweries by the 1990s, producing over 28,000 barrels of beer each year and distributing in 26 states.

But then, Dock Street changed hands. Ware and Certo — who maintains she never wanted to give up the brewery — sold the label to Poor Henry’s Brewery & Restaurant in 1998.

“I was totally, totally lost,” Certo said. “I had no identity. … And I know we took a trip to Sicily and were there for six weeks, for a month and a half trying to forget and trying to start a new life.”

She took Dock Street back in 2002 after Poor Henry’s folded. The brewpub in Center City was long gone, so to relaunch the brand, Certo turned to F.X. Matt Brewing Co., where she and Ware had started contract brewing their beers back in 1985. She sold bottles at Pizza Rustica, the wood-fired pizzeria at 36th and Chestnut streets she had started in Dock Street’s absence. Then, in 2007, she opened a new Dock Street hub in a former firehouse in West Philadelphia. Pizza Rustica shuttered in the process, but Certo brought a wood-fired oven over to the brewpub and kept making pies.

That location has also since closed, but Dock Street now boasts a 10,500 square-foot production facility and beer hall in Point Breeze and a tasting room in Fishtown. In its four decades of life, the brewery has pumped out numerous eye-catching beers — including an “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”-inspired milk stout, a pale ale made with the help of a drone and a “wedding beer” available exclusively for nuptials and Valentine’s Day. But Dock Street has also continued to pour the amber ale and Bohemian Pilsner from its ’80s lineup — and will proudly serve them yet again at the brewery’s 40th anniversary block party Saturday, Sept. 27, in Point Breeze. The festivities will also feature a limited-edition can release, line dancing and bounce house.

As the brand approaches this milestone birthday, Certo is thinking about retirement. Her daughter, Dock Street vice president Renata Vesey, is ready to take over when the time comes. But even after 40 years at the helm, Certo admits it’s hard to imagine life without her trailblazing craft brewery.

“I probably will always have my foot in the door because I’m a workaholic,” she said. “And I have always said that I can’t imagine what retired people do. … My work is really my passion. And I could honestly say that that probably holds true for every craft brewer. Because there’s definitely a lot easier ways to make money.”

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