PHILADELPHIA, PA — Dock Street Brewing Company, one of the nation’s pioneering craft breweries and Philadelphia’s oldest independent microbrewery, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Founded in 1985 by Rosemarie Certo and Jeffrey Ware, the brewery has grown from a basement homebrewing experiment into a woman-led brand with multiple locations, a national reputation, and a legacy of innovation in American craft beer.
Named after Dock Street in Old City — once home to one of the country’s largest beer-producing seaports — the brewery was part of the earliest wave of post-prohibition microbreweries in the United States. At its peak in the early 1990s, Dock Street produced more than 28,000 barrels of beer annually, distributing to 26 states and even Paris, France, making it one of the largest craft brewers in the country at the time.
The brewery’s history is marked by resilience and reinvention. After Ware sold the company in 1999, Certo repurchased it in 2002 and reopened in 2007 in a former firehouse in West Philadelphia, operating without investors and relying solely on her own resources. In the years since, Dock Street expanded to a 10,500-square-foot production facility and taproom in Point Breeze in 2019, and a tasting room in Fishtown in 2023.
Dock Street has also built a reputation for experimentation. It was the first brewery approved to use wormwood in a beer recipe and garnered international attention in 2014 with Dock Street Walker, a zombie-themed stout brewed with smoked goat brains to coincide with AMC’s The Walking Dead season finale. The brewery has won numerous awards for its beers, including its long-running Man Full of Trouble Porter, named after Philadelphia’s only surviving colonial tavern.
Beyond its products, Dock Street has used its platform for advocacy. In the early 1990s, it protested unfair trade practices by inverting its Amber Ale label and stamping “PROTEST” across the bottle, drawing national and international media attention and giving the brewery a voice in global trade discussions.
Today, leadership is shifting to a new generation. Certo’s daughter, Renata Vesey, now serves as vice president and is preparing to take over as head of the company. Vesey played a key role in the expansion into Point Breeze and plans to continue growing the brand with new products and future locations.
Reflecting on the journey, Certo acknowledged the challenges of breaking into what was long considered a male-dominated industry. Forty years later, Dock Street remains an influential voice in craft brewing. “This is my calling. This is my legacy,” Certo said. “If I could go back and do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
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