Bock Family Brewing 2024: Family-Owned and Operated Brewpub

Jen and Ian Bock are the founders of Bock Family Brewing, a family-owned brewpub located just south of Dayton, Ohio. After a decade of planning, they built the brewpub by hand with the help of family and friends. Their establishment is a celebration of quality, sustainability, and community, offering small-batch beers, mead, and cider in a welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere. DeliveryRank has the opportunity to find out more.

What inspired the creation of Bock Family Brewing, and how did your family's history and cultural heritage shape the vision for the brewpub?

As people who love and make craft beer, we spent a lot of time visiting various breweries. When we decided to share our beer with the world, we wanted to create an environment that was cozy, comfortable, and family-friendly, not just family-tolerant. We wanted it to feel like coming home. 

Like many Americans, our families have cultural history from multiple locations, particularly Germany, the British Isles, and Scandinavia in our case. When designing our space, we wanted to emphasize a more European-style feel reflecting de-mystified attitudes about alcohol and consuming responsibly in a gathering space meant for all. With our multiple separate rooms, we were able to dedicate a portion of our space to the various lineages that make us who we are.

Can you tell us more about your approach to sustainability and quality in your brewing process? How does this commitment influence the production of your beverages?

Quality and sustainability are incredibly important to us as individuals and as a business. We work with various suppliers to source only the highest quality raw materials for our beers, and personally make sure that every batch is made carefully to our highest standards. I still brew and package each batch myself. We will not put our name on anything we wouldn’t purchase ourselves and we want to make sure that each beer on our menu is good enough that if a guest tries only one we know they’ll be satisfied.

But we also know that we have a responsibility to conserve our environment for the future. The agricultural products we use and our very lifestyle are dependent on our stewardship of the planet – without a healthy environment there would be no beer! Most of what we strive to do would be considered best practices in the craft brewing industry, but it ensures that nothing goes to waste. Our spent grain is sent to a farm to be used as animal feed. We re-capture water from cooling processes for cleaning and CO2 from fermentation to be used to naturally carbonate our beer. Our fully electric brewing operation (and our whole building) is powered with 100% renewable electricity and we source biodegradable cleaning products for use in our operations.

With such a family-centered business, how do you ensure that Bock Family Brewing creates a welcoming environment for both families and individuals looking for a unique social experience?

We have a variety of drinks for all ages, a full menu with a kids menu included and plenty of activities for everyone!  Everything from darts, pool, shuffleboard, foosball, an arcade game and board games, people of all ages can enjoy themselves.  We also have two side rooms where individuals or families can go into to get away from the people in the main hall.  We have kid-centered events that are advertised so families can enjoy a day of crafts or trunk or treat, while the parents relax with a beverage.  Those who don’t have children can choose to avoid these activities by following up on social media to know what’s going on.  When both types of guests are in the taproom, we do ensure parents are monitoring their children and keeping them safe and behaved so everyone can enjoy themselves.  We also do adult only events where children aren’t allowed at all, so we have something for everyone. 

How do you go about designing your menu to complement your beer offerings, especially with the German-inspired street food and seasonal pairings?

Jen Bock designed the menu herself by getting inspiration from German pubs’ menus.  While we aren’t in Germany, we wanted to create a menu that was American enough to not scare guests from trying anything, but German enough to go with our vibe and beer offerings, which are mostly German. 

You host a wide variety of events, from trivia nights to family-friendly craft sessions and live music. What role do these events play in building the Bock Family Brewing community, and how do you decide which events to feature?

Our events allow people of all types to come and have fun at the brewery while having a great time doing something unique or that they regularly enjoy.  Trivia, live music, goat yoga, cookie decorating classes and our murder mystery shows are for people of all ages and abilities.  Our drag shows welcome the LGBTQA1+ communities and their allies.  We’ve hosted book clubs, knitting clubs, Dungeons and Dragons and other card game nights, dating events, sports teams dinners, baby showers, weddings and more.  

We want the community to know that we are ALL inclusive regardless of who you are and everyone is welcome.  You cannot build a community without having everyone who lives there be able to be involved.  We will try any type of event at least once and if it is successful, we will host it again!    

If you would like to find out more about Bock Family Brewing, please visit https://bockfamilybrewing.com/