Bockfest is back, and it’s once again time to fill your mug with as much bock beer as you can handle.
The 34th annual Bockfest begins this weekend, starting today and running through this Sunday. It’s a celebration of Cincinnati’s brewing heritage and of bock beer, but there’s plenty of events happening around the city whether you’re drinking or not.
What’s Bockfest all about anyway?
Well, bock beer is a type of beer traditionally brewed for special occasions, although German monks would drink it during Lent as a substitute for food. And if you’ve been living in Cincinnati long enough, you know our city is awash in both German and Catholic traditions. Compared to other beers, it’s complex, hardy, traditionally has a higher nutritional content than most beer and typically has a higher alcohol content.
The Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company created Bockfest in 1993 to celebrate the release of Christian Moerlein Bock. It has since grown into one of the city’s biggest festivals—with a lot of goats!
This year, there are five ‘hubs’ for Bockfest—Moerlein Lager House, Northern Row Brewery & Distillery, Rhinegeist Brewery, Rosedale OTR and Arnold’s Bar and Grill—although there are plenty of other celebrations happening in Over-the-Rhine.
How does the festival begin?
Bockfest kicks off with the Sausage Queen pageant, where the Royal International Bockfest Sausage Queen Commission judges prospective (gender-neutral) queens on personality, presence, and talent in some sort of sausage-related way. The winner leads the annual Bockfest parade as the year’s reigning Queen while walking alongside a goat.
Speaking of the parade, it starts today at 6 p.m. in front of Arnold’s Bar and Grill Downtown, which has been the parade’s starting line since its inception. The parade will head up Sycamore Street, turn left on 12th Street, then finish by heading all the way up Main Street.
Parade participants compete in the Best of Bock Awards, taking place tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Northern Row Brewery. Categories include best costume, best goat representation, best dance troupe, and more.
Several street closures in the OTR/downtown area begin at 4 p.m. today, including closures on 8th through 12th street, Court Street, Central Parkway, Orchard Street, Clay Street, and more.
What’s there to do?
Enough for your weekend to be jam-packed and memorable. Or maybe not, depending on how much bock beer you have.
- Saturday is the annual Bockfest 5K at The Banks. All participants receive a shirt, two drink tickets and a Skyline Chili Cheese Coney, and finishers receive a medal that doubles as a bottle opener.
- Arnold’s, the home of the parade, will have a whopping 21 different bock beers on tap. Live music will be constantly filling the bar’s courtyard with sound, and Bockfest is the only time of the year that Arnold’s is open on Sundays.
- Moerlein Lager House is doing it all: a Bock Beer Tasting Experience, which gets you ten 5oz tastings of various bock beers; the Cry Baby Goat Calling Competition, where grown men and women will get up and do their best imitation of a goat’s bleating to win prizes; the US Steinholding Ohio State Championship Qualifier, where contestants hold a beer stein out in front of them for as long as possible; and plenty more brunches, dinners, and special events all weekend long.
- Northern Row has maybe the most unique experience at Bockfest, called Beer Poking: a flaming hot poker pierces your beer, changing the flavor. It sounds scary, but it is delicious. There’s also a Bockfest Fashion Show on Saturday, followed by the parade’s awards. Plenty of live music and kegs and eggs will be around all weekend, too.
- Rhinegeist has 26 different bock beers on tap, along with goat yoga in the main hall on Sunday morning. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
- Speaking of goat yoga, you’ve got two more chances to bleat along with your furry friends as you hit a mean child’s pose. Rosedale OTR has Goat Yoga on Saturday AND Sunday, along with a Bockfest Luau on Sunday afternoon.
- Sam Adams has partnered with partnered with Findlay Market pastry favorite Makers Bakers to release Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Bock, a hearty German-style lager brewed using their iconic cinnamon rolls in the mash, with additions of vanilla and cinnamon. It’s decadent and delicious.
Other venues participating in Bockfest include:
- Afterlife Cincy, 44 E Court Street
- Crazy Fox Saloon, 901 Washington Avenue
- Dueling Axes, 246 W Elder
- Dunlap Cafe, 1926 Dunlap Street
- Japp’s, 1134 Main Street
- The Lackman, 1237 Vine Street
- Low Spark, 15 West 14th Street
- Lucius Q, 1131 Broadway
- Mellotone, 1429 Race Street
- MOTR, 1345 Main Street
- Mr. Pitiful’s, 1323 Main Street
- Nice Life, 1150 Main Street
- Pilar, 56 East Court Street
- The Porch @ Washington Park, 1230 Elm Street
- The Rhined, 1737 Elm Street
- WinterHaus on Fountain Square