Now if I could only find a 40 of Burger

From Wednesday's Enquirer:

Hudy Bock Beer comes back
BY JON NEWBERRY JNEWBERRY@ENQUIRER.COM

Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. is resurrecting another of Cincinnati’s historic beer brands for this weekend’s Bockfest celebration. Hudepohl Bock Beer will be available on draft at restaurants and bars participating in Bockfest beginning Thursday.

Hudepohl and various other versions of bock beer, a dark lager traditionally packaged with a label featuring a goat – “bock” in German – have heralded the coming of spring in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky since the 1800s.

Cincinnati-based Christian Moerlein bought the Hudepohl-Schoenling brands last year, returning them to local ownership. It has marketed Hudy Delight beer since then, but the Hudepohl brand has otherwise been absent for years, and Hudepohl Bock hasn’t been produced since the 1980s.


The company brewed only a small batch using one of the original recipes, said Greg Hardman, owner of Christian Moerlein.

“We’re bringing it back as kind of a test to see how people like it,” he said. “Based on that reaction, that’ll determine what we do. This is a big stretch for us. We’re bringing back one of the true great brands of the city.”

Hudepohl 14K, a lighter lager than the bock version, was the most popular Cincinnati beer brand through much of the 1950s and 1960s. Sales slumped in the 1970s and 1980s as national brands such as Budweiser and Miller came to dominate the industry, and regional breweries shut down across the country.

Hardman, who now brews his beer at the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., hopes to open a brewery in Over-the-Rhine once he re-establishes his brands and builds sufficient sales volumes.

Hudepohl Bock will also be sold downtown at the inaugural “Bock and Brats Cincinnati Beer Toast” on Fountain Square from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.

The event is sponsored by the Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corp., an Over-the-Rhine non-profit group. It will feature Cincinnati beer and sausages, including bock beer, bockwurst and bratwurst.

Participants are invited to take to the stage and give a toast appropriate for the occasion, with an engraved plaque awarded for the winning entry. The toasts will be shown live on the square’s giant video screen.