By Laura Mazur
Community Post
Minster residents will be drinking a little bock and then rocking the night away.

The Minster Civic Association, which is sponsoring this year’s Bock and Rock, a beer tasting and music festival, met last week and discussed more plans for this year’s event.
For the past two months, a special committee within the association has been planning the festival, which will be on May 31, with the first pour of the 75 German, Belgium, English and craft and draft brews at 4 p.m.
Shawn Sharp, who spoke for the committee, said the beer tasting festival is a toss-up between a wine tasting event, the traveling AleFest and the hometown Minster charm of having rock bands at festivals. Together, they are the Bock and Rock.
“This area is so much into micro brews, we thought we’d copy these ideas and have a nice event,” said Sharp.
For $20, attendants will get a sampling glass, which is the standard alefest 5oz. pilsner, complete with the bock and rock logo on one side and the Wooden Shoe Brewery logo on the other, as well as 15 tickets, a sampling guide and a wristband.
One ticket gets a 4-4.5 oz. sample, and only four tickets buys a full bottle, which will be poured into a full size plastic cup, for those wishing for a bit more of a particular brew.
The beer menu is now updated on the event’s Web site, www.bockandrock.com, but is subject to change due to availability.
Drafts that will also be available will be Wooden Shoe Lager, Wooden Shoe Bock, the new Wooden Shoe Stallostown Wheat and North Coast Red Seal.
Committee member Andy Phlipot said of getting to bring Wooden Shoe Beer to a Minster festival, “We always tried to be a hometown beer. We’re trying to educate and get people to see what bock beer is really about.”
Even the logo for the festival, depicting a goat as one of the symbols, shows what bock beer is about. “Bock” in German means “goat.”
Designated drivers and non-drinkers will also be allowed into the event for a reduced $5 admission fee, which will get them a glass, a bottle of water and a night of musical entertainment at Four Seasons Park.
The Minster-Jackson Township Fire Department will offer food for sale for the event.
The American Legion, in St. Henry, hosted a similar event last year right before Oktoberfest with Mercer Beverage, having domestic brews. Minster’s festival will have about a third of its beer samples celebrating the area’s German heritage.
“I hope it will be a kind of homecoming and become an event for the community to kick of the summer,” said committee member Marc Pelletier.
For more information on the festival, log onto www.bockandrock.com.