What's the deal with Bocks?

Ah, no, Bocks are higher gravity lagers. I had some very good ones in Bavaria in Late November. No hit of Soy Sauce.

 

I was happy to find Shiner Bock when I moved to Texas in 1991. A good, solid, cheep beer!

 

Ahh, memories of Augsburger Bock....

 

Schells has plenty of them...

 

Picked up a limited Schells Bock twelve pack about a month ago, pretty good stuff.

 

Last spring there was a "Bock themed" what Beer are You Drinking Now? (I couldn't find the thread. )

It was a lot of fun and it seemed like a good percentage of posters participated. Hope they do it again this year.

 

What happened is that enough brewers decided it was no longer worth it to go through a long lagering process, when two or three batches of an IPA could be churned out in the same timeframe with faster turnover and wider acclaim. Which sucks, but that's market forces for you, crushing the joy out of niches ever since the barter system.

I'd love to see more bocks myself, and thankfully, Cincinnati has a Bockfest coming up rather soon, but for the most part I make do with doppelbocks, weizenbocks, and eisbocks. While it's available, the Moerlein Emancipator is branded as a doppelbock, but looks and drinks far more like a bock. I don't know how far from here one can find it, though.

 

@TongoRad , did you try Pretty Things Bocky Bier back when it was released? It seemed like consumers just weren't biting at all. Anchor's beer felt like it was the loner on the shelf for a time, but now it's gone too.

 

Coors made one as recently as twenty years ago!

 

Trader Joe's (Josefsbrau) has a Maibock that's pretty dang good in stores now.

 

I never even saw the Pretty Things one, and I always assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the Anchor one was Americanized. Wasn't that one made with ale yeast? I somehow got the feeling that it wasn't a 'proper' version, but probably should have seen for myself anyway.

It seems that the Doppelbocks will have some crossover appeal due to the gravity, so we do see some of those. And the Maibocks are hoppier, so they seem to be gaining a bit of traction. But the 'straight' Bocks don't even have a popular import following, so it's no wonder that there aren't many craft takes on them. Too bad, though.

 

Pretty much spot on. Lagers in general are not popular with the craft crowd unless they are really strong or hoppy. Here's to hoping that is changing

 

Is this a Seinfeld thread?

 

Honestly, I don't even recall my impression of Anchor's (I'm not a real note taker with this stuff), but I wouldn't be surprised either way - big liberties taken (pun unintended) or attempting reverence. The thing I do remember is that every time I bumped into a six pack it was ooold.

I wish you could have tried the Pretty Things beer - lager yeast, Bamberg Weyermann malt (maybe a tiny bit of it smoked), six weeks cold storage. Keep in mind it was also 7.5%. The beer was realllly dark. You are of course right about the stronger bocks having the crossover appeal. There was always something a little different about Pretty Things "going big" when compared to other American brewers doing the same. It's like they were doing it as disciples to tradition rather than trying to contemptuously blow the doors off... but I'm at least biased if not just going with a flat out double-standard. If the label on the bottle said "Doppelbock" rather than "Malty Bock," they probably would have sold more.

 

If that's all it takes, it should be changed by noon today.