Let's Talk Bock

Dead Guy is as much a Maibock as Busch Light is. That's just Rogues marketing team. personally, I find that beer almost disgustingly bad, but, strokes for folks.

 

good point

 

I haven't had much of actual german dopplebocks despite going over there last year. It all seemed to be hefeweisen and pilsners available on tap. I did enjoy bell's consecrator dopplebbock last year. Took it out on a freinds boat, probably a bit too strong for a beer to drink in the sun, but they were good.

 

Live Oak Primus (Weizenbock) is perhaps one of the best looking beers I have every had. It is a great beer and comes out in cans around the winter time. Celis revived their Pale Bock, not sure that is a thing, but it is a real good drinking beer.

 

Just about every US lager brewery once offered a spring seasonal bock beer - it was far and away the most common "seasonal" release in the US in the post-Repeal era. In some cases, regional brewers' organizations even decided on a specific day of release and did co-op advertising.


Here's a nice 2 pg. collection of mostly US brewers' bock beer labels and other packaging, concentrating on the classic bock beer goat.

 

Bock can be viewed as a strength category, The wort should be >1.064 OG (16 Plato). Strong wheat beers can be Bocks, but are not lagers, as the process is different.

Kostritzer is a Schwartzbier, not a bock. A favorite though.

 

It used to be, and that's probably a pretty good example of how variety is declining lately. Troegs and Victory used to make well respected Spring seasonals, but no longer do. If you can get Von Trapp's locally, that would be a good bet. On the import side, Hofbrau's Maibock is also worth grabbing.

Bock is a strength designation as well as a style, so when you see a Weizenbock it's used in that manner.

 

But it comes with a goat!!!!

 

Unless you're in the Midwest -- some really nice Bocks being brewed here.

To the O.P.: you may find Lakefront's (Milwaukee) Maibock out that way, others on the East Coast have, it's damn fine this year.

 

Personally, I love bock beers, but sadly - as others have mentioned, not as popular a style as it used to be....i.e., they are not "hopped to death" as many beers tend to be these days

Used to enjoy Anchor Bock, and Yuengling Bock, but both discontinued...still enjoy the occasion German ones, and doppelbocks, and the sad attempts at the style by Shiner and Genesee....

Some recent examples this year....

 

Michael, Troegs still produces Cultivator Helles Bock but it is now only available on draft. I guess the bottled version did not sell well?

https://troegs.com/beer/cultivator-helles-bock/

Cheers!

 

Your girlfriends father was in all likelihood referring to American Bock beers. My favorite American Bock beer is Genny Bock which is a seasonal (late Dec. - February/April) beer.

You can read more here:

https://byo.com/article/chip-off-the-old-bock-the-american-adaptation-of-bock-beer/

Cheers!

 

Hope this isn't too self-promoty, but as a fan of bocks, I just did a feature on bocks on my beer blog recently https://thetaptakeover.com/2018/04/19/style-in-focus-bock-beers/

 

As a teenager and young adult, I hated beer. That nasty water American light lager that my parents drank is horrible. Then I found Shiner Bock and ... that's how it all began. It's a staple in my fridge which I go to when I run out of whatever random other beers I am trying.

 

Von Trapp Bock Bier should be on shelves now and would be a good start. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22512/273427/?ba=tone77

 

Hate to dig up old threads, but I saw this in the BA email and wanted to tell you all that Bayern Brewing in Missoula, MT make several great bocks. I don’t live far but every time I’m in the neighborhood I try to get one.

 

Bock originated in Einbeck, Germany in the 13th century. Because of its popularity Einbeck was considered the most important brewing city in the world for a time. In the early years of the Hofbrau Haus in Munich it was the only style brewed there. In the 1960s every brewer in the U.S. made a bock. I have been drinking Bock longer that 90% of the people reading this have been alive. If you don't like Bock beer you deserve to be stuck with Bud Light.

 

Head down to Cincinnati at the start of March. We have a whole festival around bock beer- http://www.bockfest.com/

 

Sorry - but the answers you will get will be confusing and inconsistent.

Some people will "assume" Bock" beer is any beer with bock associated with it.
Some locals in Northern Bavarian think Bock beer is a special traditional made only in Fall(Oct-dec).

If your generalist you can identify:
1. Mai bock
2. Dopplebock
3. Urbock
4. Hellesbock
5. Weizenbock
6. Dunkelbock
7. Traditional or True bock

Then if your a connoisseur and a local Northern Bavarian you might go discuss traditional as the only Einbeck which they called Urbock. So it's difficult subject for anyone.
Some base bock on OG % and some ABV% and some by category.

So ------- HERE's MY STORY ----------

There are so many beers looped into the category of Bock it's difficult to know what style of bock your really drinking.

1. Traditonal bock beer

Traditional bock is a sweet, relatively strong (6.3%–7.2% by volume), lightly hopped (20-27 IBUs) lager. Typical style: Einbecker Ur-Bock Dunkel 6.5% ABV (Einbeck). Notice over lap in category for the Einbecker Ur-Dunkel as traditional bock=ur-bock=dunkel bock styles all in one.

2. Maibock (may bock)- spring beer 6-7% ABV

Mai is pronounced "my". Mai means May.
(Helles Bock and Heller bock - maibock beers)
Ayinger Maibock, Mahr’s Bock, Hacker-Pschorr Hubertus Bock, Capital Maibock, Einbecker Mai-Urbock, Hofbräu Maibock, Victory St. Boisterous, Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock, Smuttynose Maibock, Old Dominion Brewing Company Big Thaw Bock, [Brewery 85's Quittin' Time], Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Franconia Brewing Company Maibock Ale, Church Street maibock, and Tröegs Cultivator.

3. Urbock(original bock)

Schlenkerla (Bamberg) is a rauch urbock beer made in October 6.5% ABV. Feldschlößchen Urbock (Dresden) is 7.0% ABV. Traditonal bock and Urbock are sometimes referred to as being equivalent.

4. Dopplebock - year round beer 7-10% ABV

Predator, Paulaner Salvator, Ayinger Celebrator, Weihenstephaner Korbinian, Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel, Spaten Optimator, Augustiner Maximator, Tucher Bajuvator, Weltenburger Kloster Asam-Bock, Capital Autumnal Fire, EKU 28, Eggenberg Urbock 23º.

Starkbierfest is a dopplebock festival in March.
DoppleBock/weizen beer from Schneider Weisse
Schneider Weisse - TAP6 Aventinus - 8,2% ABV
Schneider Weisse - TAP5 Mein Hopfenweisse - 8,2% ABV

Dopple/Weizen beer from Weihenstephaner Bauerei (Located in Freising from 1040 - the oldest continuously operating brauerei in Germany)
Weihenstephaner - Vitus Wheatbock - 7,7% ABV

5. Eisbock - 9-14% ABV.
Kulmbacher Reichelbräu Eisbock, Eggenberg, Schneider Aventinus Eisbock, Urbock Dunkel Eisbock, Franconia Brewing Company Ice Bock 17%
The strongest ice-beer is produced by a Franconian company and is called Schorschbräu and is 57% ABV, a former world record for beer ABV.

7. Dunklebock and Weizenbock(Munich Region)

Weizenbock beers: Mahrs-Bräu Der Weisse Bock, Michael Plank Heller and Dunkel, and Erdinger Pikantus.

Bocks are also brewed in Poland, where they are known as "Koźlak" and available during the whole year. Notable examples include Koźlak Amber, Miłosław Koźlak, Cornelius Kożlak, Perła Kożlak.

Czech Republic
Once a year Budweiser Budvar brew the 7.5% ABV Imperial with Saaz wet/green hops fresh from the farm and matured for 200 days for release in late spring.

Schlenkerla (Bamberg) tends to brew a special BOCK from October to December. Schlenkerla Oak Smoke is a Christmas beer 8.0% ABV.

 

This question really threw me for a loop, probably because when I first started drinking beer in the early 1990s I had just moved to Chicago for grad school (it was grad school that drove me to drinking) and in my mind good beer pretty much meant bock beer. It was stronger and darker than the BMC lite crap that most people were drinking. I think I drank more Berghoff bock than just about anything. And if I was celebrating I drank Salvator or Optimator (or Celebrator if I was really celebrating!). When I moved to Hamburg in 1995 I would drink Jever pils and hefeweizen, but I drank a ton of Salvator. And Einbecker Mai-Ur-Bock when it came out.

Now I'm getting to be an old man and I mostly drink session-strength homebrew and the thought of a big, heavy doppelbock is almost too much for me to bear, but it seems strange that the world has changed so much that people don't even know what a bock is.