Beer of the Moment Article - Riggers' Brain Busting Bock

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	Paul Rigby

Bock

History
Winter at last! What is he talking about I hear you ask, well winter is the perfect time to brew those high gravity German winter warmers such as Bocks, Dopplebocks and Eisbocks etc. If brewed now they will be perfect for drinking by next winter, no I haven’t lost my mind or been sampling last years winter warmers either, it is simply fact that the higher the original gravity the longer it takes for all the flavours to mellow and integrate to form that perfect mouth filling head clogging Bock.
The style we know as Bock has it’s origins in the northern German town of Einbeck as early as 1325 at that time the beer of Einbeck enjoyed an excellent reputation and wide spread distribution for that period. Indeed the German historian Knaust recorded the following sometime during the 1500’s, “Of all summer beers, light and hoppy barley beers, the Einbeck beer is the most famed and deserves the preference. Each third grain to this beer is wheat; hence, too, it is of all barley beers the best … People do not fatten too much from it’s use.” Prior to the 16th century the beers of Munich were not highly regarded to the point that the locals were consuming more imported beers than the local drop, the beers from Einbeck were particularly favoured. By the dawn of the 17th century the Munich brewers were expending an enormous amount of effort trying to brew beers as good as those of Einbeck, their efforts had failed until they were finally able to coerce a brewer from Einbeck to Munich in 1612. Munich malt being darker than that of Einbeck, their inability to brew with wheat, and the water being high in carbonate hardness meant that the versions produced in Munich bore little resemblance to the original Einbecker beer. High carbonate water will extract a harsh bitterness from hops which meant that the local brewers gradually had to reduce the hopping rates to a point where their versions had become very malt driven with only enough hops to balance the malt sweetness. Finally cooler lager fermentations with bottom fermenting yeast strains had become common in Munich and so this type of yeast was also applied to the “new” style. Further development went on in Munich and the advent of the thirty years war spelt the end of brewing in Einbeck.
There are many versions of stories regarding the name “Bock”. One story is that the people of Munich named their brew after the town that sporned the style, which in the Bavarian dialect was “Ainpoekish Pier”, this was soon shortened to “Ainpoekish” then to “Poeck” and finally to “Bock”. Bock in German means “goat” and it is not hard to imagine that the name could have come about as a result of a connection between the substantial alcohol content and the fabled kicking ability of a goat.
Suffice to say that modern “Bocks” are very high in alcohol (between 6% and 8%), dark amber in colour (between 30 and 60 EBC) and lowly hopped (between 20 and 30 IBU) malt driven beers.


Enhanced Kit Version
Bock is a relatively simple style and readily lends itself to kit brewing.
I suggest starting out, preferably, by purchasing a specific Bock kit, New Zealand’s Black Rock makes one, as does Muntons. ESB makes a Bock wort kit although this one is seasonal. If you are unable to acquire a bock kit then almost any normal lager kit will do fine. As usual I suggest using malt extracts rather than dextrose or sugar, in this case I recommend using a little more than the usual 1kg of light malt extract and increase it to 2kg, (Light extract if using a bock kit, and a mixture of light and amber or dark extract if using a lager kit) this should take care of the alcohol and colour required for a good bock. Fortunately bocks have almost no hop character, so those troublesome aspects of brewing are not a problem when brewing this style.
Follow your usual kit method for the remainder of the brew.

Malt Extract & Mini Mash Version
Base Malt – 3.5kg Light Malt Extract (Preferably dry)
Mini mash grains - 300gms German Pilsner Malt
400gms German Dark Crystal Malt
100gms German Carafa Special 1
100gms German Melanoidin Malt
100gms German Wheat Malt
Put 3 litres of cold water in a saucepan and add grains and heat up VERY SLOWLY (over a 25 to 30 minute period) until just short of boiling. Strain the liquid into your fermenter, and discard the grain residue.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 22 IBU's using any German hop, I generally use only noble hops in any of my brews even for bittering but you can really use any hop for this purpose. You could also use higher alpha acid varieties such as German grown Northern Brewer or Perle for bittering, quantity will vary depending on the %AA (alpha acid) of the hops selected. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to do the calculations for you.
Total boil time should be 90 minutes with the bittering hops boiled for only 60 minutes.
Yeast - I recommend Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager yeast or else Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager, and if temperature control is a problem then try the Wyeast 2112 Californian Lager, which is more temperature tolerant than the others. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Saflager.

Full Grain Version
Grains - 4300gms German Pilsner Malt
2000gms German Light Munich Malt
500gms German Carapils Malt
100gms German Chocolate Malt
100gms German Wheat Malt
Mashing regimes are many and varied. Most modern malts are very well modified and only need a simple single step infusion mash to obtain very good results, with this in mind a simple mash regime is generally quite adequate – a single step at 66ºC and mash out at 77ºC. However for this style I would be inclined to go with an acid rest at 40ºC for 25 mins, infusion/direct heat to saccrification at 68ºC for 60 mins, and then a simple decoction to raise to mash out at 77ºC for 10 mins.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 22 IBU's using any German hop. I use only “Noble” hops because they are always low in alpha acid but more particularly because being “Noble” they are the best! I generally advise the use of lower alpha hops for all brewing purposes particularly bittering (especially for lower to moderate bitterness beers up to about 30 IBU’s) because if your scales are a little inaccurate two or three grams over in a total weight of twenty or thirty grams of a lower alpha hop will not be noticeable but three grams over in ten or twelve grams using a 12 or 14% AA hop will mean an almost undrinkably bitter beer. If you choose to use higher alpha acid varieties then try German grown Northern Brewer or Perle for the bittering, quantity will vary depending on the %AA (alpha acid) of the particular hops selected.
Total boil time should be 90 minutes with the bittering hops boiled for only 60 minutes.
Yeast - I recommend Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager yeast or else Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager, and if temperature control is a problem then try the Wyeast 2112 Californian Lager, which is more temperature tolerant than the others. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Saflager.