Home Brew Edition 2: Bock

Welcome back!

Lately I have spent a bit of time writing about beer people and ingredients so I thought it was time to resume the regular programming.

So here is the second edition of the Home Brew special and it starts with the German style beer, a bock.

Bocks are generally strong alcohol beers, generally above 6.5%. They originated from the town of Einbeck in Germany. Einbeck was famed for producing strong, dark lagers during the Middle Ages and joined the economic alliance of towns known as the Hanseatic League. Einbeck came to notice for it’s high level of quality control, all the brewmasters in the town were civil servants charged with overseeing and certifying the production of quality beer. It came to be known to be of such good quality that when Martin Luther came before the General Assembly he praised the beer for being the “Best drink one can know.”

Bocks come in a wide range of colours from Golden to black and in a variety of variations from the stronger versions such as Dubbel Bocks and Maibocks to the wheat driven weizenbock. Today there is only one brewery left in Einbeck called the Einbecker Brauhaus and they make a bock called Ur-Bock.

Still that’s enough of a history lesson, today we look at Joe’s unfiltered Bock.

 

 

The Specs.

Hops: Hallertau and Hersbrucker

Malts: Pale, Crystal, Munich, Chocolate and Black.

This unfiltered Bock pours out a syrupy cola coloured brown with huge bubbles but a little flat on the head retention.

It smelt sweet and not in a bad way. A big malt profile came through but that was what I expected with 5 different malts in the brew.

When I tasted it however I got a really sharp, crisp and refreshing beer. The choice and dosage of the hops was really responsible for this, the use of the Noble hops of Hallertau with their versatility and faint flora aromas balance out the big malt characters and keep them in check. Hersbrucker is also a good choice as it can keeps the beer well and backs up the Hallertau in keeping the beer balanced. Hersbrucker is traditionally used in unfiltered beers and it’s inclusion in this bock fits the bill.

I found the beer to be a little oily on the mouth but that may have had more to do with the fact that I was eating dinner at the time of tasting. The beer holds it’s character well and leaves a pleasant lingering taste in the back of my throat. Definitely a refreshing beer if you are a malty rather then a hoppy sort of person.

Cheers

Justin