Bock

According to the German dictionary Duden, 'Bockbier' comes from the older Bavarian 'Aimbock' or 'Oambock', a dialect form of 'einbeckisch Bier': beer from Einbeck. That town in Lower Saxony was famous for its hopped beer. That is the usual explanation of the name.

The German word 'Bock' also means billy goat: the male of various mammals, such as the male goat and the roebuck. According to the BJCP, the animal therefore often turns up in logos and advertising. The goat on the label is thus mainly a pun and proves nothing about the origin.

Still, the Einbeck explanation is not undisputed. Beer historian Ron Pattinson finds the story too good to be true and wonders whether the name could not just as well come from the animal, although he has no evidence for that. PINT concludes that we simply do not know, partly because Einbeck beer was probably a very different beer (a top-fermented wheat beer) from the Bavarian bock.

In short: Einbeck is the usual explanation, but not firmly proven. The goat on the label is mainly a pun.

The BJCP describes the helles bock (maibock) as deep gold to light amber, and recognises pale doppelbocks alongside dark ones. 'Hell' means light in colour, the Brewers Association explains: a helles bock is therefore a pale beer. In figures: 6–9 SRM for a helles bock according to the BJCP, against 14–22 SRM for a dunkles bock.

In the Netherlands the law requires for 'bok' or 'bock' only that the extract content of the original wort is above 15%. According to PINT, a colour requirement of 40 EBC used to apply, but it was scrapped when blond meibokken appeared.

The traditional German bock is dark, though: the Brewers Association describes the 'Traditional German-Style Bock' as dark brown to very dark.

According to PINT, Dutch brewers brought forward the introduction of their bokbier (Dutch bock) step by step, to outdo each other: from the heart of winter, via the Christmas period, to the start of autumn. When PINT held its first bokbier festival in 1980, the Dutch bokken only came onto the market on 6 December.

The idea that herfstbok used to be brewed from the first barley harvest is also not right, according to PINT. PINT works it out for the 19th and a large part of the 20th century: harvest at the end of August or the beginning of September, a month's rest because otherwise the barley does not germinate, malting in October, another month of malt rest, brewing at the earliest in mid-November and then, according to an old rule of thumb, 16 to 18 weeks of lagering. Then the bok was only ready in February or March: a mei- or lentebok. PINT does name another possible old root for a autumn bok: at the end of the brewing season, in spring, stronger beer was brewed that survived the summer and could be drunk in the autumn.

In Bavaria the maibock belongs to spring and the month of May. And in Germany bokbier is legally not a seasonal beer; some breweries sell it all year round.

The German bock styles are, in the style guides of the BJCP and the Brewers Association, all bottom-fermented lagers. The German Bierverordnung also requires for 'Bockbier' an original wort content of 16% or more: the percentage by weight of dissolved substances (mainly sugars) in the wort before fermentation, not the alcohol percentage.

Dutch law is broader: 'bok' or 'bock' only has to be above 15% original wort, with no requirements for colour, fermentation method or season. PINT writes that as a result both bottom- and top-fermented bokbieren occur in the Netherlands. In PINT's 1995 study of 33 Dutch bokbieren, 16 were top-fermented; the bottom-fermented ones came from the big breweries. We did not find a current figure for that ratio.

Classic bottom-fermented Dutch bokken do exist. The BJCP even names Lindeboom Bock as an example of a dunkles bock.