Traditional German-Style Bock

« View all styles

Location:European
Category:Lager
BJCP Comparable Category:6C - Dunkles Bock

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the Traditional German-Style Bock style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Traditional German-Style Bock beer style.

  • Color: Dark brown to very dark
  • Body: Medium to full
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: Traditional Bocks are made with all malt and have high malt character with aromas of toasted or nutty malt, but not caramel. Traditional bocks display high malt sweetness. The malt flavor profile should display a balance of sweetness and toasted or nutty malt, but not caramel.
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: Very low
  • IBUs/Bitterness: Medium, increasing proportionately with starting gravity.
  • Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters if present should be minimal. Diacetyl should not be present.
  • Common Ingredients: Munich and Vienna malts, rarely a tiny bit of dark roasted malts for color adjustment, never any non-malt adjuncts. Continental European hop varieties are used. Clean German lager yeast.
  • Commercial Examples: Aass Bock, Einbecker Ur-Bock Dunkel, Great Lakes Rockefeller Bock, Kneitinger Bock, New Glarus Uff-da Bock, Penn Brewery St. Nikolaus Bock

Brewing Properties of Traditional German-Style Bock

These are the functional brewing properties of Traditional German-Style Bock beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
6.3 - 7.6%
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
20 - 30 IBUs
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
–
20 - 30 SRM
(39 - 59 EBC)
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
1.066 - 1.074
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.
1.018 - 1.024

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.