Class is in session at Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA, our brewhouse and teaching facility at the Culinary Institute of America. Each month, we’ll take you inside the classroom to learn alongside the students participating in the most robust beer education of any culinary institute. You don’t have to do the homework, but you might want to do some extra reading.
When we found out that Hutch Kugeman and his Art and Science of Brewing students were developing a maibock recipe, we were pretty thrilled. (We even wrote about it last month.) But more and more frequently, telling people about the beer-to-be was met with a somewhat blank stare, sometimes accompanied by the person asking, “like the car?” Not yet, we said, but maybe Rick Ross can change that.
Maibocks have their roots in Germany, where they were brewed in the depths of winter so they would be ready to drink during mild spring days and be all gone by May– hence the name. Maibocks are deep gold to amber in color, with fluffy white heads and a strength of roughly 7%. In short, they’re like a helles lager brewed to bock strength and…ah. There’s the real question: what is a bock beer?
Bocks were first brewed in the German town of Einbeck some time in the mid-17th century. Their strong-yet-not-overwhelming alcohol content, smooth lager finish and hearty body made them a hit across Germany, and the name “bock” developed and spread across the country. This was unfortunate for the town of Einbeck, as their fame faded with the extensive use of their misspelled nickname. On the other hand, everyone else since has benefited from the simple call, so cheers to the noble sacrifice of Einbeck.
Monks were among the first to adopt bock beer and brew it in serious quantities outside of Einbeck. It was one of the first beers to be referred to as “liquid bread,” as some of the rowdier monasteries gained a reputation for relying solely on bock beers for sustenance during their Lenten fasts. The truth of these claims are questionable at times, but it gave bock the popularity boost it needed to stick around for hundreds of years of brewing.
Today, there are four main styles in the bock family:
- Traditional bock, made popular in American by the good folks at Shiner.
- Our friend the maibock or helles bock, which are (as we now all know) lighter in color and hop presence than the traditional style.
- Doppelbocks, brewed to double the usual strength and developed by the Paulaner Friars as part of that whole monk storyline (as well as the Paulaner brewing name, which is a story for another time.)
- And eisbock, another strong style created by partially freezing the beer and removing the ice, concentrating the alcohol within.
The fun exploring any beer style is that you can barely hope to scratch the surface of all the beers within. Most folks these days have had Shiner, and most likely Paulaner, and maybe even an eisbock or two. But bocks are uniquely approachable, especially for newer beer drinkers, and can be a lot of fun to journey through. Just remember that each time you hoist a pint (or several, depending on your Lenten plans), you should tip a little extra for the bold brewers of Einbeck.
Any questions? See us after class on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll answer any questions we can to further your beer knowledge.