Bock o'clock: The beer that signals spring's arrival

"German monks would make a strong, dark beer, rich in nutrients and higher in alcohol than most beers at the time, in part to help sustain them through Lent. That beer became known as bock beer. First brewed in the early 1200s in the Lower Saxony town of Einbeck, Germany, it started out as essentially an ale brewed with two-thirds barley and one-third wheat."

"In Germany, for example, St. George's Day, April 23, became the traditional day when all brewing stopped for the warm season - a 16th-century Bavarian trade statute made it illegal to brew beer between April 24 and Sept. 29. That made bock beer culturally important. The first bock beers were most likely brewed by German monks during the winter, then laid down or aged for several months."

"While each group or person had their own way of fasting - some fast only during the day, have one meal after dark, avoid meat and/or candy or abstain from food altogether - drinking beer was generally permitted under monastic fasting rules. So German monks would make a strong, dark beer, rich in nutrients and higher in alcohol than most beers at the time."

Pre-industrial beer brewing depended heavily on seasonal temperatures and weather patterns, making it impossible to brew during warm months. German brewing nations developed rituals around these seasonal constraints, with St. George's Day marking the traditional end of brewing season. Bock beer emerged from this context as a winter brew created by monks in Lower Saxony during the early 1200s. Formulated with two-thirds barley and one-third wheat, bock was darker, stronger, and richer than standard beers of the era. Monks brewed this nutrient-dense, high-alcohol beer specifically to sustain them during Lent, when fasting was practiced but beer consumption remained permitted under monastic rules. The beer eventually evolved into a lager while maintaining its characteristic strength and heartiness.

Read at The Mercury News