Style Details

Name
Dunk­les Bock
Cate­go­ry
Amber Mal­ty Euro­pean Lager
BJCP Style Code
6 C
Appearance
Light cop­per to brown color, often with attrac­ti­ve gar­net high­lights. Lage­ring should pro­vi­de good cla­ri­ty despi­te the dark color. Lar­ge, cre­a­my, per­sis­tent, off-white head.
Aro­ma
Medi­um to medi­um-high brea­dy-mal­ty-rich aro­ma, often with mode­ra­te amounts of rich Mail­lard pro­ducts and/or toasty over­to­nes. Vir­tual­ly no hop aro­ma. Some alco­hol may be noti­ceable. Clean lager cha­rac­ter, alt­hough the malts can pro­vi­de a slight (low to none) dark fruit cha­rac­ter, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in aged examples. 
Fla­vour
Com­plex, rich mal­ti­ness is domi­na­ted by the toasty-rich Mail­lard pro­ducts. Some cara­mel notes may be pre­sent. Hop bit­ter­ness is gene­ral­ly only high enough to sup­port the malt fla­vors, allo­wing a bit of sweet­ness to lin­ger into the finish. Well-atte­nu­a­ted, not cloy­ing. Clean fer­men­ta­ti­on pro­fi­le, alt­hough the malt can pro­vi­de a slight dark fruit cha­rac­ter. No hop fla­vor. No roas­ted or burnt character.
Mouth­feel
Medi­um to medi­um-full bodi­ed. Mode­ra­te to modera­te­ly low car­bo­na­ti­on. Some alco­hol warmth may be found, but should never be hot. Smooth, wit­hout harsh­ness or astringency.
Over­all Impression
A dark, strong, mal­ty Ger­man lager beer that empha­si­zes the mal­ty-rich and some­what toasty qua­li­ties of con­ti­nen­tal malts wit­hout being sweet in the finish.
Typi­cal 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. 
Histo­ry
Ori­gi­na­ted in the Nor­t­hern Ger­man city of Ein­beck, which was a bre­wing cen­ter and popu­lar export­er in the days of the Han­sea­tic League (14th to 17th cen­tu­ry). Recrea­ted in Munich start­ing in the 17th cen­tu­ry. The name “bock” is based on a cor­rup­ti­on of the name “Ein­beck” in the Bava­ri­an dialect, and was thus only used after the beer came to Munich. “Bock” also means “Ram” in Ger­man, and is often used in logos and advertisements.
Comm­ents
Decoc­tion mas­hing and long boi­ling plays an important part of fla­vor deve­lo­p­ment, as it enhan­ces the cara­mel and Mail­lard fla­vor aspects of the malt. Any frui­tin­ess is due to Munich and other spe­cial­ty malts, not yeast-deri­ved esters deve­lo­ped during fermentation.
Com­mer­cial Examples
Aass Bock, Ein­be­cker Ur-Bock Dun­kel, Gre­at Lakes Rocke­fel­ler Bock, Kneit­in­ger Bock, New Gla­rus Uff-da Bock, Penn Bre­wery St. Niko­laus Bock
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
1.064 - 1.072 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
1.013 - 1.019 SG
Color
14 - 22 SRM
Alco­hol
6.0 - 7.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
20 - 27 IBU