Back in Bock

This week in 1959, Peoples Brewing reintroduced a beer that the brewery hadn't made in 19 years. It was the return of Peoples Bock Beer.

Peoples’ 1959 Bock Beer arrived 45 years to the day after the brewery had released its very first bock on February 20, 1914. That was an important beer for Peoples. The brewery had opened just eight months earlier. It was a direct outgrowth of the German immigrant community in Oshkosh. Bock was the first beer from Peoples that spoke explicitly to the heritage of those folks. The list of Oshkosh saloon keepers who put it on tap was full of names with a distinctly Germanic ring.

Most of that 1914 bock was served on draft in saloons. But Peoples also offered the beer in pint-sized bottles. You could get a dozen of them for 80 cents. That would be about $20.70 in today's money. The next year, Peoples came out with 12-ounce bottles of its bock for 90 cents a case.  Here's the label used on those 12-ounce bottles.

The bock beer season in Oshkosh usually ran from late February until mid-April. It was a celebrated event. A sign that spring was on its way. Each of the city's three breweries would bring out their own version of bock beer.

When Prohibition came in 1920 all of that was put on hold. For the next  dozen years, folks in Oshkosh had to go looking for robins to remind them that someday spring would come.

Beer became legal again on April 7, 1933; eight months before the full repeal of Prohibition. The beer produced during the interim period could contain no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, which is 4% alcohol by volume. The bock-beer season had nearly passed, But Peoples released one anyway. It was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else. At a mere 4% ABV, Peoples’ 1933 Bock lacked the kick that veteran drinkers of bock beer were accustomed to. Perhaps that's why the goat was left off the label.

Image courtesy of Bob Bergman.

Peoples 1934 bock was back to the brewery's standard: dark and strong, rich and malty. The goat was back, too.

"Every Winter Peoples Brewing Co. brews and ages a superb Bock Beer," began the 1940 announcement. It would be another 19 years before they could say that again. After the 1940 release, Peoples stopped making its bock beer. The brewery never explained why.

The drought ended on February 20, 1959 when Peoples trotted the old goat back out.

In the 1950s and '60s, Wilhelm Kohlhoff was one of two principal brewers at Peoples. He recalled making Peoples Bock after its reintroduction. "We added all the special malt; it was darker, it was a brown color malt, and then what you used was brown sugar, 600 pounds of sugar in the kettle and that makes the beer a different color, too." Kohlhoff said.

That's a lot of sugar for a 100-barrel batch of beer. The use of sugars in American beers of this period isn't unknown, but I haven't come across another example of its use in bock beers during that time.

Peoples Bock never regained its former popularity. The last mention I've found of the beer is from 1963. Bock beers in general had fallen out of fashion. What had been an anticipated sign of spring was now a specialty brew indulged in by the older crowd. Like the people who drank it, bock beer faded away.

Unfortunately, bock hasn’t undergone a revival like some other styles have in the new era of smaller breweries. But the old goat still kicks. Within the next few weeks, Bare Bones, Fifth Ward, and HighHolder will all release a bock beer. It will be the first time in 80 years that three Oshkosh breweries will have a bock pouring in the run-up to spring. No need to look for robins this year.