The Return of Oshkosh Bock

On Saturday, April 2, Bare Bones Brewery will release the seventh beer in the Oshkosh Heritage Series. It's the return of the Oshkosh Brewing Company's Bock Beer. This is a brew with deep roots in our community.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company released its first Bock beer on March 23, 1894. OBC had been created just two days earlier from the merger of the Glatz, Horn & Schwalm, and Kuenzl breweries. The new bock should have made a splash as OBC's first release. But that didn’t happen.

For reasons never revealed, the Oshkosh Brewing Company attempted to keep a lid on the merger that had led to the brewery's creation. So instead of releasing its first beer under the OBC banner, the new bock was sent out as a Glatz Brewery beer.

The Glatz Brewery, where the first Oshkosh Brewing Company Bock Beer was brewed. The brewery was located on the west side of Doty Street, south of 24th Avenue.

"We feel inclined to say a word or two about our beer, especially our Bock beer, which will be on draught at all our customer’s places Friday and Saturday… We unhesitatingly place it alongside of any beer no matter by whom manufactured for its purity, strength and quality…. 

Respectfully, J. Glatz & Son."
     – Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, March 22, 1894.

Six days later, word leaked out that J. Glatz & Son had been subsumed into the Oshkosh Brewing Company. And two days after that, OBC released its second beer. It was another bock. This one was brewed at what had been the Kuenzl Brewery on Harney Ave.

It's fitting that the largest brewery ever to do business in Oshkosh would get its start by releasing a flood of bock beer. This darker, stronger style of lager beer had been popular in Oshkosh since the 1850s. It was treated as a local delicacy and eagerly anticipated.

February 15, 1917.

Breweries in Oshkosh would release their annual bock beer just as winter was giving way to spring. The release dates fluctuated. Sometimes the bock would begin flowing as early as February. Other times you had to wait until May. A placard illustrated with a goat's head would go up on the doors of saloons where the beer was being served. Bock is German for goat. The symbol was the sign that this year's bock beer had begun flowing.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company's Bock Beer was renamed Chief Oshkosh Bock in 1934. The bottle labels featured the traditional symbol.

The original, 1934 label for Chief Oshkosh Bock.

Variations on this label were used from the 1940s well into the 1960s.

Oshkosh Bock at Bar Bones
The bock beer going on tap at Bare Bones was brewed on February 9th and has been lagering for the past six weeks. It was made from the 1950s recipe used for Chief Oshkosh Bock. The recipe comes directly from the Oshkosh Brewing Company’s logbooks of that period. This is an American-style bock, with a ruby hue and a pronounced malt flavor. At 5.5% ABV, it's light enough to be sessionable but strong enough to ease the chill lingering in the spring air.

Oshkosh Bock goes on tap at noon on Saturday at Bare Bones in the brewery's taproom. This is a draft-only release. You'll know it's pouring when you arrive at Bare Bones and see the sign of the goat greeting you at the door. See you there. Prost!

A couple of extra notes...

If you’re looking for more on the history of bock beer in Oshkosh, check this out.

I mentioned that the Oshkosh Brewing Company attempted to keep the 1894 merger a secret. Here’s more on that.