Across the Fence: Bock

Have you ever heard of the German term “Bock”? The beer drinkers among you certainly know it to be a strong, dark lager variant. But why is it called “bock”?! To be honest, I didn’t know this either, except that it is a strong beer. And that, accordingly, Doppel-Bock (“double bock”) must be doubly strong. Still, it didn’t explain anything, and the labels on the bottles or cans are often misleading, at that.

A whole lot of old and new labels as well as advertising flyers and posters picture a male goat in the vicinity of the beer description “bock”. Indeed, the definition for some male animals as in billy goats, rams, or bucks is all covered by the German term “Bock”. You can add the specific species in front of it, but you don’t have to. As a matter of fact, there is no “Bierbock”, only “Bockbier”. You get the picture.

Legend has it that the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany, brewed the style of beer we call “Bock” already in the 14th century. As monks from Bavaria adapted the beer and pronounced it in their dialect, the “Einbeck” became an “Einbock”. Voilà! To be honest, it’s hard to believe in a vowel shift from an “e” to an “o” when trying to pronounce a German word in another German dialect. But it’s a nice try. I might just as well make up the story that if you drank too much of the stuff, you’d wake with a headache the next morning that made you feel as if you were growing horns or antlers. Or as if you had been rammed in the head by a buck. There you go!

Maybe, the after-effect of too much Bockbier also created the fairly new German idiomatic expression “Null Bock haben” (pronounce ‘nool ‘bock huh-ben, to have no ram/buck/billy goat) – which means to have no inclination to do anything. An idiom that came up in the 1980s. Certainly, if you are hung over, you will have “Null Bock” to do anything. On the other hand, the Null-Bock-generation were the youngsters who grew up in the 80s – and most would have been too young to even know what a hang-over is.

As a matter of fact, when suffering from a hang-over, it might even be dangerous if you HAD “Bock auf” (pronounce bock ouf, i.e. buck on, meaning zest for) doing something. Because you might “einen Bock schiessen” (pronounce ‘i-nen ‘bock ‘shee-san, shoot a buck), which means to make a big, bad mistake. One that hurts your reputation. Now, there is an explanation for THIS German idiom. No, it’s not shooting a bock beer bottle – which would be a mistake in itself unless it is empty and you are set on shooting bottles. Also, it’s not shooting a fellow hunter when you are mistaking them for a buck (a whole other story but pretty close!). As of the 15th century, the weakest shooter in a German shooting club was allegedly given a buck as a consolation price. Now, whether the buck meat was tough or not very tasty or whether it was kind of humiliating to be given something that ought to have been gained – I couldn’t find any explanation for this custom. Sometimes, I’d love to beam myself back in time just to figure out such little things.

Back to the beer, though. There are also Heller Bock (light bock) or Maibock (May bock) – lighter colored and brewed for spring fests; Eisbock (ice bock) – extremely strong, as it gets frozen, then the frozen parts are removed); and Weizenbock (wheat bock) made from around 50 % of wheat. (I’m still inclined that my myth about growing antlers is the real reason for the strange beer name.)

Anyhow, just as I was thinking I had covered all of the German Böcke (pronounce ‘buh-kah, that’s the plural!), I remembered that in school sports we sometimes had to perform Bockspringen – indeed, it is what you understand, namely jumping over a vaulting buck. I have always wondered whether that could come in useful in shopping at a supermarket or in gaining a seat in the first row of a theater ahead of everybody else. We all know that some skills acquired in school come in real handy. And then, there is the bagpipe variant called Bock (the same in English), its bag being made from goatskin. Which makes it so down-to-earth that I will not even contemplate its name any further. Null Bock!