Why Are Goats Associated With Bock Beers September 13, 2019

Hey peeps. For those of you who are beer aficionados, have you ever wondered why the Bavarian style of beer known as "Bocks" are associated with goats? Before I go into a little beer history, I wanted to give you a visual as to what I mean.

Now here goes.

Bock beers originate from the Bavarian area of Einbeck which is in current Lower Saxony, Germany. As per the story from the United States of Beer by Dane Hucklebridge and the Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth, it took a quirk of language to forever link the beer brewed the by the residents of Einbeck and goats.


When the beer was being sold throughout Bavaria, the accent of those in Einbeck was slightly different than the accents of other areas in Bavaria. In actuality, each area had their own accent. Think of it as to how the Boston accent differs from the Chicago accent which differs from the South Carolinian accent.

So to some the word Einbeck as spoken by the Einbeckers (?) sounded like the word Einbock which translates to "Billy Goat." It would seem that those who heard Einbock instead of Einbeck chose to refer to the beer as the Goat beer. So where there was an initial point of ridicule by calling the beer Einbock, it would become a badge of pride of the product and eventually its defining visual cue.

So worldwide, Bock beers have the image of a goat attached to their label. Here is the logo for Shiner Bock which is brewed by the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Texas:

 

And that's it in a nutshell. Next time you're in a bar and order a Bock, you have a little tidbit to tell the person next to you. 

For the next post, I'm going to stay in Germany and go into the history behind Oktoberfest.

Until Then Happy Drinking,

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