2015 Bottom-fermenting Dutch Bok

There’s something I really like about the Bokbierfestival programme: it has pretty complete technical specs for the beers. OG, ABV, colour and bitterness. Dead handy for a numbers freak like me.

Which is why it’s surprising that it’s taken me so long to harvest any of this lovely data. A decade or two. What was I thinking of? With my scanner and OCR software, I had everything safely in a spreadsheet in a jiffy. Once there, I could start playing with it. As you do.

Now I’ve got the formula for converting Plato to SG coded, I can do all sorts of clever things. Well, not really, but I can flip around between the two systems. The main manipulation I’ve done is to calculate the FG and degree of attenuation. The sort of crap I’m usually – or perhaps unusually would be more appropriate – interested in.

I’ve decided to split them into two groups: top- and bottom-fermenting. When I decided on that I thought it would be a neat way of dividing the old from the new. Expecting all the examples from older breweries to be Lagers, and those from the new boys not. I was caught out by many beers falling into an unexpected group.

I’m still not sure whether I believe that Brand Dubbelbock is really  top-fermented. It’s also odd that some breweries with multiple Boks – Oldskool and Pelgrim, for instance – have examples that are both top- and bottom-fermented. So I’m not totally sure what my split has achieved.

I’ve excluded beers explicitly called Dubbelbok, though have left in ones whose gravity is in the right range (>18º Plato) but are just called Bok.

Though it’s nice to have a number for bitterness, the table demonstrates how careful you have to be with such figures. Of the traditional Boks, Grolsch looks on paper the most bitter. Yet I know from experience the opposite is true. Grolsch Bok in undrinkably sweet, coming over more like an Imperial Oud Bruin, full of artificial sweetener.

Overall, the average is very much like the classic Bok spec: 16 to 16.5º Plato, 6.5% ABV. Quite a few beers are on the pale side. I’d consider anything under 40 to be struggling to fit the style. I thought there were actually rules about the colour and OG in Holland for autumn Bok.

That’s me done, so here’s the table:

2015 Bottom-fermenting Dutch Bok
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Colour (EBC)	bitterness (EBU)
2015	Alfa	Alfa Bokbier	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	47.5	26
2015	Amstel	Amstel Bock	16.5	3.58	7.00	79.39%	70	28
2015	Bavaria	Bok	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	75	26
2015	Bekeerde Suster	Gewaeghde Bock	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	60	26
2015	Budels	Herfstbock	16.0	3.96	6.50	76.41%
2015	Christoffel (H)	Christoffel Bok	20.3	6.21	7.80	71.02%	70	30
2015	De Leckere	Rode toren	16.1	4.07	6.50	75.88%	53	30
2015	De Noordt	Nooriit Bok	16	3.04	7.00	81.93%	45	25
2015	Emelisse	Emelisse Herfslbock	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	45	17
2015	Grolsch	Grolsch Herfstbok	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	70	30
2015	Groningse Bierbrouwerij (H)	Grunn Bock	17.0	4.11	7.00	77.02%	100	40
2015	Huttenkloas (H)	Winterbock	17.0	3.20	7.50	82.19%	46	30
2015	Kaf en koren (H)	De rook van Rotterdam	16.6	4.61	6.50	73.49%	43	35
2015	Koperen Kat	Delltse Donderslag	15.4	2.41	7.00	85.17%	45	43
2015	Maallust	Landloperbock	16.5	4.13	6.70	76.13%	62	32
2015	Mommeriete	Mommeriete Rookbock	16.5	4.13	6.70	76.13%	60	32
2015	Muifelbrouwerij (H)	D'n Ossebock	16	3.04	7.00	81.93%	35	25
2015	Oedipus	Speciale Bock	19	6.26	7.00	68.63%	35	25
2015	Oersoep	Sexy motherbocker	16	3.04	7.00	81.93%		35
2015	Oldskool (H)	Reinheitsgebok	19.5	4.98	8.00	75.88%	44	50
2015	Pelgrim	Pelgrim Bockbier	16.6	5.53	6.00	68.11%	70	30
2015	Sallandse landbrouwerij	Bokkige Theodorus	17	3.20	7.50	82.19%	46	30
2015	Scheveningen	Scheveninger Herfstbock	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%	65	30
2015	Sint Jutternis	Tilburgs bock 2015	16.7	3.98	6.90	77.32%
2015	Spierbier	Gespierde bock	16	4.16	6.40	75.19%	24	25
2015	Wispe brouwerij	Wispe bock	17	4.11	7.00	77.02%	57	30
2015	Zeven Deugden	Bock en Sprong	18	4.27	7.50	77.50%	34	30
2015	Gulpener	Gulpener Herfslbock	16.5	4.50	6.50	73.98%
	Average		16.83	4.20	6.86	76.37%	54.23	30.40
Source:
Bokbierfetival programme 2015, pages 24 - 28.

(H) means contract brewed.

I wish I could be arsed to go through th 20-odd Bokbierfestival programmes I have to pull out the full historic data. But I've other more urgent bollocks, let alone the arsing.

Top-fermenters next time.