Bavarian Weizenbock

Strangely, I’ve got almost as many 19th century analyses of Weizenbock as I do of standard-strength Weissbier. Isn’t that odd?

Though I’m only 100% certain about three of them. The Streicher one may be from Switzerland. I haven’t been able to track down a place called Rorsach. The closest name I can find is Rorschach in Switzerland.

One thing immediately strikes me about these beers: only one could legally be called Bock in Germany today. Because there’s a minimum OG of 16º Plato for Bockbier. Which obviously wasn’t the case in the 19th century.

The Streicher beer stands out because of the high level of acidity, making me think that it might well be a different type of Weizenbock. It’s strange to see a strongish beer that’s so acidic. The relatively high degree of attenuation might betray the presence of Brettanomyces.

Bavarian Weizenbock 1866 - 1892
Year	Brewer		Beer	OG Plato	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Acidity
1866	Hofbräuhaus	Munich	Weisses Bockbier	15.37	1062.6	1020	5.52	68.03%
1888	Schramm	Munich	Weissbier Bock	17.34	1071.1	1027.7	5.61	61.04%	0.180
1888	Schneider	Munich	Weissbier Bock	14.40	1058.4	1020.8	4.86	64.38%	0.180
1892	Streicher	Rorsach	Weizenbock	14.49	1058.8	1014.2	5.80	75.85%	0.420
	Average			15.40	1062.7	1020.7	5.45	67.33%	0.260
Source:
"Handbuch der chemischen technologie mit besonderer berücksichtigung der gewerbestatistik" by Johannes Rudolf Wagner, 1875, page 614
König, J (1903), Bier in Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel by Joseph König, 1903, pp 1101 - 1156, Julius Springer, Berlin.

You can probably guess what’s coming. Some modern Weizenbocks. It’s pretty obvious what one of the main differences is going to be.

Bavarian Weizenbock in 2014
Brewer	Town	Beer	OG Plato	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Weihenstephan	Freising	Vitus	16.5	1067.5	1008.8	7.70	86.95%
Göller	Zeil am Main	Weizen Bock	17.5	1071.8	1018.2	7.00	74.73%
Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Vitus	16.5	1067.5	1008.8	7.70	86.95%
Brauerei Reblitz	Bad Staffelstein	Reblitz-Weizenbock	16.1	1065.7	1010.8	7.20	83.64%
Kitzmann-Bräu	Erlangen	Weißbier-Bock	16	1065.3	1011.8	7.00	81.93%
Brauerei Hofmann	Pahres	Weizenbock	16.5	1067.5	1015.4	6.80	77.25%
Average			16.5	1067.5	1012.3	7.23	81.91%
Sources:
The relevant brewery websites

That’s right, the OG of the modern versions is higher. As it has to be by German law. It’s about 5 OG points, or 1.1º Plato higher. That, couple with a much higher degree of attenuation adds up to much stronger beers, averaging 7.23% ABV as opposed to 5.45% ABV.

I’ve noticed before that there were few really strong beers in the 19th century in Germany. The higher OG beers often have very poor degrees of attenuation, leaving them under 6% ABV.