Bock is a medieval style, dark and strong beers with powerful nature, in fact the name Bock means Billygoat. During Easter fast, german monks used to drink Bock as substitution for food. A good Bock needs to have a strong malty taste with caramel notes, full body and a red color. The only problem with that style is that, even if you like it, you cannot drink liters of it without getting drunk soon (unless you're a monk during Lent maybe...).
What is really good in homebrewing, is the possibility to play with malt, mashing temperatures and hops, to brew the beer that fully satisfy your tastes. In that case, who gives a shit if the beer is outside style parameters? For that reason, my last bock was made with Munich malt, 10% of Cara and Crystal to get caramel notes '1% of black malt, for a little hint of roasted taste. Mash was a decoction, and I used Hersbrucher hop up to 30 IBU. OG was 1060 (according to BJCP is too low, and the hop also is too much).
What is really good in homebrewing, is the possibility to play with malt, mashing temperatures and hops, to brew the beer that fully satisfy your tastes. In that case, who gives a shit if the beer is outside style parameters? For that reason, my last bock was made with Munich malt, 10% of Cara and Crystal to get caramel notes '1% of black malt, for a little hint of roasted taste. Mash was a decoction, and I used Hersbrucher hop up to 30 IBU. OG was 1060 (according to BJCP is too low, and the hop also is too much).
Here is the result: a great red beer, malty and full bodied with caramel notes. It's not too sweet: the bitter and hearty taste from Hersbrucker, and the black malt succeeded in balancing the malts, and thanks to the low OG and the high temperature mash (67°C), alcool is not detectable, and quite low (6%).
It's really a good point to change recipe parameters according to your taste!
