Are you ready for a strong, dark, malty lager? Then a Bock beer is just what you're looking for. Late winter and Fall are the traditional seasons for bocks, but there are quite a selection of them now available year round. Take it from me, an ale drinker, when I reach for a lager, I reach for a bock!

Bocks were traditionally brewed at the end of the brewing season (late winter or early spring), so they were the last beer of the season to be brewed. (Before refrigeration, brewing season ended once the temperatures got too high for brewers to keep yeast.) For this reason, many people believe that Bock beers are from the "bottom" of the brewing tank, or that they are the leftover sediment from other brews. Of course, this is not the case in modern brewing (I won't vouch for the way they might have brewed beer in centuries past!). Bocks brewed in the late winter or early spring were stored (or "lagered") for about six months, making them available to drink come the fall.

Bock beers are bottom fermented lagers, which means that they are brewed at relatively cool temperatures with yeast that has been developed to be active at those temperatures. Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon, has to be just a little different in almost everything they do, however. They brew a great beer called Dead Guy Ale that they call a Bock. What's wrong with that picture? An ale is not a lager, and bocks are most definitely lagers!