SOMEONE IN America must be brewing a traditional bock.
Not one of those super-strong doppelbocks that craft brewers seem to favor. Not a maibock, the pale version that appears in May as a transition to the lighter lagers of summer. Not an ice bock, not a wheat bock, not a Christmas bock.
Just a plain, old bockbier, also known as a dunkelbock - a dark but not sodden lager with perhaps 6 percent alcohol. A potent but not crippling brew.
Alex Drobshoff, a homebrewer from Livermore, Calif., has been looking for one for years with little luck. "Just a run-of-the-mill traditional bock - that's all I wanted," he said.
His friends traveling to Germany would come home with tales of the malty goodness of the style served in Munich's beer gardens after the close of Oktoberfest. But when he got around to sampling imported bottles, they seemed spoiled from the long trip to the West Coast.
After he went searching for one at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Drobshoff shrugged and said, "I was underwhelmed."
Do it yourself - that's the essence of homebrewing. So Drobshoff, who works as a laser engineer when he's not stirring his wort, experimented for two years to perfect his own version of bock.
Normally, only Drobshoff's wife, Angie, and friends ever get a chance to sample the brew, which he calls Serene Lakes Lager, for the quiet spot where he owns a cabin.
But now you can taste this traditional bock, too. It's part of Boston Beer's annual Samuel Adams LongShot variety case of winning recipes in the brewery's annual American Homebrew Contest.
In addition to Drobshoff's Traditional Bock, the case includes Double IPA by fellow California homebrewer Mike McDole, and Cranberry Wit created by Carissa Sweigart, a Sam Adams national account manager. The lucky three, whose faces appear on the bottles, were among nearly 1,000 homebrewers who submitted entries.
Drobshoff said he worked so long to refine his recipe because "it's a style I like but it's so hard to find . . . It seems like craft beer has gotten extremely hoppy or extremely malty. But there's more to beer than that."
When you sip his beer, he said, "you taste plum and cherry - all these wonderful flavors that come out in the malt, with just enough Hallertau hops for balance."
It's only fitting that LongShot is hitting the shelves this month. Spring is the traditional season of bock in America, typically released in time for Lent.
