[HBF] Bock questions

[Gordon Strong]

Hallo,

I was referred to your list by my friend Alan McKay.  I hope you won't mind 
a question in English.

I represent the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) in the US, and we 
are currently revising the beer style guidelines we use in our homebrew 
competitions.  I have a few questions about how to properly refer to 
Bockbier in our guidelines.  I want to make sure our usage is correct in the 
German language.  I have limited understanding of German, so please accept 
my apologies if I say anything foolish.

1. Is Maibock only available in the Springtime, or can you find it during 
other times of the year?
2. Do you refer to Maibock by other names?  Our current guidelines call it 
"helles Bock", but I am concerned about gender agreement.  When you say 
"Bock" and mean "Bockbier", is "Bock" then masculine (like Bock) or neutral 
(like Bier)?  Do you call it "heller Bock", "helles Bock", "helles Bockbier" 
or some other name?  Or do you even use these names at all?  If we call it 
(in English) "Pale Bock", we can avoid the confusion.  Certainly, many of 
these beers are labelled as "Maibock" in the US, so I'd want to use this 
name as well.
3. When you use the term "Bock" does it imply the family of beer (bock, 
maibock, doppelbock, eisbock), or the specific starkbier of 16-18 Plato that 
is dark?  We call this beer "Traditional Bock" but I think I've seen it 
labelled as simply "Bock" or "Bockbier".  Do you ever call this "dunkel 
Bock" or another variation that uses correct gender agreement?

Please include me on any replies, as I do not subscribe to this list.

Danke,

Gordon Strong
strongg42 at hotmail.com

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