by Emmett Otter
Which came first, the bock or the goat?
Sunday is the Ninth Annual Bock Fest and Goat Races, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Sly Fox’s new location at the Maple Grove Shopping Center. This event is one of my favorite rites of spring for two reasons: the sausage and the beer. In preparing this little post, I got to thinking what is the correlation between bock beers and goats? It didn’t take long before I learned that bock is German for billy goat (goes to show what I remembered from studying German for five years), BUT I also found that bock beers are typically brewed in months of the astrological sign for capiricorn…a goat. PLUS I found this really cool web site about goats on beer labels. It’s really intriguing: http://www.norelevance.com/current-exhibits/cult-of-the-goat/
Anyway, Sly Fox will be featuring their Slacker Bock, Instigator Doppelbock, two Eisbocks, which are made by freeze distilling a doppelbock and removing the ice to concentrate the flavor and alcohol content, and the to-be-named Maibock. The brewery’s other beers will be available as well a delicious selection of sausages. Last year’s line-up included weiss wurst, a mild, white sausage, knockwurst and bratwurst.
The goat races themselves start at 2 p.m. and the maibock will be tapped shortly thereafter. Hopefully last year’s winner, Dax, will return to defend his honor. He probably shouldn’t get his hopes up though. If my memory serves me the previous year’s winner, Sundae, didn’t fare so well, but it could have been the wet track.
A few notable changes will also happen this year as a result of Sly Fox’s move across the street. The brewery is encouraging parking at the Kimberton Fair Grounds a one-and-a-half mile jog from the event. Shuttle service will be provided. Also, it will be interesting to see if the new lot hosting the event can handle the crowd. Although attendance was low last year due to the weather, more than 3,000 folks were present two years ago and Sunday’s forecast sounds gorgeous. Let’s just hope there are a good number of port o johns because I don’t know if there are woods behind the new location.
Oh, and as usual, commemorative glasses and shirts will be available.
More information: http://www.slyfoxbeer.com/index.php/front/news_archive/71.
