Two years ago I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. Bock, of course, may have originated in Germany, in the town of Einbeck. Because many 19th century American breweries were founded by German immigrants, they offered a bock at certain times of the year, be it Spring, Easter, Lent, Christmas, or what have you. In a sense they were some of the first seasonal beers. “The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers in the 17th century. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced ‘Einbeck’ as ‘ein Bock’ (a billy goat), and thus the beer became known as ‘Bock.’ A goat often appears on bottle labels.” And presumably because they were special releases, many breweries went all out promoting them with beautiful artwork on posters and other advertising. With Spring approaching, there are so many great examples that I’m going to post two a day for a few months.
Tuesday’s first ad is for Tacoma Bock Beer, which was published on March 31, 1917. This one was for the Pacific Brewing & Malting Co., which was founded in 1897 in Tacoma, Washington. They also had a location in San Jose, California that was founded as the Krahenburg & Co., or Fredricksburg Brewery, in 1872, but apparently was bought by the Tacoma brewery who called by their own name from 1933-1951. But the ad below lists San Francisco, California, not just in the ad but San Francisco is printed on the bottle depicted in the ad, as well, so perhaps they had a facility in the city there. This ad has one of my favorite text blurbs from any ad: “Buck up, man! ‘Now is the Winter of our discontent made glorious’ by Spring’s greatest teams — Bock Beer and Baseball.” This ad ran in The Bulletin, also of San Francisco, California.
