Oktoberfest is all well and good, but what about a more modest beer festival that retains the theme of Oktoberfest but focuses more on education. That is the goal of Hamilton’s Liberty Home Association, which is throwing its first annual Bock Beer Festival this weekend.

“We love our Oktoberfest. It funds our operation every year,” said Corey Wagonfield, member of the Liberty Home Association and chairman of the Bock Beer Festival Committee. “But we’re a German-American culture society, and a lot of the ‘culture’ gets lost in Oktoberfest.”

Wagonfield said that the Liberty Home Association threw a bock beer festival in years past, but it was restricted to club members. By opening it up to the community, Wagonfield said the committee was fulfilling its mission of “offering people a chance to learn.”

Bock beer is a potent German lager that typically has a higher alcohol content and more calories than most beers. Because of this latter trait, medieval German monks often used Bock beer as a food substitute during Lenten fasting, which is why Bock beer festivals today still typically take place in March.

“We’ll have two types of Bock beer on hand, because this is the time of year for celebrating Bock beer,” Wagonfield said. “We’ll have some domestic beers, as well, but we hope people try the Bock, and learn the history of it. When most people hear ‘bock,’ they think (Michelob) Amber Bock, but they don’t actually know what bock is.”

Yet perhaps the most singular aspect of the Bock Beer Festival will be the celebration of local homebrewing. There will be a homebrew competition and an onsite demonstration.

“There is still a bit of a social stigma,” Wagonfield, who has dabbled in homebrewing himself, said with a little laugh. “An image of guys with buckets in their basements. But there’s people around here who have been doing it for awhile, and you can put their stuff against anything you buy on the shelves. People will be able to taste the homebrews in the competition to get an idea of what the judges are experiencing and what the criteria is.”

Flavoring the festival throughout will be German music, familiar German vittles such as brats, metts and sauerkraut and pub-style games that include beer slides and card games.

“With the huge boom in craft beers, a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon.”

Wagonfield said. “It will just be a lot of people hanging out and socializing, and hopefully learning a few things.”