Internal Brewsletter - July 30th, 2025
General
Employee Provision
A weekly special served at the Pub, the idea of which comes primarily from Block 15 employees.
This week’s Employee Provision will be brought to you by Blake! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for a Seattle Style Polish Dog!
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
This Week’s Releases
Sticky Hands: Hang Ten // 8.10%
Description: Ride this wave back to 2015! This tubular throwback brings back our legendary recipe from a decade ago, the first batch brewed on our 20BBL production system. Smooth, balanced, and ready to make some waves.
Key Takeaway: For over three years, Sticky Hands was brewed and developed at our 7BBL downtown pub brewhouse. This recipe is a revival of the first batch of Sticky Hands brewed on our 20BBL production system, and represents the beginning of weekly Sticky Hands brews, a change from the previous schedule of monthly releases.
Tasting Notes: Pine Resin • Pineapple • Revolution
Format: Draft Only
Series: Sticky Hands
Beer Style: Imperial IPA
Imperial IPAs (often called Double IPAs) feature a more robust profile of malts and hops. Significant factors that set Imperial IPAs apart from regular IPAs are their alcohol content and bitterness levels. An Imperial IPA can range from 7.5%-10% ABV. Due to the increased malt load it takes to create the additional alcohol, more hops are required to balance out the beer and keep the malt in check. An Imperial IPA should be intensely hoppy, medium-light to medium-bodied, and have balanced hop characteristics. There can be Imperial versions of virtually any IPA style or sub-style.
Space Candy // 7.30%
Description: Brewed with a galaxy full of delicious and unique hop products. Comet, Galaxy, and Apollo hops bring a tropical, dank, and piney flavor to orbit a silky and lush body. It will blast your palate into outer space.
Key Takeaway: Previously released in 2023, Space Candy pushes the balance between Dank and juicy, making it an unmistakably Block 15-style Hazy IPA.
Tasting Notes: Ripe Mango • Apricot • Astronomical
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Orbital
Beer Style: Hazy IPA
An IPA sub-style originating in New England, it originally evolved from American IPA to have a lighter malt bill, that had a soft finish from adjuncts containing higher protein levels and water naturally high in Chloride. Early versions retained an assertive bitterness, but that mostly softened over time giving way to a soft, juicy beer with a big, sweet body that mostly featured fruit notes (citrus, tropical, stonefruit, red fruit, etc..). Some versions can contain pine or dank notes as well. Bitterness ranges from light to moderate, and body ranges from moderate to heavy. Hazy is still a rapidly evolving style. The Variations of IPAs have become America’s primary contribution to the pantheon of world beer styles.
Upcoming Releases
*This list is subject to change based on the production schedule. Please keep that in mind!
Loyal to the Block // West Coast IPA
Series: Synergy
Releases: August 8th
Format: Draft Only
Description: Loyal to the Block is a small-batch West Coast IPA made in collaboration with Loyal Legion. It uses Nectaron, El Dorado, Citra, and Simcoe hops and is generously dry-hopped with Nectaron, Citra, and El Dorado. Full of bright citrus notes, this beer is perfect for toasting.
Amplified Diesel // West Coast IPA
Series: Emerging
Releases: August 8th
Format: Draft Only
Description: Put the hammer down on dank with Amplified Diesel, a WC IPA nitro-boosted with CTZ and CTZ Salvo, Strata, Simcoe, and a special water adjustment designed to charge hard into our favorite hop characteristics --- Canni-Resin + Diesel.
Crowler/Package Sale for Sippin’ Sunday
20% off all packaged beer to-go, $5 Crowlers, and $10 Growler fills all-day Sunday of a specific beer.
This week’s beers are:
Pub: Fresh Flow and R&D 2171
Tap Room: R&D 2171
Beer Education
4:00 pm Every Other Thursday @ the Pub
The next Happy Hour is Thursday, 8/7.
Join us every other Thursday in the Game Room at the Pub to taste through beers, discuss our beers, brewing, or any other related topics you have questions about. This is a casual session, and anyone is welcome to attend. If you have an interesting bottle of beer you would like to taste/share with the group, bring it in. Your first beer is on us if you attend.
Beer 101: Sticky Hands Month and Hangin Ten
By Garrison Schmidt, Head Brewer
August is Sticky Hands month! We are making a push to raise awareness of our Flagship Imperial IPA, also known as a double IPA or IIPA. An imperial IPA is stronger in ABV than a standard IPA, and typically offers a more intense drinking experience, characterized by an overload of sweetness from the alcohol and a balancing over-bitterness from the hops. That is one of the reasons that Sticky Hands is so special. It is balanced without any overload in any direction. Famously smooth, drinkable, and deceivingly low in alcohol burn, Sticky is one of the most enjoyable IIPAs in production.
Sticky Hands is also a remarkably relevant beer, as it constantly evolves with new developments in brewing science and technology. The changes we make are gentle enough that you don’t notice them from batch to batch, but I am confident in saying that every glass or can of Sticky is the best example of the beer that you’ve ever had.
To illustrate this point, we brewed a special variant we’re calling Sticky Hands, Hang Ten. It is a reboot of a ten-year-old recipe, the one we wrote when we first scaled Sticky Hands up from our 7 bbl pub brewhouse to the brand new 20 bbl system at the taproom. This recipe also marks the first batches that were brewed and packaged every week to be distributed throughout the Pacific Northwest. This version of Sticky Hands represents many folks' first taste of our favorite beer. It is a cool opportunity to offer customers a taste of the past, present, and future of Sticky Hands, as we have never stopped improving the beer, and never will. Since that recipe was first written, we have improved fermentation profiles, added a whirlpool to our system, set in place a system of key parameter tracking, moved to solely North American-grown ingredients, introduced Apollo Salvo, Mosaic, and Centennial Dynaboost, Mosaic Hyperboost, and Amarillo CGX. It has grown and changed, and like I said, is always the best that it can be.
I hope that you try the two next to each other and encourage you to suggest a taste to all of your IPA fans, especially Sticky Die-Hards. A lot of love went into this batch, just like every batch of Sticky, and I’m excited to hear what folks think.
Marketing Updates
By Holly Amlin, Marketing & Creative Manager
Sticky Hands Focus in August
Hi all, for our Sticky Hands focus in August, we’re rolling out a couple of goodies for you. Like in previous months, where we’ve taken a deep dive into our year-round offerings, we have a new illustrated design that has been printed on stickers and t-shirts. Please share the stickers with our Sticky-loving regulars, and new faces as well.
Actual shirt is a little more on the gray side.
The Basics
Our benchmark 8.10% Northwest Imperial IPA, Sticky Hands, offers a balanced experience of hop character and drinkability, featuring ample additions of sticky, lupulin-packed hops and a full-throttled hop aroma, complemented by a resinous body and a succinct finish.
Tasting Notes: Orangalo • Pine Resin • Mischievous Grin
The History
Sticky Hands was first brewed in 2012 and released monthly on draft and in 750ml bottles, with a variant rotating every other month. Very rarely would Sticky Hands find its way to beer bars and bottle shops, making its release in Corvallis a special event where people would drive from all over the PNW to wait in line outside our Downtown Pub. We released Sticky Hands in this way for three years, advancing it over time with each subsequent brew.
Check our Garrison’s write-up for more information on how the beer progressed when we opened our Production Brewery in 2015, and the throwback Sticky Hands: Hang Ten that will release this Friday.
The Impact
The journey Sticky Hands has taken from its very first brew to the beer you taste today is a love letter to hops with innovation, creativity, and experimentation at its core. It’s one of the most drinkable beers in our region, boasting a worldwide reputation as one of the best Imperial IPAs available. Canned fresh, and best before yesterday, Sticky Hands delivers a hop experience like you’ll never forget. Wherever you are, you’re guaranteed to find a Sticky Hands that’s less than 90 days old.
Events
Summer Music Series Continues Through August 27th
At the Tap Room every Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm. Check out the upcoming bands here: https://block15.com/summer-music-series
From the Executive Chef
By Sarah Farey, Executive Chef
August specials at the pub will begin on 8/6!
Heirloom Tomato & Cappicola Sandwich-Lightly crisped spicy capicola, heirloom tomatoes, basil & fennel slaw and mayo on toasted artisan bread. $15.99
Gulf Shrimp & Apricot Salad Fresh chopped romaine, chilled lime marinated gulf shrimp, Riverland Family Farms’ grape tomatoes, red onion, Peoria Road Farm Markets’ fresh apricots and jalapeno-coconut dressing. Topped with fried wonton strips and cilantro. $15.99
Filet O’ Block House Oregon rock fish & bay shrimp patty, breaded and fried to perfection with tartar sauce, dill pickles, shredded lettuce & American cheese on a toasted brioche bun. $14.99
Bakery
Notes from Lindsey Henriksen, Bakery Manager
Pub Updates
By Kira Sciarrotta, General Manager
I’m baaaack! I missed you guys and I hope you had a lovely week! Let’s get back to business with three important reminders:
August is Sticky Hands month! It is the expectation that we go above and beyond on these Perpetual focuses and we really hone in on this information for the month. You will be expected to answer questions unexpectedly so please study up and make me proud!
Food Feedback! There should always be food feedback sheets taped to the Fry Fridge in the kitchen, please make it a priority to get at least one point of food feedback per shift. Whether it’s your break food, seeing food in the window, or from a customer directly, this feedback is crucial to maintaining our high standards and we can’t do it without your cooperation!
It’s hot outside! Our lovely plants outside need just as much love and nurturing as we do on these warm summer days. There is a laminated watering procedure on the host clipboard that should be followed every day as well as a watering checklist. Please be sure that this is getting done daily! The bigger planters need at least a five-gallon bucket of water so please be diligent and check their soil to ensure proper watering.
Tap Room Updates
Caves Updates
By Aidan Welch, General Manager
High Fives
Kim Smith - You’re always working so hard and an absolute pleasure to be with on shift! Thank you!
Pub FOH - FOH team, thank you for being so on top of our paper product deliveries. That area is generally looking pretty good, with boxes off the floor and space to walk. We appreciate it!
If you have kudos or kind words you want to share about your co-worker anonymously in the Brewsletter, use the button below!
Staff Section
Please welcome the following folks to the team:
Hunter Kasper - Dishwasher
Charitable Programs
Our next event will be a Dine Out! with the Whiteside Theater on August 19th.