Internal Brewsletter - September 10th, 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 Autumn! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for Bacon Jalapeno Popper Rangoons!
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
This Week’s Releases
Sticky Hands: Fresh Hop // 8.10%
Description: The iconic hop experience ale, but slammed with fresh hops! Using fresh-picked Citra hops from Alluvial Hop Farms, we cryogenically froze the hop cones and shattered them into the tank, all within a few hours.
Key Takeaway: Fresh Hop Sticky Hands is back. Once again, we used our Liquid Nitrogen Freezing and shattering method for this beer to add Fresh Hops in Secondary.
Tasting Notes: Honeydew • Candied Pineapple • Herbaceous
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Fresh Hop
Beer Style: Imperial IPA
Juice Joint // 7.00%
Description: We're pairing dank, citrusy, and tropical hops with an innovative use of hop extracts to create a heady concoction. Supported by a smooth body and balanced bitterness, it's sure to satisfy your cravings.
Key Takeaway: Hop dipping is a process where hops are added directly to the tank before knockout, then hot wort is pumped onto them, before cooling and pitching yeast. You are able to get biotransofrmation by fermenting directly on the hops that have minimal isomerization of bitterness. We applied this process to the Incognito liquid hop extract. Made in the spirit of the Dab Lab program, Juice Joint is now a stand-alone beer.
Tasting Notes: Blueberry • Mango • Peak Ripeness
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Orbital
Beer Style: Hazy IPA
Gus // 11.50%
Description: A collaborative blend series from Block 15 and Hair of the Dog, encompassing the spirit and creativity of both breweries. Gus is inspired by my father, whose love of HOTD sparked my interest in brewing. We brewed this barley wine with honey from Gus’s hives, matured it in bourbon barrels and blended with 2015 HOTD Bourbon Fred, marrying rich complexity with honey warmth.
Key Takeaway: For our third beer in the Pick of the Litter Series, a collaboration with Hair of the Dog, we blended our young Honey Barleywine aged in Four Roses Bourbon barrels with HOTD's 2015 Bourbon Fred.
Tasting Notes: Honey • Bourbon • Wisdom
Format: Draft & Bottles
Series: Cellars / Synergy
Beer Style: Golden Barleywine with honey matured in select bourbon barrels
Upcoming Releases
*This list is subject to change based on the production schedule. Please keep that in mind!
Flicker // West Coast IPA
Series: Perennial
Releases: September 19th
Format: Draft & Cans
Description: Inspired by Autumn's warm days and crisp nights, Flicker was designed to inspire conversation and community while delivering an engaging hop profile with notes of Lychee, Stonefruit, and Pine.
Fresh² // West Coast IPAs
Series: Fresh Hop
Releases: September 23rd at the Tap Room ONLY
Format: Draft Only
Description: We’ve made two beers for a hop sensory experiment with OSU and Coleman Agriculture, one with fresh Strata hops and one with freshly-kilned Strata hops from the same farm lot. Both recipes are identical, with the fresh hop additions made on the hot side of the brewing process. Each was dry-hopped with Cascade and Strata hops during fermentation.
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 beer is:
Pub: Loyal to the Block and Discovery
Tap Room: Loyal to the Block
Beer Education
4:00 pm Every Other Thursday @ the Pub
The next Happy Hour is Thursday, 9/18.
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: New Pick of the Litter Release!
By Garrison Schmidt, Head Brewer
As you hopefully recall, when historic Oregon brewery Hair of the Dog closed up shop a couple of years ago, their owner, Alan Sprints, reached out to me with an offer. He admired our barrel program, and wanted to offer us the first pick of all of his unblended barrels of beer. We were honored to accept the offer, and purchased a number of his best barrels to stash and use for special projects in the future.
My dad was a big Hair of the Dog fan. Some of my earliest craft beer memories are of bottles with bulldogs in bowler hats and names like Adam, Fred, and Matt in our beer fridge on the screen porch back home. Dad and his friends would share bottles, amazed at the complexity, depth, and most of all, sheer strength of these totally unique creations. No one had ever tried anything like it.
Nick and his dad, Gus, were also early fans of Hair of the Dog. Nick would attend bottle releases with Gus in Portland, waiting in line for special new beers never tasted before. Gus’s passion for Hair of the Dog and craft beer in general fueled Nick’s drive to create Block 15, and I’m sure it was a full circle moment when they first wrapped their own line around the block for a barrel release, heavily influenced by Alan and Hair of the Dog.
That’s why this release is so special. For Gus’s birthday, we are releasing Gus. a honey barleywine brewed here, and aged in 4 Roses barrels, then blended 1:1 with Bourbon Fred from 2015. It is an incredibly deep, complex, and warming beer, perfect for the cooling off period before fall sets in. I encourage you to grab a bottle and a pour, this beer will get better with age, and is an unbelievably limited run. Only 20 cases were bottled.
Gus is the nicest guy you could ever meet, and I couldn’t be happier that we made this special beer for him. If you see him, wish him a happy birthday, and as always, let me know what you think of the beer.
Marketing Updates
By Holly Amlin, Marketing & Creative Manager
Events
Corvallis Beer Week - September 4th - 13th
Learn about the history of Corvallis Beer Week: https://www.commonfieldscorvallis.com/corvallis-beer-week.html
September 13th - Beer Festival to Close it Out
Septembeerfest at Avery Park 12 - 7 pm
To close out Corvallis Beer Week, Block 15 will be participating in the 18th Annual Septembeerfest! We’ll be rotating through some new beers, including Fresh Hop Sticky Hands, and playing some fun games.
https://www.septembeerfest.org/
Drink Beer for Science - September 23rd (TR Only)
Conducted by Dr. Tom Shellhammer at Oregon State University and supported by Coleman Agriculture and Celebrate Oregon Beer, a new study happening this harvest season will look into the chemical and sensory elements of fresh hops. Since most beers use dried hops, scientists haven’t conducted extensive research into the distinct flavors and aromas of fresh hops. With this new research, they’ll have some of the first answers. We've made two beers for this hop sensory experiment, one with fresh Strata hops and one with freshly-kilned Strata hops from the same farm lot. Both recipes are identical, with the fresh hop additions made on the hot side of the brewing process. Each was dry-hopped with Cascade and Strata hops during fermentation. These 6.7% West Coast IPAs are called "Fresh² - Fresh-Hopped" and "Fresh² - Fresh-Kilned".
Starting September 23rd, we'll be pouring both beers side-by-side at our Southtown Tap Room only. Participation is free, and the only ask is that folks fill out a survey for each beer to aid in research. OSU will be providing QR codes for people to use.
Learn about the program here: https://celebrateoregonbeer.com/science/
Read about the event on our website
Bloktoberfest - October 17th - 18th
Pre-Orders for Stein Packages open on Monday, September 15th! People may also buy advance general admission tickets.
Stein packages are either $25 (half-liter) or $35 (full-liter) this year, and include:
Entry into Bloktoberfest Friday & Saturday
Limited-edition stein with a bright metallic gold finish
First stein fill
Pretzel necklace
Swag from our sponsors
Event details on our website: https://block15.com/bloktoberfest <- this is where people will pre-order also
Bloktoberfest Merch
Through our Sponsor, Corvallis Custom, we’ll be introducing an online merch store. They’ll be collecting pre-orders for Bloktoberfest-themed merch, which folks can pick up at the festival. This pre-order is for employees, too!
Preview some of the options below! Each will be offered in a couple of different shirt color options. There will also be fedoras and buttons 👀
From the Executive Chef
By Sarah Farey, Executive Chef
Bakery
Notes from Lindsey Henriksen, Bakery Manager
Pub Updates
By Kira Sciarrotta, General Manager
It is Fresh Hop Season! Please be hyper-diligent while selling our Fresh Hop Sticky Hands cans. They look very similar to classic Sticky cans, but will have a green ring around the top of them in order to deem them “Fresh Hop Edition.” Get people the right beer, yo!
Tap Room Updates
Please congratulate (and thank!) Katie on taking over scheduling for the Taproom. If you have any questions about Taproom scheduling moving forward, please send a message her way. If you have any PTO/sick time requests, make sure you are now doing that through Toast in addition to sending her a message as well. Thanks, Katie!
Caves Updates
By Aidan Welch, General Manager
High Fives
Sophia - Sophia’s always giving a helping hand when I need it most and least expect it. She’s so awesome :P
The person who has brought in plums, grapes, and pears from their garden - Thanks for sharing this delicious fresh fruit!
Jonathan Castor - For all that you’ve done this past week. We appreciate you more than you know!
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:
Carson Grending - Caves Server
Charitable Programs
Check back next week!