Internal Brewsletter - December 18th, 2024
General
New desserts dropping after Christmas! Expect to see these on Friday 12/27.
*Brand new* Cherry Pie Panna Cotta (dairy free) - A vanilla bean flecked panna cotta made with coconut milk topped with cherry pie filling and streusel. This dessert is made without dairy but is not vegan because of the gelatin. The cherries and streusel will be added at plating.
Original Cocobells replacing the peppermint bell. Our chocolate stout cake, fluffy cream cheese filling and ganache on top.
Festive Fridays
Feel free to wear your (family-friendly) holiday sweaters or accessories each Friday through the holiday season!
Holiday Hours
Christmas Eve:
Pub: 11 am - 4 pm
Tap Room: Closed
Caves: Closed
Christmas Day:
All locations closed
Holiday Party January 13th
Please use this form to RSVP for the Block 15 Holiday Party! This year, we will be holding it at our Southtown Tap Room on January 13th from 5 pm - 9 pm. We've got lots of fun activities planned such as:
Kegeritas
Pinatas
White Elephant Gift Exchange
Holiday Baking Competition with fabulous prizes
DJ Scottie with a community playlist
Photobooth
Food catered by Grindz Hawaiian from Albany
Afterparty at Squirrels 9pm - 12am!
This party is for adults only, and each employee is allowed a plus 1. If the plus 1 is a former employee, please include their name in the spot below!
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 Rachel! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for Buffalo Chicken Pull-Apart Rolls!
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
Pub Prep Kitchen Spotify Wrapped
For your enjoyment…
This Week’s Releases
Releasing Friday, December 20th
The Prophecies //
Description: Inspired by a favorite Abbey quad enjoyed on a visit to Belgium. Blending specialty malts, dark Belgian candi sugar, & Abbey yeast with hints of dark fruit and Dutch cocoa with a rich yet delightful finish. // 10.30%
Key Takeaway: Naturally conditioned in tank prior to canning, we have adapted the bottle conditioning technique we used to use to accommodate moving the packaging format. This increases the time it resides in the brewery. It is a commitment to quality, not efficiency.
Tasting Notes: Ginger Bread • Burnt Sugar • Rustic
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Orbital
Beer Style: Belgian Quadrupel
An abbey beer sometimes referred to as “Belgian Strong Dark Ale,” the name Quad follows the convention of Dubbel and Tripel, each rising in strength. These beers are usually between 8% and 14% abv and feature a rich malt flavor, including plummy or figgy fruit notes, chocolate, caramel, and molasses. The characteristic Belgian yeast aromatics of baking spice and pear lean more to black pepper. These are rich but well-attenuated beers that are often highly carbonated, almost always attained with re-fermentation, or natural conditioning, where carbon dioxide from a second fermentation is captured to create the necessary balance and mouthfeel.
Upcoming Releases
*This list is subject to change based on the production schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Block Water: Citrus Shift // Sparkling Hop Water with CBD
Series: Emerging
Releases: December 27th
Format: Draft Only
Description: Jump into the new year with our latest beverage, Block Water. This sparkling water is steeped in Citra hops and boosted with house-made lemon peel, orange peel, elderflower, and lemon verbena extracts. All natural and alcohol-free, we also added CBD to bring in the zen after the holiday craze.
Squirrel Stash // Brown Ale
Series: Perennial
Releases: January 3rd
Format: Draft & Cans
Description: An artistic brown ale brewed with a host of specialty malts and English yeast. Soft body and a malt profile with notes of toasted nuts, baker’s chocolate, and coffee with a dry finish.
Fresca Pils // Italian Pilsner
Series: Perennial
Releases: January 3rd
Format: Draft Only
Description: A crisp, hop-forward Italian-style pilsner brewed with Northwest pilsner malt and generously hopped with European Styrian hops, lending zippy notes of citrus, berries, and fresh-cut grass.
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: Hoppy Holidays
Beer Education
2:30 pm Tuesdays @ the Tap Room
Join us at the Tap Room every week for an educational session where you can taste and learn about the week’s releases. All are welcome!
4:00 pm Every Other Thursday @ the Pub
The next meet-up will be on December 19th!
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: Advanced Hop Products
Written by Garrison Schmidt, Head Brewer
We use many different advanced hop products at Block 15, and our desire to constantly experiment and innovate with how to apply those products has set Block 15 apart from other breweries. Sticky Hands’ use of critical CO2 extract set it apart from other Oregon IPA, and we continue that innovation today. We now use both Salvo and CO2 extract in Sticky Hands and are always seeking ways to make that beer as much of a hop experience as possible.
Advanced hop products are any hops that have been processed beyond just pelletizing. When they are harvested hops are delicate and prone to mildew and degradation very quickly. To avoid this, they are kilned to quickly dry them but preserve their delicate aroma and flavors. Once dried, they are run through a pelletizing mill where they are compacted before packaging. This is how most hops come to us.
We also use advanced products, such as CO2 extract, cryogenic concentrated hops, and hop oils. These products are made from individual hop varieties and are designed to provide flavor and aroma consistent with the hops they are made from.
CO2 Extract
We use CO2 extract widely in our IPAs. These products are created using supercritical CO2, which is in a liquid form, to extract alpha acids (essential to create bitterness), beta acids (antimicrobial), and essential oils (all of the flavor and aroma compounds we want). Some CO2 extracts are further processed to remove alpha or beta acids. We have several beers coming this winter that feature Salvo, a newer extract that doesn’t produce bitterness but is loaded with essential oils for a high-impact flavor addition. Most of these products are solid at room temperature and must be heated before use, which limits how they can be added.
Cryogenic Hops
In this process, kilned hops are frozen with liquid nitrogen and sifted to remove non-flavor-implementing vegetal material from the flavor-rich lupulin glands, then pelletized for ease of use. They are roughly twice as potent as normal pellets. Several hop processing and distribution companies now make cryogenic products; Hopsteiner makes Lupulin Pellets, Yakima Chief makes Cryo, Barth Haas makes Lupomax, and Crosby makes CGX.
Hop Oil
Sometimes made from whole leaf hops, sometimes from CO2 extract, hop oils, like salvo, add no bitterness to the beer, but are loaded with essential oils that impart bright, fresh hop flavor. These products are liquid at room temperature and can be added later, often just before packaging. We commonly use Glacier Hop Ranch’s Hopzoil, Oast House’s Fusion Terpenes, and Hopsteiner’s Steam Distilled Hop Oil. Joy gets a good dose of Hopzoil. We are currently trialing Yakima Chief’s Hyperboost in Sticky Hands and Deep Seek.
Hop processing is an industry undergoing constant innovation with new products released constantly. One of the more recent products is fresh hops that have been frozen with liquid nitrogen to preserve them longer. Along with a constant stream of new hop varieties, there is no shortage of products for us to experiment with as we continue to strive to be an innovator in the industry.
I hope this helps to clear up the differences between some of the products that we mention in brewery literature regularly. I know it’s a lot of information to keep up with, but if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask! Ask me or any brewer, at any time, or send me an email, at garrison@block15.com.
From the Executive Chef
January monthly specials will go live on Wednesday, January 8th, at both locations!
Tap Room
Porkstrami Egg Rolls-House brined and smoked “porkstrami”, sauerkraut, swiss cheese & stone ground mustard egg roll served with our spicy Reuben sauce. $10.99
Mash Paddle Melt-Seasoned NW beef patty, garlic sauteed mushrooms, melted Swiss cheese & house dressing on toasted artisan bread. $16.99
Pub
Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich - Breaded & fried eggplant with creamy marinara, melted provolone & fresh basil on house toasted ciabatta. $15.99
Chicken Chipotle Pasta - Cavatappi pasta, mushrooms & sweet onions and chipotle-parmesan cream sauce with smoked chicken, aleppo pepper and green onions. $17.99
Porkstrami Sandwich - Thinly sliced house made Carlton Farms pork shoulder pastrami, on toasted artisan bread with grilled sweet onions, Tillamook Swiss, house pickles and classic yellow mustard. $16.99
Pub Updates
Tap Room Updates
The Taproom location will be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day due to hours of operations. We hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends!
The glass rinser is turned off to the second tap box intentionally, to see if we can diagnose exactly where the leak is being created. Please use glass rinsers closest to the clean glassware for the time being. Also, please write in maintenance log if you are still squeegying that area or if it is staying dry now that those are off! Thank you all for your patience as we figure out the problem.
We are going to get rid of the glass Iced Tea dispenser and move to storing Iced Tea in a labeled/ dated pitcher just like the Lemonades in the cocktail fridge. As long as we only fill 1 pitcher of each at a time, there should be plenty of room in the fridge. This will also help with proper product rotation!
Strawberry lemonade concentrate will now be stored in a plastic long neck bottle with a pour spout. We will be receiving new fifos soon, that will be for Bar/ cocktail use ONLY to help prevent any off flavors in bar products. Please remove tape from all backers, fifos or other bar containers before you wash them since we are putting a brand new set in rotation. Thank you! :)
There is now a reservation calendar (created by the wonderful Makayla) to update you if we have a reservation that day, what time, how many people, and if they paid a deposit highlighted in yellow. You can find this by the roster board! FOH staff, you will be responsible for verifying this information and providing this deposit back to the customer, once the party has arrived and they have reached their cap. A detailed message will be sent out over Sling to provide step by step details on how to do this!
Caves Updates
Events
High Fives
Connor Hastings - Welcome back!
Danny Perston - Danny has an incredible passion for beer and loves to share his knowledge with those around him. He always picks up the phone to answer questions for brewers in need. Love this guy and his energy!
If you have kudos or kind words to share anonymously in the Brewsletter, use the button below!
Human Resources
Staff Section
Please welcome the following folks to the team:
The People’s Pint / Cheers for Charity / Dine Out
Check back next week.