Internal Brewsletter - April 17th, 2024
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 Scott & Rachel! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for Loco Moco, a Hawaiian classic featuring a burger patty, fried egg, and gravy on rice!.
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
UPCOMING PACKAGED BEER RELEASES - Cans
Releasing Friday 4/19
Sol Fresco // Brewed for warm days in the sun and packaged fresh for your enjoyment. This golden-hued lager balances gentle corn sweetness, light hop bitterness, and aroma with a crisp, clean finish. // 4.70%
Takeaways: Shifting seasons brings on our Mexican lager, light and refreshing with a gentle bitterness. Brewed with 100% domestic malt and 100% PNW hops.
Tasting Notes: Crisp • Add a Lime • Crusher
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Perennial
Beer Style: Mexican Lager
Established by Austrian and German immigrants to Texas and Mexico, these beers were originally Vienna-style lagers brewed with Maize. The style is controversial, though, as it can refer to a lot of different beers. Generally, the name is given to a low IBU lager with a clean fermentation profile and extremely high clarity. Macro breweries use corn in their mash to achieve a highly crisp drinking experience at low cost, but craft brewers sometimes prefer to use flaked maize in its place as it has had proteins, oils, and other components removed and is generally a higher quality ingredient.
Boots First // In collaboration with the Willamette Valley chapter of the Pink Boots Society, this bright West Coast IPA combines a balance of Nelson and Chinook hops. Brewed to support women and non-binary people working in the fermented beverage industry! // 6.50%
Takeaways: Leaning on a novel blend of Belma, chinook, and Nelson hops, this crisp West Coast IPA features a broad spectrum of our IPA Production techniques.
Tasting Notes: Orange Marmalade • Grapefruit • Empowerment
Format: Draft & Cans
Series: Synergy, collaboration with the Willamette Valley chapter of the Pink Boots Society
Beer Style: West Coast IPA
An IPA Sub-style that originated in California. It has evolved over the years to showcase a balance of bright fruit, resinous pine, and dank (cannabis-forward) hop flavors and aromas, with a moderate to light malt presence and a dry finish with an assertive bitterness. West Coast is still a rapidly evolving style. The Variations of IPAs have become America’s primary contribution to the pantheon of world beer styles.
COMING UP ON DRAFT
Releasing Friday 4/19
Sol Fresco // Mexican Lager
Boots First // West Coast IPA
C.B.C. IPA // This crisp West Coast IPA was brewed in collaboration with our friends at Crosby Hop Farms. Brewed to highlight our respective operations, we utilized a litany of Crosby Products to create this beer. B&D Farms Cascade, Estate Grown Comet CGX, and New Zealand Grown Pacific Sunrise hops combine to create an IPA popping with Tropical Fruit character, pine, grapefruit, and orange zest. C.B.C stands for Crosby Block 15 Collab. // 6.80%
Tasting Notes: Orange Peel • Pineapple • Zesty
Format: Draft Only
Series: Synergy, collaboration with Crosby Hops
Beer Style: West Coast IPA
An IPA Sub-style that originated in California. It has evolved over the years to showcase a balance of bright fruit, resinous pine, and dank (cannabis-forward) hop flavors and aromas, with a moderate to light malt presence and a dry finish with an assertive bitterness. West Coast is still a rapidly evolving style. The Variations of IPAs have become America’s primary contribution to the pantheon of world beer styles.
CROWLER/PACKAGE SALE for Sippin’ Sunday
20% off all packaged beer to-go, $5 Crowlers and $10 Growler fills all-day Sunday
This week’s beer is: Group Ride
UPCOMING Releases
*This list is subject to change based on the production schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Board Shorts: Next Set // West Coast IPA
Series: Perennial
Releases: April 26th
Format: Draft & Cans
Highlight: Brewed every year in honor of Seth, our original bar manager, this one really pushes into that new-age West Coast direction with a balance of bright fruit and sharp resin. A portion of beer sales will be donated to the OHSU Brain Institute.
Noyster // Oatmeal Stout with Dulse
Series: Emerging
Releases: April 26th
Format: Draft Only
Highlight: All the aspects you love of an oyster stout without the Oysters! Brewed to emulate an oyster stout utilizing Dulse seaweed instead of traditional oysters, a portion of beer sales will be donated to the Elakah Alliance at the Otter Beer Fest hosted in OMSI (on April 13th)! Using a base Oatmeal stout, we steeped a portion of the beer on dried Dulse seaweed from Oregon Seaweed before blending it back into the beer. The results? A nicely balanced Oatmeal stout, melding the roast, silky, sweet notes of an Oatmeal stout with the decadent, briny, earthy, umami character of the seaweed. No oysters needed here!”
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!
Beer 101: Mexican Lager
Written by Garrison Schmidt, Head Brewer
Mexicans have been making alcoholic beverages since 900 B.C. The Mayans and their descendants made drinks from fermented chocolate, agave, honey, and corn for thousands of years before white settlers arrived. Many historic brewers in Mexico continue to brew these today.
When we refer to Mexican Lager today, we are talking about a beer brought to Mexico and Texas by German and Austrian immigrants in the 19th century. The original Mexican Lagers were Vienna-style lagers brewed with maize, creating a crisp, refreshing beer that was copper to deep amber brown.
In 1890, Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc became the first Mexican brewery to take advantage of the railways, allowing them to access American ingredients and equipment. They brewed a famous Czech-style Pilsner and a Vienna-style lager and named the beers Siglo XX. These beers helped morph the style into what it is today and were eventually renamed Dos Equis (meaning two Xs) Lager and Amber.
American prohibition helped fuel the fire of Mexican breweries, with Americans flooding over the border to drink. Over the last 100 years, they have continued to grow. Today, Mexico is the world's largest beer exporter.
Mexican Lager is now a bit controversial as a style. The beers have an enormous range, especially concerning color, ranging from bright yellow to dark amber brown. These opposite ends of the spectrum are known as clara and obscura. Almost all Mexican lager is brewed with corn or maize. Large macro breweries generally use corn, while craft brewers prefer flaked maize, as it’s been pressed on hot rollers and modified to remove oils, proteins, and other components and is generally a higher quality ingredient.
Flaked Maize is an amazing ingredient. It dries out the beer a little and ferments completely, leaving no residual sweetness. Maize is the reason that Mexican lagers are thought of as crisp and never cloyingly sweet. It also has almost no protein, especially compared to barley, so clarity is boosted, and body is thinned out some. Last, it’s crazy cheap—always a plus.
Aside from the yellow and amber varieties, there is a third possibility when referencing Mexican Lager. This is when American breweries brew a lager and add salt and/or lime to it and call it a Mexican Lager. I won’t go too deep into this substyle, as it really shouldn’t be in the same category, in my opinion. Just be aware that they’re out there, and they’re nothing like what I’ve described above. Most of them are garbage fires.
This is all to say we’re releasing Sol Fresco this week, and it’s a beer that we’re really proud of. Our take on Mexican-style Lager falls pretty close to the middle of the range described above. Medium-gold in color with a very subtle hop character, it’s made with 100% US-grown malt, 100% PNW hops, and torrefied flaked maize. Cans will be available, and the artwork is by Chris Herbst, the same artist who designed our Fresh Flow, Fresh Pow, and Fresh Catch labels. Give it a try, and as always, let me know what you think at garrison@block15.com.
A note about Pink Boots
Written by J Pascoe, Brewer
Hi Ya'll!
With our Pink Boots Collab beer, Boots First, releasing this Friday, I wanted to share some information with you about the Pink Boots Society.
Pink Boots Society was founded in 2007 after founder Teri Fahrendorf took a cross-country road trip. I don't want to take up too much space here on that, but it is a fantastic story. Fun fact: Teri was based in Eugene at that time, is now located in Portland, and is often seen at industry events. She's a real firecracker.
My elevator pitch to people asking about Pink Boots is simple: Pink Boots supports women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry through equity, education, and experience. This means Pink Boots is for bartenders, bookkeepers, managers, brewers, owners, designers, salespeople, hop growers, and others who work with beer, cider, distilling, wine, kombucha, and more.
What this can look like varies from chapter to chapter across the country and world (currently around 80 chapters in the US, 8 internationally).
Some things I've found particularly useful over the years are as follows.
The networking: online and in person, I have found (and been given) a lot of information I've needed ranging from job opportunities to part replacement information for broken equipment to contact information for people I need to meet while working on various projects.
The education: there are always on-demand webinars and roundtables online covering a variety of topics (from Alternative Funding Sources for Small Businesses to Carbon Capture in Fermentation to Demystifying Whiskey) and quarterly scholarships for personal advancement. I've personally received two scholarships over the years from Pink Boots. The first was to help offset tuition for my classes while attending the Fermentation Sciences Certification Program at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, and the second was more recently to aid in my studying for a future Cicerone test. The scholarships are particularly robust as they can cover everything from testing prep for Sommelier qualifications to yeast propagation in the brew house to merchandising 101. Occasionally, they even offer opportunities to travel internationally!
Finally, and most visibly, we try to do a lot of in-person experiential events. The most obvious is our collaboration brew days sprinkled throughout the year -- this is always a great opportunity to see what other businesses are doing with their finished products and how they make them. I always learn something. Some other examples of events the Willamette Valley chapter has organized include an educational tour of 2 Towns barrel aging program, an intro and guided tasting of NA products at a local NA bottle shop in Eugene, an entry-level seminar on Oregon Beer taxes, and more! I'm particularly excited about some of our upcoming events, especially a Sensory 101 course taught by chapter member Dana Garves of Oregon Brew Lab.
I've said it before -- Pink Boots has been a major lifeline for me in the beer industry. I've experienced a wide range of sexism and homophobia over the years (not at Block!) in various work spaces or classrooms, and finding my peers has gone far in showing me that I do have a place in the industry and the work I do is valued. On a more positive note, I have met some absolutely fantastic people through Pink Boots who are doing truly amazing work -- to be able to watch, support, or be part of their stories and professional advancements is truly an honor.
Thinking about joining? It's a pretty simple process. Make sure to check membership in the Willamette Valley chapter if you do join!
As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions you might have about the industry, the chapter, and what membership could do for your career.
Cheers!
J
From the Executive Chef
Sol Fresco Beer & Food Pairing - Starts Friday!
April 19th, with the release of Sol Fresco, we will be running a paired special for the tap life of the beer! Both locations!
Potato & Green Chile Flautas
Creamy, spicy potato and green chili fried flautas, served with salsa borracha, sour cream, queso fresco & radishes $12.99
Noyster Beer & Food Pairing - April 26th-28th
For the release of the Noyster stout, we will run a vegan chickpea salad sandwich with dulse! Full write-up will be in next week's brewsletter!
This will run at both locations, but will be just a Friday-Sunday, or until we run out special.
PUB UPDATES
There will be a button to add a lime wedge for Sol Fresco as that is popular for mexican lagers! When a customer orders one please offer it to them!
As you all should have seen on the Read & Sign, we are moving to mopping upstairs nightly. This is how it was structured pre-pandemic and we moved to intermittent mopping because we weren’t as full or seating upstairs as often. Now that that section is often full and busy, we need to be sweeping and mopping the full upstairs nightly.
We are gearing up to replace some of the not-so-happy plants in the outside planters. Once those have been spruced up, we will need to start our summer watering plan and have those watered daily with at least 5 pitchers of water each (grabbing a 5gal bucket makes this faster to pull from). Once we hit peak summer weather, this will need to happen 2x a day.
Feedback is always welcome and encouraged, but keeping in mind a couple of pieces will help your Lead and Management teams process this feedback and address any concerns. When you are bringing feedback to a Manager or Lead, please keep in mind doing so with positivity. We all get frustrated from time to time, but coming with a positive mindset will help to keep any feedback from feeling personal. Also, while not every situation can be simple, coming with a suggestion for a plan or solution helps to move the wheels along. If you have ideas and thoughts, we love to hear them and want to do what we can to support you all!
Pub Company Direction Objectives
Consistently promote and encourage teamwork and strengthen the ties within our team–we are our most successful when we work together and support/understand each other.
Promote ongoing education on all things Block 15 through monthly "Deep Dives" on items from the kitchen, and from the brewery/bar. Each month (roughly) Sarah and myself will send out our information on respective Deep Dives on menu items.
Demonstrate to every guest that we are happy they have joined us. Make connections and show genuine interest and excitement!
TAP ROOM UPDATES
There will be a button to add a lime wedge for Sol Fresco as that is popular for mexican lagers! When a customer orders one please offer it to them!
Reminder: We open for full summer hours next Monday, April 22nd! Our summer hours are Sun-Thurs 11:30-9pm and Fri-Sat 11:30-10pm! With that being said, please make sure you are double-checking your schedules going into summer hours, as normal shifts may have been changed.
With the weather getting nicer, please make sure the lawn games (ring toss and corn hole) are getting put outside in the grassy area for people to play! At the end of the night, please also make sure they are also getting put away; there is now a black crate by the umbrellas for everything to go in.
2024 Objectives
Elevate engagement through impactful community-centered opportunities and events
Enhance the visibility of the Block 15 Bakery and unique Taproom menu items
Amplify the customer convenience factor
Upcoming Events
April 22nd - Opening full summer hours and Earth Day
April 25th - Free bike adjustments event with Bike n Hike!
Bakery Highlight
Ciabatta/Tuscan Chicken Sandwich! Read more about the Tuscan here
Try to highlight and/or suggest this item to 3 different customers per shift you work!
Caves Updates
Caves Direction Objectives
Deliver elevated consistency through the Caves experience
Hit our service and food standards every single time! Show our guests why we should be their regular spot and what sets us apart with our elevated experience.
Keep eyes up and out and move through the restaurant rather than just behind the bar when making loops. Offer to grab another beverage, refill waters, or pre-bus tables, even if they aren’t yours.
Amplify education and enthusiasm within our food and beverage programs
Through elevated and thorough education on new menu items and revisiting tried and true classics, or beverages with more history and information.
HIGH FIVE SECTION
Katie Davis - For crushing your first couple TR training shifts, already giving great suggestions, and having a great attitude. We are stoked to have you out here!
Jack Kellems - For also crushing it at the TR so far! Your great energy and attitude is infectious and you really nail the genuine hospitality we aim to have, keep it up!
Gabi Gonzalez - Gabi always works so hard and I always look forward to working with her and seeing her wonderful smile!
Alex Salazar - He gives 100% even though he's only here a couple days a week. Great energy and great music too.
Paul Van Handel - He's always doing a little something extra to support the restaurant and help things run smoothly. We appreciate you!
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:
Olivia Potter (BOH)
SAFETY TIPS
Please remember to keep areas clear that have been taped off. If an area is taped off it is for either a safety or hazardous reason (or both). If you have any questions about that space and where you should set or store something, reach out to the person who manages that space.
Office Hours
Monday: Tap Room 10 am - 1 pm, Pub 2 - 5 pm
Thursday: Tap Room 1 - 4 pm
Friday: Pub 1 - 4 pm
THE PEOPLE’S PINT / CHEERS FOR CHARITY / DINE OUT
Check back next week!
WHAT’S UP ON INSTA??
FEEDBACK
Hey friends! If you find yourself sitting at home, or out and about and something pops into your mind that you would like to pass along to the team, feel free to use this form! Please be mindful of keeping feedback or suggestions constructive and positively worded!