Internal Brewsletter - November 22nd, 2023
General
Holiday Party! RSVP by Nov 30th using the button below
You and one guest* are warmly invited to the annual Block 15 and Caves Holiday party featuring a white elephant gift exchange (more info to come), beverages, appetizers, a photo booth, and good times!
When: Sunday December 10th, 6:30 pm-9:30pm
Where: The Corvallis Marriott Ballroom (400 SW 1st St. Parking available in their garage)
Attire: Many enjoy dressing up, but please wear whatever you are comfortable with!
RSVP**: By November 30th.
The pub and Tap Room will be open until 3:30, and Caves will close at 2:30 after the brunch service.
Discounted Hotel rooms: Call to book (541).753.0199 and tell the front desk representative you would like to use the “Take the Elevator Home” Rate for the Block 15 Holiday Party.
*Adults only. If your guest is a former employee, they must be OK'd through the signup form.
Limits Removed
We have removed all limits on Hoppy Holidays cans and Ol’ St. Nick draft to go at both locations!
Gift Card Promotion
Starting Mon 11/27- 12/24 anyone who purchases a $100 in gift cards will receive an extra $20 gift card!
UPCOMING PACKAGED BEER RELEASES - cans
RELEASING Friday 11/24
Super Fly Rye // Pull up a barstool and take a trip down memory lane with this nostalgic throwback RyePA. Amber hued with the gentle spice of rye malt, sappy hop resin, and zesty orange aromas. // 7.00% ABV
Takeaways: Remember the days of amber colored IPA's? This is a throwback recipe pulled from the Block 15 archives, but given a some process and ingredient updates to stand up against contemporary IPA's. A bit old school, but also fresh.
Tasting Notes: Orange Marmalade. Peppercorn. Memory Lane.
Series: Orbital
UPCOMING PACKAGED BEER RELEASES - Bottles
RELEASING Friday 11/24
Hair of the Peach // A collaborative blend series from Block 15 and Hair of the Dog encompassing the spirit and creativity of both breweries - 2015 bourbon barrel Peach Fred and specially brewed Block 15 barleywine ale, matured on Willamette Valley apricots. Notes of peach leather, almond pits, and apricot, with layered malt complexity. // 10.40% ABV
Takeaways: Hair of the Peach is the first beer in a collaborative series of Block 15 incorporating a vintage stock of beer from Hair of the Dog. This collaboration encompasses both breweries' spirit and creativity while celebrating the 30 years Hair of the Dog was open and the retirement of Alan Sprints.
Tasting Notes: Almond extract, Stone fruit, Ripe
Series: Cellars, Pick of the Litter - Collaboration with Hair of the Dog Brewing previously of Portland, Oregon
COMING UP ON DRAFT
RELEASING Friday 11/24
Hair of the Peach // Barleywine Ale Matured in Bourbon Barrels with Peaches and Apricots, collaboration with Hair of the Dog
Super Fly Rye // India Pale Ale
Hop Shuffle: Alora // We're shuffling our deck of hops again to bring you something unique. Mosaic, CTZ, Talus, and HS17701 (just named Alora) combine big juicy notes of stonefruit and citrus with pine resin. Partnered in a hazy fashion. // 7.30% ABV
Takeaways: We're always looking for new and exciting hops to work with, this beer highlights HS17701, just named Alora. It is rich with stonefruit and citrus and is perfect for a juicy Hazy IPA, we're pairing it with some of our other favorite hops to build a uniquely Block 15 IPA.
Tasting Notes: Peach Skin. Tangerine. Fruit Stand.
Series: Emerging
CROWLER/PACKAGE SALE
Crowler Sale: Ridgeback Red
UPCOMING / IN PROCESS BEERS
*This list is subject to change based on the brewing schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Consortium: Strata X Luminosa // West Coast IPA
The DAB Lab: Mo$aic // Hazy IPA
Tangerines & Elephants // Fruited West Coast IPA
The Prophecies // Belgian Quad
Hoppy New Year // Imperial IPA
BEER EDUCATION
Weekly Tastings of new releases and some classics:
Tap Room
Tuesdays at 2 pm
Pub
First and third Tuesdays at 11 am
Second and Fourth Thursdays at 11 am
Beer 101: Pick of the Litter Series
Written by Garrison Schmidt, Production Manager
Oregon has a rich history of brewing. Pre-Prohibition, dozens if not hundreds of breweries opened and flourished in the pioneer society. Post-Prohibition, however, only a few breweries had survived. The 80s ushered in the era of craft beer, and other breweries saw the area for the market that it is.
Fast forward to 1993. Portland is littered with flannel shirts tied around the waist, torn Levi’s 501s, and high-top Converse. Hair metal is out, grunge is here to stay, and honestly, folks don’t look much different than they do today.
Enter Alan Sprints. He’s from California, but if anybody is a natural Portlander, it's Alan. He decided to start a brewery based on the premise of originality and didn’t care if anybody had tried it before. He is one of a kind.
Alan founded Hair of the Dog in 1993, and his brewery became the first in the nation to sell high abv bottle conditioned beer, ferment beer in a concrete vessel, and was among the first to age his beer in a barrel. Needless to say, he was incredibly impactful on all brewers to follow, especially those of us growing up in the Pacific Northwest.
Alan always prioritized buying as locally as he could. He proudly boasted that 99% of his ingredients came from within 350 miles of his brewery. He spent this effort to reduce his carbon footprint as well as support his own community. His pub restaurant focused on pairing food with his beer and also sourced locally. Even his bottles were made in Portland.
His beers were unique, and many had never been seen before and never will be seen again.
After the pandemic, he couldn’t keep employees on and was brewing, running the kitchen, and leading the front of the house by himself. He burnt out and sadly closed the business in 2022.
Late that year, brewers at Block 15 received an email from Alan. He admired our barrel aging program and had many left-over full beer barrels that didn’t have a future to speak of. Could we take them off of his hands?
If you are familiar with Block 15’s values, you know that many of the qualities Alan was passionate about line up with our own nicely, and he was influential on almost all of us. In January, Nick and I went to Portland, tasted through a selection of his barrels, and chose our very favorites. The beer was transported back to Corvallis, and we began designing recipes for beer to complement them.
The most important thing about Hair of the Dog’s beer was that it was always something that you’d never tasted anything like. We have designed brews to complement that quality while adding our own sense of intent and direction.
Hair of the Peach is our first offering in this series that we have come to call the Pick of the Litter, but it won’t be the last. We are so excited to show you what else we have in mind to blend with these legendary beers.
PUB UPDATES
Just to clarify since closing hours changed: Corvallis’ Sidewalk Cafe permit (the permit we apply for each year to have the 100’s tables) allows us to serve guests alcoholic beverages until 11pm, and all alcoholic beverages must be consumed by the guest by 11pm or they need to move inside. Whether we close at 10pm or 11pm, this rule will always state that all outside service and consumption of alcoholic beverages must conclude by 11pm.
When starting a tab for a table and entering in the “cover count” (number of guests you are serving in the space/at the table) please enter in the accurate (or as close to accurate) number of guests. This is a key piece of information that we are using to evaluate how the adjustments that we have made to our schedule and hospitality focus are going and where we might need to make adjustments. If folks are filtering in and out for a large Game Room reservation, that number doesn’t need to be continually updated, rather a ballpark figure works. In a similar vein, if you are helping the bar out and guests are looking for beer to go or drinks while they wait, you don’t need to ask how many people are in the party. We’ve seen some numbers in the 100’s for tables that can only seat 4 people, so those would be the numbers making things look funky. If you have questions, feel free to check in with a manager or Goody!
Deep Seek Location Contest Update: We sold 87 cans of Deep Seek over the weekend with a goal of 100. Way to start strong and sling some cans over a busy weekend. We were 10 cans off from the Tap Room, and I know we can pull ahead of them this week. Our new goal to match with theirs will be 175–offer samples, get hyped, and get some Deep Seek in guests hands!
We have 2 basque-style cheesecakes in the freezer that were cut too small when we had it on the regular menu, so we will be running it this weekend as a special for $5! Comes with a Cherry-Bourbon sauce!
TAP ROOM UPDATES
Cellar Stash sale 11/24-11/25! Curated list of 500ml bottles all $12. Buy 6 or more and receive 15% off. Also receive 10% off merch if you buy any bottles. Excludes the fall release bottles and Hair of the Peach.
Deep Seek Location Contest Update: We sold 97 cans of Deep Seek over the weekend with a goal of 100. Way to go team for getting so close and really selling those cans!! Going into this weekend our new goal is 175 cans total (so we need to sell at least 78!) Keep up the great work and let’s beat the Pub (we are 10 cans ahead)! You can follow along and see updates at this link!
Thanks to everyone for being flexible, helping cover shifts, and kicking butt this weekend! Your hard work is much appreciated and I am so grateful for you all!
Caves UPDATES
Deep Seek Evolution
Quick Hits
Crisp and snappy finish with lightened body
100% NW Malts
Nectaron Hops contributing big tropical and citrus notes
Constant evolution! With Deep Seek and all Block 15 beers
Deep Seek Tasting & Pairing Events
🤿 11/30 at Wildwood Taphouse Hillsboro - 3 - 7 pm
Deep Seek and Oyster Pop-Up from Oregon Fish Co.
Block 15 Beers accompanied by Oysters from Oregon Fish Co.
📍 9345 NE Windsor Street, Hillsboro, OR 97006
🤿 12/5 at Loyal Legion PDX - 5 - 8 pm
Deep Seek & Block 15 Favorites on draft with a pop-up from Câche Câche. Merch/Deep Seek pins will be raffled off/given to everyone drinking Deep Seek.
📍 Loyal Legion PDX 710 SE 6th Ave, Portland, OR 97214
🤿 12/6 at Loyal Legion Beaverton - 5 - 8 pm
Deep Seek & other Block 15 Favorites on draft. Merch/Deep Seek pins will be raffled off/given to everyone drinking Deep Seek.
📍 Loyal Legion Beaverton 4500 SW Watson Ave, Beaverton, OR 97005
HIGH FIVE SECTION
If you have kudos or kind words you want to share anonymously in the Brewsletter, use the button below!
STAFF SECTION!
Welcome the following folks to the team!
Griffin Dorris (BOH)
SAFETY TIPS
Hey everyone! We had our Safety Committee meetings for our Downtown and Tap Room locations last week. Linked below are our Safety Notes from the meetings. If you’re interested in joining the Safety Committee or attending our next meeting, the meeting times are listed below!
Tap Room Safety Committee Meeting for December: 12/13 at 12:30 pm
Downtown Locations Safety Committee Meeting for December: 12/14 at 10 am at the Pub
November meeting notes for downtown: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MZFODvoodjNakjynpYfoS0j4it32e2ZkhiCQwQozS-Q/edit?usp=sharing
November meeting notes for Tap Room: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SH-WcrorsEYb5Fg_Sy5tJUaGVYTsJaBriujGUwC6aq4/edit?usp=sharing
THE PEOPLE’S PINT / CHEERS FOR CHARITY / DINE OUT
The People’s Pint Tap - November
For the whole month, we will be dedicating a tap handle to give back to our community. The organization we chose this month is Corvallis Mountain Rescue. A portion of the proceeds from each pint and packaged beer to-go will be donated to the organization from both Block 15 locations.
Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit offers assistance, without charge, for search and rescue (SAR) in difficult areas and high-angle terrain. Skilled CMRU volunteers with mountaineering experience, trained in the many facets of technical alpine search and rescue, are available around the clock.
More info here: https://www.corvallismountainrescue.org/index.html
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!