Internal Brewsletter - January 10th, 2024
General
Bread Change for Banh Mi Sliders
We are changing the bread we use for the Banh Mi Sliders, effective next Wednesday, January 17th!
Until now, we've been making slider buns out of our ciabatta dough, but we've decided it's time to give them their own bun that is more in line with a traditional banh mi. The new bun is crisp on the outside with a soft, tender crumb inside that is less airy than ciabatta but still feels lightweight. They will generally be the same size and shape, and easier for us to keep them consistent. If you've tried the Banh Mi or Lamb Roll at Caves or the Chicago Beef Sandwich at the pub, then you've had this bread before!
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 Tivey! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for Shrimp Skewers served on a bed of coconut rice with some ginger and cabbage slaw, the skewers will feature citrus-marinated shrimp, zucchini, red bell peppers, and onion.
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
Bourbon Month 2024
From Alex, Downtown Director
Bourbon Month is just around the corner! We’re buttoning up the last pieces of some of our exciting events, and getting our master info doc ready for you all to review. Over the next few weeks you’ll be scheduled for a bourbon education class to teach you all about the wonderful world of bourbon. Also, as many of you have likely seen from Laura’s Sling message, we are holding some education classes for the special Bourbon Month beers that we are releasing. This will be required for Leads and Managers, and highly recommended/encouraged for the rest of the staff (FOH & BOH, but space is limited) so mark your calendars when those dates are released. This is a big and exciting month for us, and we’re so excited to jump into it with all of you!
From Kelsea, Marketing Director
Marketing is going to put out more information to the public about Bourbon Month, but we want your eyes on it first!
If you don’t know what Bourbon Month is, it’s a full month celebrating all things bourbon and it’s our 16th year hosting it! Launching February 1st and running throughout the entire month, Bourbon Month celebrations will take place at our Downtown Pub and Taproom location, along with a special Portland-based event at Saraveza and Bad Habit Room, and unique offerings at Caves Corvallis.
It’s also our 16th release of Super Nebula bourbon barrel-aged beer series along with it’s exciting variants. With the release of four bourbon barrel-aged beers and a specialty collaboration beer with Hair of the Dog Brewing, our locations will also offer food pairings crafted Sarah Farey, specialty bourbon cocktails by Alex Goodwin and Laura Wilson, and a chance to try 18 select bourbon offerings to complete a Bourbon Month 2024 stamp book. Bourbon Month also includes a more exclusive series of ticketed events, such as the Curated Pairing & Open House Event at the Taproom, Brewers Dinner at the Pub, Bourbon Dinner hosted by Caves Corvallis, and Bourbon Month PDX hosted by Saraveza and Bad Habit Room.
Please get our customers excited about this! Tell them to “join us for our Bourbon Month starting February 1st!” as you’re closing out a table. We will have printed materials coming out this week!
Head here to find more information:
Bourbon Month Events List at a glance
Bourbon Month Kick Off - February 1st
@ Both Block 15 locations
Brewers Dinner - February 2nd
@ Block 15’s Downtown Pub
Tickets required to attend
Curated Pairing & Open House - February 3rd
@ Block 15’s Brewery & Tap Room
Tickets required to participate
Bottle Release - February 3rd
@ Both Block 15 locations
Cheers for Charity with 4 Spirits Distillery & Foundation - February 6th
@ Block 15’s Downtown Pub
Tasting from 5-7pm
Uncle Nearest Education Event - February 8th
@ Block 15’s Brewery & Tap Room
Bourbon Month Portland - February 9th
@ Bad Habit Room in Portland
Tickets likely required to attend, TBD
Bourbon Month Portland - February 10th
@ Saraveza in Portland
Caves Bourbon Dinner - February 14th
@ Caves Corvallis
Tickets required to attend
Winter Warmup - February 23rd-24th
@ Block 15’s Brewery & Taproom
Marketing - Deep Seek
Hey Crew! As part of our Deep Seek campaign, we’re going to be diving into the story of the beer a bit more. Deep Seek was built around brewing a solid beer with thoughtfully sourced ingredients and fine tuning it making it an ever evolving product. In other terms, an artist doesn’t stop their work once they are satisfied with the work, they keep building on their skills and perfecting their technique and craft.
With that, the marketing would like to hear from YOU! We know we have some talented folks here at Block 15 and we’re curious what your passions are. This could be your passion project, side hustle, something you dive into on your weekends or time off and we will feature you in our next brewsletter and social media post!
So, what is our staff diving into?
Fill out this form and let us know!
UPCOMING PACKAGED BEER RELEASES - cans
RELEASING Friday 1/12
A Nugg Hugg // A sticky squeeze of hop nugs embraces you with this aromatic, juicy IPA. This heady charge of hops delivers luscious waves of candied peaches, pineapple, mango, and spruce. // 7.00% ABV
Takeaways: Juicy, but dank, hazy, but refreshing, A Nugg Hugg defies expectations. A true Block 15 style hazy IPA.
Tasting Notes: Candied Orange. Dank Herbs. Crowd Pleaser.
Series: Perennial
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.
COMING UP ON DRAFT
RELEASING Friday 1/12
A Nugg Hugg // Hazy IPA
Paradise Inferno // We brewed this new West Coast IPA to try the experimental hop, HS16660. Sweet citrus, bright tropical, and an herbaceous kick from a dry and crisp base. // 6.90% ABV
Takeaways: HS16660 is an exciting new hop variety for us to try. We were blown away by the balance of fruit and dankness when we rubbed some pellets we were given to sample. Almost all new hop varieties are juice bombs; it's nice to see something extra punchy come along.
Tasting Notes: Jasmine. Passion Fruit. Balmy.
Series: Emerging
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
Crowler Sale: All Draft minus Perpetuals, Hypnosis, and Framboise (and Imagine at the TR)!
UPCOMING / IN PROCESS BEERS
*This list is subject to change based on the brewing schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Eminent Point // American IPA
Love Potion #9 // Chocolate Stout with Raspberries
Headhaze // Imperial Hazy IPA, collab with Moonraker Brewing in California
Ocean Man // Baltic Porter
BEER EDUCATION
Weekly Tastings of new releases and some classics:
Tap Room
Tuesdays at 2 pm
Beer 101: Barrel Aging - Making Super Nebula
Written by Ted O’Hanlan, Head Brewer
Bourbon Month is approaching, and the brewery staff is working hard to get all the specialty beers ready to release. This week, we’re finalizing the adjuncting of the Super Nebula variants and bottling them. We also recently got next year’s Super Nebula into barrels and loaded into the barrel room, where they will rest until next winter.
We use a lot of different barrels in our brewery, like the high-quality bourbon barrels for Super Nebula from producers like Willet and Geroge Dickel. Spirit barrels are often sanitary from the strength of the alcohol they hold, but we still steam them after they arrive to ensure we don’t pick up any microorganisms.
After being sterilized by the steam, we fill the barrels with Super Nebula that has already been fermented and given the time for the yeast to settle out naturally. Barrels are loaded into the barrel room, where they remain for a year at a consistent temperature of 65 degrees.
Microoxydation from aging in the porous wooden barrels slowly impacts the flavor of the beer as the character of the bourbon, which is still soaked into the wooden staves, leaches into the beer as well. With time, this deepens the flavor of Super Nebula and impresses new, unique characteristics to it.
Eventually, we pull the beer back out of the barrels and steep it on Cocoa Nibs to add rich, chocolate flavor to the beer. Then it is crashed to 30 F, carbonated, and packaged.
Further Reading:
PUB UPDATES
Officially onto Steelhead Root Beer as of Monday 1/8 – if you receive feedback on the new product, please pass it along to a manager.
Block Water should be served with a small amount of Ice and a Lemon Wheel on the side of the glass as a garnish (gently cut slit through half lemon wheel rest on edge). No crowlers available of Block Water at this time.
TAP ROOM UPDATES
We will be switching to Steelhead root beer from McKenzie Brewing on draft hopefully by this Friday or next week. If you hear of people really missing our root beer please tell a manager or write it on the feedback sheet.
Block Water should be served with a small amount of Ice. At the moment, we are unable to do crowlers or growler fills of the Block Water. The carbonation doesn't hold up, unfortunately.
Please try to be as accurate as you can with entering how many people are in the party in toast when starting a table order! We look at that data weekly to help with scheduling, hours, etc.
This Sunday, all draft beer (excluding perpetuals, hypnosis and imagine) will be on the $5 crowler special. There is a separate menu that is titled “Sunday $5 Crowler Draft Togo” where all crowlers will ring in as $5. No need to apply a discount or anything. Please use that menu when ringing in a crowler that applies to the deal.
Make sure we are keeping busy during slow times! Find a cleaning project, shift change, run a break, etc. utilize that time!
We no longer have hot dogs for the time being so the kids hot dog is off the menu!
Caves UPDATES
Big, exciting news! We will be adding bottles of Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus (Raspberry Lambic) to our bottle list next Thursday. Beers from this Belgian brewery are incredibly hard to find in the states and we are excited to have our hands on some. There will be more info on the brewery and this selection in this week’s newsletter to get everyone educated and excited.
HIGH FIVE SECTION
Ian Harrington - Ian absolutely crushed the rush at the pub over the weekend while holding down the upstairs! He was a huge help that day and was willing to take on a bigger section when we got busy. His beer knowledge is awesome and I love hearing him talk to guests about our product. Great job!
Bailey Birch - For checking up on and making sure everyone is happy, healthy, and content! And for helping out around the tappy when we’ve been short… has an absolute heart of gold, we appreciate your kindness and consideration tenfold!
Levi Stalder - Levi has been insanely helpful around the taproom and deserves major kudos! And, for keeping the ice machine looking as good as it does… thank you!
David Mellison - he’s my boy fr 🤞
Wyatt Dabbs - Wyatt just keeps a great energy with him and has been absolutely killing his prep shifts. You're great dawg!
If you have kudos or kind words you want to share anonymously in the Brewsletter, use the button below!
STAFF SECTION!
Check back next week
SAFETY TIPS
What to do if there is a fire: Sound verbal alarm and guide patrons calmly to the exits, call 9-1-1, if the fire is small and you are able to contain it safely, attempt to extinguish it, if the fire is large evacuate the building and close the doors behind you and go to the assigned meeting place.
THE PEOPLE’S PINT / CHEERS FOR CHARITY / DINE OUT
Our next Cheers for Charity will be in February during Bourbon Month! Check back for more details.
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!