Internal Brewsletter - January 17th, 2024
General
Bread Change for Banh Mi Sliders
We are changing the bread we use for the Banh Mi Sliders, effective next Wednesday, January 24th, instead of today, the 17th due to the winter weather closures.
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 Cedar! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for Buffalo Chicken Wraps.
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
Bourbon Month 2024
With Bourbon Month around the corner, please be sure to review the info documents and be ready to come to a bourbon education and optional beer tasting the last couple weeks of this month. This is one of our favorite events that we do, and the team puts a lot of time and effort into pulling it all together, so let’s be ready to have a big and busy February! If you have any questions on Bourbon Month specific things, please feel free to reach out to Goody or Laura! Here is the link to the staff info document that was sent via Sling last week:
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
UPCOMING PACKAGED BEER RELEASES - cans
RELEASING Friday 1/19
Eminent Point // We're reaching for new heights with this luxurious take on an American classic. Featuring notes of pine resin, dank herb and sweet citrus, it all balances with a soft and enticing malt backbone. // 6.80% ABV
Takeaways: The evolution of IPA styles in craft beer continues to reinvent what was just recently out of date. This American IPA features zero caramel malt but still balances a pleasant malt base with an assertive mix of Simcoe, Waimea, and Cashmere hops.
Tasting Notes: Pine Resin. Blue Raspberry. Elevated Perspective.
Series: Emerging
Beer Style: American IPA
See the Beer 101 section for a download on this style
Love Potion #9 // Brewed with a tantalizing blend of dark malts and conditioned with chocolate and red and black raspberries. This concoction balances notes of chocolate ganache and bountiful berries. // 7.00% ABV
Takeaways: We're always looking to improve even our most classic beers; this year, we replaced the raspberry puree with a 100% fruit concentrate and added cacao husks to the mash to add a unique chocolate flavor. Cacao husks are a waste product from chocolate production, but they still have flavor and aroma (but you can't eat them); used in the mash tun, we can extract their natural flavors and utilize what would otherwise go to waste.
Tasting Notes: Dark Chocolate. Dried Raspberry. Entrancing.
Series: Perennial
Beer Style: Chocolate Stout with Raspberries
There are many different substyles of Stouts, but we don’t always design beers with a specific sub-style in mind. Adjunct beers often fall under this category, as we are trying to design a beer that, first and foremost, integrates with the adjuncts we intend to use. If it doesn't go well with the beer, there’s no point in making a beer with a specialty ingredient, almost certainly the most expensive thing in the recipe. Style-wise, these beers usually fall under extra sout, foreign export stout, imperial stout, or tropical stout as far as guidelines go. They are dark with an intense malt flavor that leans to chocolate, coffee, nutty, caramel, dark fruit, and other roasted malt notes with a sweetness and bitterness that balance to produce a drinkable beer that highlights the extra ingredients we add.
COMING UP ON DRAFT
RELEASING Friday 1/19
Eminent Point // American IPA
Love Potion #9 // Chocolate Stout with Raspberries
CROWLER/PACKAGE SALE
Crowler Sale: All Draft (except perpetuals, Hypnosis, Framboise, Imagine)
UPCOMING / IN PROCESS BEERS
*This list is subject to change based on the brewing schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Ocean Man // Baltic Porter
Sticky Hands Marmalade // Hop Experience Ale
Super Nebual 2024 // Imperial Stout Matured in Bourbon Barrels with Cocoa Nibs
Super Nebula Breakfast with Willett // Imperial Stout Matured in Bourbon Barrels with Cocoa Nibs, Coffee Beans, and Maple
Super Nebula Cherry Dog // Imperial Stout Matured in Bourbon Barrels with Cocoa Nibs and Cherry
Kriek 2024 // Oud Bruin Matured in Second-use Bourbon Barrels with Cherries
BEER EDUCATION
Weekly Tastings of new releases and some classics:
Tap Room
Tuesdays at 2 pm
Beer 101: American IPA
Written by Ted O’Hanlan, Head Brewer
While India Pale Ale originated in England, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the American IPA was born in the Pacific Northwest. In 1968, hop breeder John Segal began cultivating an experimental hop with the code 56013; in 1972, it was named Cascade and marked a drastic turn in hop breeding and production in the United States. It was adopted early on by Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing and used in their Liberty Ale, then in 1981 by Ken Grossman at Sierra Nevada for their new pale ale, which would become one of the most iconic beers in America.
As hop-forward as these beers were, they were not called India Pale Ale. At this point, the only beer made in America that was called IPA was Ballantine IPA, which was made between the 1890s and 1990s. It was malty and reminiscent of English IPAs, including the process of production where it was aged for a year in barrels before being packaged and sold. It was Bert Grant who made the first modern IPA in America and essentially invented this new Style.
Grant was a lifelong industry veteran when he founded Yakima Malting and Brewing Co. in 1982, which became the first “brewpub” in America. He had previously worked for Guinness and had moved to Washington to work for SS Steiner, where he created the first American hop pelletizer. He brewed the first modern IPA there in 1983, featuring big flavor and aroma from Cascade hops. It was strong with a sharp bitterness and aggressive resinous and dry finish that distinguished it from English IPAs. Famous beer writer Michael Jackson wrote warmly of it: “I was just stunned by the bitterness of it.” A bitterness of just 50 ibu, a far cry from the 100+ibu IPAs of recent years.
Other breweries adopted this approach to making IPAs, often embracing the rich maltiness of English IPAs with the palate-shattering resin of new and emerging American hop varieties. By the second big wave of craft breweries in the 1990s, American IPA had emerged as a distinct style and was climbing tap lists as one of the most important styles in the craft beer movement. Around this time, the first Double IPAs were born, and those distinctive beers created the boom of West Coast IPAs that went lighter and drier than American IPAs.
Despite these advancements, American IPA remained the most popular sub-style of IPA in craft beer well into the third boom in the late 2000s to 2010s. It was only dislodged by Hazy IPA, which has proven to be a regionally fickle style regarding staying power. Much of the middle US has remained loyal to the maltier American IPA, and recent years have shown a huge comeback for clear-ish IPAs up and down the West Coast.
As with anything in craft beer, the American IPA style constantly transitions. Before the Hazy boom took hold, some brewers were already unloading sweet caramel malts from these recipes because they are linked with premature staling due to the production of trans-2-Nonenal, the compound responsible for papery or cardboard flavor in old, oxidized beer. Many malts can add color and malt flavor that aren’t processed to create that compound. Block 15 has been using this technique increasingly for many years now.
This week, we are releasing Eminent Point, a new American IPA that we’ve developed specifically to highlight this style and its evolution from the birth of craft beer to something very contemporary. We’re always evaluating the beers we are releasing and planning to release to ensure we have diverse offerings. We never want someone to walk into Block 15 and say all our beers taste the same. Even within a single style, like IPA, we can create unique flavors that appeal to different tastes.
Further Reading:
https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/MPYebz08UV/
https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2020/6/3/Bert-Grant-American-IPA
PUB UPDATES
With the crazy weather we’ve had and a funky schedule, we are skipping the Read and Sign for this week and will resume next week when we have a normal set of days. We could have a busy set of days coming up once folks are ready to be out and about again, so be prepared to rock it! OSU Basketball games are all away this week, but we do have OSU Wrestling on 1/19 at 6pm!
We have leftover arugula pesto in the freezer, and we will start using that in the Tuscan soup instead of our regular pesto. The arugula pesto contains hazelnuts, so we've made a note on the recipe, and we would like to note it on soup boards as well–"Tuscan soup with hazelnut pesto" or something along those lines. This will be the case for most future batches and we will update you all when it’s back to normal pesto.
This Friday we will have another house soda flavor joining the line-up with Cherry-Almond! We will run this side by side with Raspberry-Vanilla.
TAP ROOM UPDATES
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 in slow times we are staying busy, using labor effectively, and giving exceptional service.
Stay safe in this crazy winter weather! Review callout procedures if needed if you can’t make it in.
Caves UPDATES
HIGH FIVE SECTION
Alex Goodwin - for making sure everyone is in the loop with this crazy storm and shoveling the sidewalks like a boss!
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
If the floor is wet due to water or ice please make sure to use the wet floor sign and get the spill cleaned up as quickly as possible.
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!