Internal Brewsletter - February 7th, 2024
General
Block 15 Dress Code
Here’s a quick refresh on Block 15’s Dress Code. The goal of Block 15’s dress code is to promote a professional appearance that represents the Block 15 brand and standard of excellence. Individualism is an important aspect of the Block 15 culture, and we encourage stylistic expression within a set of guidelines designed to present a polished, professional team, with each member remaining easily identifiable as employees of the company.
Employee attire must be properly well-fitting, presentable, professional, family-friendly, and clean. Also, clothing must be free of prominent logos from other brands. Any questions of following the above are reviewed by the FOH manager on duty.
A Block 15 logo or graphic must be prominently displayed on top/outer layers of clothing. Those items can include buttons, apron, shirt, sweatshirt, hat or other Block 15 branded items.
Some positions may have more specific restrictions intended to protect the employee from potential job-related hazards.
Vina Moses Center Donation Partnership
We are partnering with the Vina Moses Center again this year for the Winter Warmup to donate new/used winter clothing to those in need! The donation bin will start Monday 2/12 at the Taproom and will end Sunday 2/25. Please spread the word and if you are able please donate what you can. If you can't make it to the Taproom to donate please reach out to Madie (text, email, sling, slack, etc.) and she will coordinate a pickup.
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 Laura Wilson! Swing by the Pub this Thursday for a Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese, made with cream cheese, imitation crab, and soy sauce with chili crisp toasted bread.
We’re always looking for more submissions, so send in those ideas!
Bourbon Month 2024
Bourbon Month Events List at a glance
Uncle Nearest Education Event - February 8th
@ Block 15’s Brewery & Tap Room
Brewer’s Tasting for Bourbon Month Portland - February 9th
@ Bad Habit Room in Portland
Reservations/Tickets required to attend
Bourbon Month Portland - February 10-11th
@ 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 2/9
Liquid Opulence // Highlighting El Dorado hops grown at Oasis farms in Washington, this juicy concoction features bright tropical, citrus, and pine notes with a lush and inviting finish. Call it liquid gold. // 6.60% ABV
Takeaways: A tribute to El Dorado, one of the most underrated hops out there. Balanced with a blend of hops to create a Hazy IPA the Block 15 way.
Tasting Notes: Pineapple. Orange zest. Indulgent.
Series: Emerging
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 2/9
Liquid Opulence // Hazy IPA
CROWLER/PACKAGE SALE
Crowler Sale: Fresh Pow! (And Eminent Point at the Taproom)
UPCOMING / IN PROCESS BEERS
*This list is subject to change based on the brewing schedule, so please keep that in mind!
Demo Tape Side A // West Coast IPA
Demo Tape Side B // Hazy IPA
The Incredible // Triple IPA
Charmed Life // Irish Red
Favorable Fortune // Irish Dry Stout
Flannel Fakeout // Northwest Pilsner
Marketing
Corvallis Half Marathon
Hey team! We are sponsoring the Corvallis Half Marathon again this year! It will be hosted on Saturday, April 6th in front of Reser Stadium.
Here’s how you can get involved!
We will be looking for a few volunteers to set up (on April 5th) and some volunteers to hand out beer to runners on April 6th and then break down the tent.
Want to run?
With 2 months away, you still have time to train! For those who want to run the 5K or Half Marathon, let me know! We get free admission for supporting the event.
Interested in running but don’t know where to start?
Heart of the Valley Runners host social running events every day of the week. Bryce and I have checked out the Monday (6 pm at the Fairgrounds) and Thursday (6 pm in front of 5 Star Sports) running groups a few times. They’re fun and a great way to make suffering a little more enjoyable.
– Kelsea, Marketing & Creative Director
BEER EDUCATION
Weekly Tastings of new releases and some classics:
Tap Room
Tuesdays at 2 pm
Beer 101: A brief history of barrel aging
Written by Ted O’Hanlan, Head Brewer
The first barrels, being wooden staves bound together with hoops, appear in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics from at least 2600 BCE. Pliny the Elder, the historian, not the beer, who lived in the first century CE, noted Europeans using barrels to store beverages and the various classes of coopers, including a cooper who only made barrels for wine. Barrel aging beer in Britain dates back to to anglo-saxon times and continued on into the present.
Most of the traditions of barrel-aging beer that influenced craft beer come from Belgium and Great Britain. Much of the Belgian tradition comes from the history of Lambic beers that originated in the 13th century; Block 15 uses a process similar to this in making Turbulent Consequence and many of our other wild beers. In this process, barrels are used to mature beer over a prolonged period where various microorganisms continue to ferment and slowly create unique characteristics.
The history of cask, or barrel-aging beer in Great Britain, is a long and complex topic, far too great to cover in this post, but we can scratch the surface. One important note on historic British barrel-aged beers is that the aging was meant to mature the beers, not to impart wood flavors in the beer or to prolong fermentation. Brewers went to great lengths to ensure the barrels were flavor-neutral. Aged beers were usually stronger styles that needed time to soften flavors before they could be sold. Two very famous styles of beer that were often barrel-aged were Imperial Stout and India Pale Ale. Both were matured in barrels and shipped in barrels since they were both largely exported.
The barrel aging India Pale Ale tradition followed to the United States, where P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company continued the tradition of aging their IPA in barrels from the brewery's founding in 1840 until it closed in the early 1990s. This tradition did not continue heavily after the popularity rebound in the style from the 1980s through today.
The idea of aging beer in barrels specifically to impart flavor from the barrels is quite a new concept, with the advent of Bourbon barrel-aged beer beginning in the early 1990s. As far as we know, Goose Island was the first brewery to age beer in Bourbon barrels. Sometime between 1992 and 1994, they laid down the first batches of Bourbon County Brand Stout in ex-bourbon barrels to impart the specific flavor of the spirit and charred oak barrels into a beer, which happened to be an Imperial Stout. The results were transcendent and created a new process that was quickly copied by brewers across the country.
There are two schools of thought on how to barrel age beer in spirits barrels. In one process, the beer is gently aged at a consistent temperature, usually near cellar temperature. The other process is where the beer is aged in a non-climate controlled space, similar to the rooms bourbon itself is aged, where the temperature swings greatly and constantly forces beer in and out of the wood.
Block 15 has been releasing Bourbon barrel-aged stouts since 2009, when the first Super Nebula release kicked off, a tradition that continues today. The barrels change every year, but the idea is to gently age the beer in quality bourbon barrels for a year in a climate-controlled space, first in the cellar at the pub, then in the barrel room at the taproom, where the characteristics of the spirits and the gentle microoxidation from the aging process matures the beer into a robust yet balanced product. Using ex-spirits barrels to age beer and impart unique flavors has proven to be one of the greatest innovations of the American Craft beer era.
Further Reading:
https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2021/9/30/the-original-bourbon-barrel-aged-beer
PUB UPDATES
Next up in our Weekly Bourbon Releases – Monday, February 12th:
I.W. Harper Cabernet Cask, 90 proof $13
Nose: Dark Cherry, Creme Brulee, Raisin
Palate: Chocolate Cherry, Graham Cracker, DessertFinish: Sweet, Light Spice, Robust
**I.W. Harper has existed in some form since 1872. Originally launched by Isaac Wolfe (I.W.) Bernheim. Cask Finish is I.W. Harper’s first line extension since the brand’s return to the United States. According to the company’s press release, “Cabernet Cask Reserve is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey aged for four years in new charred American oak barrels, then perfected in luxury California Cabernet Sauvignon casks and bottled at Stitzel-Weller Distillery, one of the true cathedrals of the American Whisky industry.”
Quick reminder–any employee beverages need to be covered with a lid and should have a straw (or a place to drink from that your hand doesn’t touch). We are ordering more of the silicone lids for soda cups to help meet these health code requirements. Also, please remember to tuck employee beverages behind the bottle cooler or under the counter of the back server station (where the merch is) to keep customer facing areas neat and tidy.
When watering indoor plants, let’s be cautious to not overwater them. If they are sitting in a pot, please tilt the pot to see if there is any standing water in the bottom and empty that out. Overwatering will often kill a plant way faster than underwatering it. Root rot is real!
All Super Nebula and Kriek bottles are now added to the Sunday discount for the public.
TAP ROOM UPDATES
Next up in our Weekly Bourbon Releases–Monday, February 12th:
George Dickel Bottled in Bond, 100 proof $13
Nose: Apple, Cherry, Custard
Palate: Pecan, Maple, Dried Apples
Finish: Spice, Dry Oak, Moderate**This Bottled in Bond whiskey was produced in Tennessee and uses charcoal filtering which has been said helps to mellow whiskey and creates a smoother mouthfeel. As a reminder: To be labeled Bottled-in-Bond, the whiskey must be the product of one distillation season and one distiller at a single distillery, aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years, and it must be bottled at exactly 100 proof. Additionally, the Bottled-in-Bond label must clearly identify the distillery where it was distilled and where it was bottled, if different.
For the Uncle Nearest Event on Thursday we will be running an old school Smoked Bourbon Wings special at the Taproom! This will run all day and into the weekend depending how much we go through and will replace the normal Happy Hour wings for Thursday so there is no confusion. They will be sold in the same increments of 3s. Please push this special with customers!
There is now a small oxo measuring cup behind the bar to use for 1oz bourbon pours as well as .25oz and .5oz ingredient pours that will make it much easier to measure with accuracy!
Sarah added in buttons for a single scoop of Rice and singled out Festival Sausages to the single items screen!
Friendly reminder about starting your shift. We are expected to be in uniform (nonslips, apron, B15 logo, etc.) and ready to work at the time which we are scheduled. This includes reading up on any special events, menu changes, new info, etc. If you are running late at all please call the Taproom to let someone know!
Caves UPDATES
HIGH FIVE SECTION
Makayla Karnowski - For amazing dedication to employee well being and general compassion for others. She is a delight to work with and makes sure everyone feels heard from BOH to FOH she is a rockstar and a kind soul. Thanks Mak, you are a wonderful person and manager, a rockstar of the Taproom!
Mike Galusha - Stepped up and made it happen! Thanks Mike!
Paul Van Handel! - Paul is the best at everything!! I appreciate his attitude and how he makes work fun.
Niko Belesiotis - I think that Niko is crushing it at life.
Matt Baccary - Matt is a bloodhound for Block 15's finances. If you got a problem, yo he'll solve it. We are lucky to have somebody with his eye for detail and dedication. Thanks for all you do Baccary!
Holly and Kelsea - For getting the word out on Bourbon Month and all of our amazing events, and for documenting them in such a fantastic way!
Elise and Madie - For crushing a big beer release and getting everything on tap and in the coolers ready to sell. Big releases like this are a beast and you both crushed it!
Laura Wilson - For being a great Guided Pairing hostess and helping to maintain the flow of a decent Tap Room pop on top of getting all of our fans into the tasting.
Every single one of you that worked this weekend! - It was big and busy and full of a lot of moving pieces and you all did an amazing job! Thank you for jumping into Bourbon Month with so much excitement and enthusiasm.
Sarah Farey - For making a killer Brewer’s Dinner menu all by her kickass self, then turning around the next day to provide small pairings to about 70 people–you’re amazing!
If you have kudos or kind words to share anonymously in the Brewsletter, use the button below!
STAFF SECTION!
Check back next week
SAFETY TIPS
For those interested, the Safety Committee Notes can be found on the Sling page labeled “Safety Committee Notes.” Please reach out if you have any questions or feedback or if you’d like to join the monthly safety committee meeting.
The next meetings will be 2/21 at 12:30 pm at the Tap Room and 2/22 at 10 am at the Pub.
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!