The Block 15 thread

Seemed similar from my hazy (no pun intended) memory. Not a haze fan at all, but I enjoy this one. Lots of hop flavor and fruit.

 

For what it's worth, I think Story of the Ghost is fantastic again this year and while I hesitate to compare year-to-year vintages of the same beer (if not done side-by-side) I would say it's on a similar level. No idea if the recipe is identical or not. Plus my local has (had?) two 4-packs available for $22 --- which is nice.

Funny though ... one of the first 'reviews' I saw for this beer was simply 'Not as good as last year', so take my opinion with a grain of salt (maybe lots of grains).

 

they should rename BeerAdvocate to "notAsGoodAsLastYear.com"

 

URL of my life.

 

You might have seen already, but Autumn Farmhouse landed in Seattle yesterday and today. Cheers!

 

Cheers! There’s a tiny chance I can make it around the lake tomorrow. I’ll defin call first!

 

I made it out, got some Autumn Farmhouse as well as one I haven't yet tried, Anthem of the Sun. They also had bottles of The Prophecies, but I passed. I followed standard procedure, picking up a pack of Sticky Hands, but instead of going with one of my favorite Northwest pils in Gloria, Chuck's had sixers of Buoy Czech Pils, which I'm looking forward to try. (Picked up a local offering as well as, Postdoc's For Chuck's Sake.)

Again, thanks for the reminder, as it's been a busy week and off my radar until you mentioned it!

 

Good call on the Buoy Pils, always a good choice. Cheers!

 

haven't spotted any buoy pils in the seattle wild myself, so this is exciting news. send us all your pilsner, Oregon!

 

Hit Corvallis yesterday for business, looks like B15 just did a release.

Breakfast with Woodford
Super Neb
Super Neb double chocolate cherry
Dab Lab juice joint
Kriek Cuvee

Gotta say, the Breakfast with Woodford is amazing (again). Maybe word got back to B15 that they should make more, because there were quite a few bottles at the taproom. It will be interesting how the GN BA Double stack turns out, but if it even gets close to how good BwW is, that would be a win.

The double chocolate SN was a bit of a letdown. not much cherry flavor, and didnt taste all that different from the base. still a very good beer, but the flavor variants did not shine through nearly as much as BwW.

Kriek and Dab Lab JJ were both outstanding

 

Agreed on the Dab Lab JJ, I didn't try Kriek and only had 5oz pours of the others since I was driving.

Interestingly, I liked the double chocolate cherry a lot precisely because the cherry flavor was light and more on the back/sides of the tongue and on the swallow. I'm not a huge fan of cherry in stouts generally and I didn't think I'd like it, but to me this beer was excellent.

On the flip side, I do often enjoy maple flavor, so I was disappointed by how muted that flavor was to me in Breakfast with Woodford. I thought it was a great coffee stout (the coffee was integrated exceptionally well) but I didn't get maple from it.

TL;DR
Secondary flavors were presented quite lightly and the variants were smooth, but don't go in expecting a big punch from the cherry or maple adjuncts.

 

Interesting. Again, the Cherry Chocolate was very good (excellent even!), but I tend to like the variant flavors more pronounced so as to have a much different drinking experience than the base beer.

I got a lot of maple syrup and coffee in the BwW variant. Not overbearing, but just enough to counter the big-time coffee notes. Ah well, different strokes for different folks!

 

Picked up a couple of 4 packs of sticky hands the other day when I was in Portland. Been too long since I got my hands on some. Got home and noticed that there was no date. In the past there was date stickers on top. Curious if block 15 doesn’t put the stickers on anymore or they got removed and I got old beer? I know there is only one way to find out, open the beer and drink. But I try to keep my drinking to the weekends.

 

I've been seeing both marked and unmarked cans lately. I always check because Block 15 is almost always in the realm of fresh, but I often get greedy and seek uber-fresh. I picked up cans last week marked 3/5.

 

Every can I've seen is print stamped on the bottom of the cans

 

Depending on the temperature of the cooler the beer is being stored in, I've seen the date stamp sweat off of cans sometimes. But I know Block 15 has just started a new program this year called "Respect the Hops" wherein they are asking all accounts that buy beer from them, to buy within their sales limitations so as to not let delicious IPA rot on the shelf.

From Block 15:

"Our hop-forward beers are brewed with delicate oils that are sensitive to heat and time—like fresh, ripe produce. Join us as we work together to Respect the Hops, which will both protect their vibrant flavors and communicate to your discerning customers that you are focused on freshness and quality:

• Tap hop-forward beers within 3 weeks of delivery.
• When in doubt, refer to the red “Tap By” date on the beer’s keg collar.
• Store these Hop Forward beers cold until it is served, whenever possible."

They've always been one of my favorite breweries in this area hands down.

 

Sounds like we'll be seeing cans of Tropical Slam again soon!

 

Being Self-Distributed, Block 15 has a lot of control/leverage over the quality of their entire supply chain. Before they distribute to a new account, they actually inspect a venue's quality control program and will cancel accounts if they notice people holding onto kegs too long/not maintaining quality control standards.

As their production has increased so much in the last five year, it doesn't surprise me they are creating a formal quality control program.