From the time Block 15 Brewing opened its brewpub in 2008, the Corvallis, Oregon brew team was constantly striving to expand the brewery’s portfolio of styles throughout the year.
Now more than a decade ago, most brewpub tap lists featured a familiar lineup of five to seven static styles, explained Marketing Director, Seth Steiling.
”To accommodate our vision for an expansive offering of both traditional and experimental beers, we developed a diverse lineup of seasonal offerings, often on a monthly basis,” he explained as the brewery recently announced the release of its first fall seasonal in a can, Flicker IPA.
”While more common now, this was quite unique at the time,” Steiling said.
As the brewery has grown into a 7,000-barrel production brewery with self-distribution around the Pacific Northwest, brewing a high volume of rotating seasonals and one-offs was just a natural extension of the foundation Block 15 laid out when it was just a small neighborhood brewpub. Steiling said it hasn’t really been a strategy that the team pivoted into to remain competitive; the ideas were already in place.
Block 15 brewers draw on all sorts of inspiration when designing a beer. At times it means building a recipe around a seasonal theme, a flavor profile from some other drink or food, a particular ingredient, or pretty much anything that captures their imagination.
Steiling said Flicker emerged from a few of these sources of inspiration coming together into a cohesive vision.
“First, it was an ingredient that we really grew to love, followed by how its character tied into a seasonal theme that we wanted to key off of,” Steiling said.
Flicker was born first out the discovery of a hop varietal that had a unique expression founding brewer Nick Arzner and the brew team really dug, which then transitioned into a recipe that they felt could be seasonal without falling back on overused fall motifs like pumpkin spice or falling leaves.
The signature varietal in Flicker’s dry-hop is German Hallertau Blanc. It’s a hop that Block 15 first featured prominently in a dry-hopped Pale Ale called Hopfen Pale, Steiling said. It was brewed with 100% German ingredients and now released annually for the brewery’s Bloktoberfest celebration.
”We were struck by how unique and flavorful this varietal was when showcased prominently in a dry-hop — in particular, a delightful white wine/grape note which emerged when we were especially generous with the dry-hop,” Steiling said.
Arzner was drawn to that grape note in particular when it came time to create an autumnal IPA.
“[It was] both for its delicious character and its thematic tie-in to the fall wine/grape harvest here in the Pacific Northwest,” Steiling said.
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