Chances Are Corvallis’ Block 15 Has Brewed Beer in a Way You’ve Never Tried Before

If you see Block 15, drink Block 15.

(Christine Dong)

Restaurant and pub at 300 SW Jefferson Ave., Corvallis, 541-758-2077. 11 am-11pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-1 am Friday-Saturday. Production brewery and taproom at 3415 SW Deschutes St., Corvallis, 541-752-2337, block15.com.

If you see Block 15, drink Block 15. That's not just because Nick Arzner's Corvallis brewery makes good beer, which it does in such mind-boggling variety few breweries in the country could hope to match it. And it's not even because its famously dank Sticky Hands IPA is so ridiculously popular that even after the brewery expanded tenfold and started canning the stuff into tallboys, Portland bottle shops and beer bars still can't keep the stuff in stock. It's that there's a pretty good chance they've brewed their beer in a way you haven't tried before. Its framboise white mixes Brett and ultra-rare golden raspberries into separately brewed batches of lacto and sacro-fermented beer, for a result so delicate it's as if berries were flowers. With their DAB Lab series, Block 15 throws in lupulin powder and extract technology borrowed from the weed world to blast insane hop flavor into world-beating IPAs like Juice Joint and Hop Hash. A Citrasicle IPA might throw in both lupulin powder and lactose for a crazily aromatic orange milkshake. And yet the fundamentals always remain strong on the classics. It's a small wonder Block 15 is pretty much taking over a college town boasting one of the strongest beer-brewing programs in the country, with two excellent brewpub restaurants downtown—including a Euro-bistro called Caves (308 SW 3rd St., Corvallis, 541-286-4473, biercaves.com) above their barrel room serving elk and porcini ragout—and a big ol' hop-focused barn of a taproom south of town looking out on the rolling green hills of Corvallis farm country.

Nearby: Walk a few blocks up the street to truly excellent bottle shop Corvallis Brewing Supply (119 SW 4th St., Corvallis, 541-758-1674, lickspigot.com) and ask owner Joel Rea what he likes best—then drink that at the store while you poke around. If you need to sober up, stop in at Coffee Culture on the same street (363 SW Jefferson Ave., 541-286-4289, coffeeculturecorvallis.com) for a mug of excellent house-roasted brew, which may include a Sonora Red Gold that tastes strongly of blueberries.

(Christine Dong)
(Christine Dong)
(Christine Dong)

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