Block altitudes were pretty common when we were doing flight testing at Boeing - although they'd frequently banish us to some little used airspace off the Pacific Coast to do it.
According to the propulsion theory I was taught in college 40+ years ago, the most fuel efficient cruise was a so called "climbing cruise" - set thrust to maintain speed/altitude, then leave the throttle fixed and let the aircraft gradually climb as it burns off fuel and gets lighter. Unfortunately not particularly practical in the real world, but it you can get a block altitude it could work...
BTW, the trick to finding good beer in the US is to avoid the mass-market beers. There are many fine 'micro-brews' or 'craft breweries' and/or 'brew pubs'. Also, avoid lagers if you can. IPAs have become very popular with the craft beer crowd and I don't think any of the mass-market breweries market an IPA (unfortunately for me, I don't particularly care for IPAs).