In 2016, three neighbors opened Great Notion Brewing in Northeast Portland and opened the city’s eyes. Businessman Paul Reiter convinced his homebrewing neighbors James Dugan and Andy Miller to take their skills pro and basically freaked out the city known as Beervana with their New England-style IPAs and boundary-pushing culinary-style beers. The awards followed: World Beer Cup, GABF, Best of Craft Beer Awards, and Oregon Beer Awards, as well as the 2018 #1 IPA in America from Paste Magazine, Ripe IPA. Great Notion was the first Portland brewery to become known for hazies, and the controversial style, and traditionalists hated it. Now the traditionalists are all wearing Great Notion T-shirts. In addition to their hazies, the brewery’s barrel program offers award-winning American sour ales aged for 9-24 months in oak barrels with portion of their sour ales blended with Oregon fruit and freshly emptied bourbon barrels age their imperial stouts on ingredients such as roasted coffee, vanilla beans, chocolate, and maple syrup. Today, Peaks & Pints presents an in-house flight of Great Notion beers in conjunction with Grit & Grain Podcast’s sit-down with Great Notion CEO Reiter at 2 p.m. in our Events Room. All are welcome to sip the “Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Great Notion Podcast” and learn the brewery’s story with the beer podcast. Cheers!
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Great Notion Podcast
Great Notion Juice Jr.
6% ABV, draft, can
The little brother of Great Notion’s Juice Box DIPA, and probably the most popular of their hazy IPAs, Juice Jr. is a Mosaic bomb with a candied creamsicle meets fresh tropical fruit platter nose. The nose continues into the flavor with grapefruit, orange peel, and citrus hops with a dry, moderate, long dank bitterness finish.
Great Notion JB DIPA
8.2% ABV, can
A big brother to Great Notion’s Juice Jr., JB DIPA, formerly known as Juice Box, is a West Coast version of a New England-style IPA bursting with pungent American hops, thanks to more than 4 pounds of Mosaic hops per barrel, plus a touch of honey. It’s fruity, creamy smooth, with peach, mango, and passionfruit on the nose and mellow bitterness. Expect a hoppy piney bite on the backend.
Great Notion Superglow
8% ABV, draft
Superglow returns a little older and wiser with a completely new recipe. This double West Coast IPA is boiled, whirlpooled, and dry hopped with Mosaic, Citra, and Nectaron hops. Expect mostly dank, pine, and subtle citrus flavors.
Great Notion Single Stack
7.9% ABV, draft
Single Stack is the single version of Great Notion’s Double Stack imperial breakfast stout. Even though the ABV is lower, this beer doesn’t skimp on flavor. They use the same amount of coffee from Clutch and loads of Vermont maple syrup. Earthy and herbal coffee dominated the aroma, with undertones of sweet maple and chocolate. The taste follows the nose with a wave of rich earthy espresso with dark chocolate and a hint of dark berries. Mid-palate brings out a maple sweetness that provides a nice balance to the coffee. The finish offers more coffee for days.
Great Notion Double Stack
11% ABV, draft
Great Notion has won multiple awards for their imperial breakfast stout, Double Stack, including gold at the World Beer Cup 2018 Awards and a silver at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival. Double Stack is fermented with substantial amounts of maple syrup and aged on whole bean Sumatra from local Oregon roasters. It hits the nose with some blueberry, strawberry, and earthy notes from the coffee beneath the thick layer of maple. The thick maple transfer to the taste with milk chocolate sweetness and a lingering creamy finish. The coffee adds some dryness on the finish, but it’s still a sweet-flavored stout.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
