Double Stack
Great Notion Brewing

Reidrover from Oregon

4.6/5  rDev +1.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

16 oz can dated 01/06/2021
Oh Holy Father the aroma as i cracked this open!
Natural maple syrup, pancakes, honey and sweet coffee.
Wow.
And it aint a bad looker either. Black body and beautiful inch thick creamy tan head.
Taste not as sweet as one ( me) would expect but it has all the taste profile of a down home old style diner pancake feed.
Mouth feel is thick and silky. Not one to have multiples off.
Great beer for the style

Mar 21, 2021

vectornut from California

4.54/5  rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Smells like delicious pancakes. Tastes complex and intriguing, with hints of coffee and maple. Really smooth and creamy. If I changed anything, it would be more maple and less coffee, but then, I LOVE sweet stuff. Overall a great beer!

Mar 12, 2021

bitterandstout from Oregon

4.88/5  rDev +7.5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

Look: dark, almost black ,small tan head with good lacing
Smell: I get the coffee, then maple, lot's of maple
Taste: sweet, day old coffee, followed by maple with hints of vanilla and roast
Feel: full, smooth with a touch of carbonation.
Not really a fan of maple stouts, but this is quite good.

Mar 11, 2021

Scotchboy from Idaho

4.47/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Beer #1600 on BA is another beauty.

Brew #8 from the Hop Culture Juicy Brews box, a 16oz can poured into a glass coffee mug.

A: Moderately thick black pour; certainly dense and opaque but not the thickest stout ever. Capped by a creamy mocha head.

S: Delicious, decadent, rich coffee and maple syrup character. Chocolatey notes as well. The coffee isn't acrid or bitter, just smooth and rich and plays well with the maple syrup sweetness.

T: Yeah, so easy to drink - this is literally my wheelhouse. Just enough sugary maple syrup to be rich and decadent without being cloying; roasted malt profile bolsters up that sweetness, and the fresh coffee shines through with a breakfast-y feel to it.

MF: Again, not the biggest stout I've seen or tried but big enough, and the body stands up to the adjuncts.

O: Just delicious and darn near perfect for a maple syrup coffee stout.

Feb 22, 2021

JohnnyHopps from Indiana

4.46/5  rDev -1.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Appearance - The beer poured a brown-ish black color with an off-white head crowning the pour.

Smell - Maple syrup stood out in the nose but there was some bitterness to lend a sense of balance.

Taste - The maple was huge, complemented by a dry bready backbone. A bit of charred dark coffee lent a sense of balance. The sweetness fades in the finish leaving a light coffee bitterness.

Mouthfeel - The body seemed a bit thin for a sweet stout, but it had stickiness.

Overall - The nice thing about this mapled stout was that it was not too heavy.

Feb 21, 2021

REVZEB from Illinois

4.49/5  rDev -1.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Brownish black with two fingers of brown foam. Smell and taste are clones: huge maple syrup from the local diner with coffee bean, mild chocolate, brown sugar and molasses. Reminds me a lot of Mikerphone's imperial SLBS extra maple variants. Feel is lighter and not syrupy at all though, roasted and malty if anything, amazing given the huge maple presence. Would love to try this in a barrel! A classic that is worth the hype for a great maple fix without saturating the palate with sweetness

Feb 18, 2021

D4kapa from Ohio

4.56/5  rDev +0.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Huge sugary maple nose, like someone spilled a bottle of Syrup. Full bodied, super slick & smooth mouthfeel. Taste is significantly more coffee-forward than expected, with the maple really coming through on the finish. Hides 11% ABV incredibly well.

Feb 15, 2021

bret27 from California

4.45/5  rDev -2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Can from brewery courtesy of heyhiggi.
2021 recent release.
L: black with minimal dark brown head.
S: chocolate, coffee, maple syrup.
T: coffee, chocolate, pancakes, maple, a little roasty/burnt.
F: viscous. About right.
Overall: very good. I generally don’t like overly sweet stouts, but great notion seems to know how to push the limits without going overboard.

Jan 20, 2021

DanBrenda from Washington

4.83/5  rDev +6.4%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

GREEEEAT Notion. Love love love the PNW and GN. This is one of their best beers and every year we get the Double Stack. Funny we got this in a four pack of cans on drop day because we can't sit and have it on tap (SOOOO good on tap). On the drive home with the four pack sitting on my back seat I looked at Bren and asked "can you smell maple?". Of course she could, she is from the east coast where maple syrup is like beer here in Portland OR. Before we opened the can we could smell the maple. So, for those that say they can't get maple drinking this thing... idk what to tell you... ok so we got it home and had our 12 year old daughter help us carry things inside and when she did, she asked what maple did we get... lol... again the cans were weeping maple...

Look: dark, almost black , two finger width tan head with nice brown lacing down the glass as we drank
Smell: on the nose you get day old coffee, then some maple, followed by some maple and ending with some maple
Taste: sweet, day old coffee, followed by maple with hints of vanilla and roast
Feel: full, smooth with a small tickle of carbonation

OK so if you like coffee and maple pancakes this is your beer. For a 11% ABV stout the booze is hidden incredibly well and will creep up on you after a couple of these. Since Bren loves maple everything this is her go to stout. I like coffee and beer so its the best of both worlds... lol

Cheers everyone!

Jan 09, 2021

True_Bodhisattva from California

4.91/5  rDev +8.1%
look: 4.75 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

On draft at Georgetown taproom some time ago. This beer really left an impression. It was cold and raining when it was served to me. After about 15 seconds of it being on the table outside, I could smell it clear as day, even through my mask. Tons of maple and coffee: absolutely divine. The taste was just as good. Roasted coffee and a bucketload of maple yet so well balanced. The foam laced the sides of the glass as I drank it. Damn near perfect.

Jan 04, 2021

eppie82 from Illinois

3.63/5  rDev -20%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

On draft at Great Notion.

Deep dark brown with a lacey ring of foam around the edge of glass. Aromas had some maple and coffee, with chocolate and roasted malts. But the depth of flavor was not there, and certainly not to the level of something like Mornin' Delight. The maple seems artificial. Perhaps the thing that really didn't live up to expectation was the feel. Much lighter than expected

Apr 29, 2020

argock from Virginia

3.89/5  rDev -14.3%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

BEST PART OF WAKING UP 050619 stamp by rim. Poured into a snifter.

A: Black with 1-2 finger dark beige head with good retention and sparse lacing.

S: Unbelievably uncanny aroma of pancakes with butter and syrup with black coffee more present with warming.

T: The flavor is unfortunately hampered by a strong bitter burned coffee note and then extract-chemical character in the finish and aftertaste. The maple is strongest early and then fades. The background stout also doesn't come through much. Disappointing given the unbelievable aroma.

M: Hides the 11% well with smoothness but slight extract tang in the finish

O: Double Stack has good points and bad points. I am fairly sensitive to the artificial/chemical extract flavor and feel so it can rear its head in a beer like this one for me depending on the reliance on on extracts to get the finished flavor and feel.

Mar 09, 2020

JerzDevl2000 from New Jersey

4.53/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

I had no idea when I traded for this how highly rated it was on here. Sure, it's an American Imperial Stout with all the booze and heft that one would expect, but this was so tasty and wonderful that I didn't even notice how strong it was until I looked at the label. Yeah, this was a beast *but* it wasn't just because of the booze as this had enough behind it to back up it's overt heft. Of course, I thought that was a wonderful thing!

Of course, this had a dark brown pour to it with a thin, mocha head that didn't last long. The lacing left behind was thin and scattered as much of the soapy bubbles slid down the side of my pint glass after every sip. Tons of maple syrup, molasses, and rich coffee in the slightly muted nose but Good Lord, everything was amplified a few notches once I took a sip of this. Really, really impressed with how this felt as the thickness, sugary sweetness, and roasted notes came through in the taste. Lip-smackingly wonderful as even my hand smelled like fresh maple syrup once I put my glass down. If my breakfast at IHOP could be fermented and made to last for the duration, this would be the end result as I could almost taste the syrups that I pour on my pancakes, as I worked my way through this.

Sure, this was strong and it felt every bit of the 11% ABV that it was from the first sip down to the last one. When you have a beer that feels like pancake batter, berry compote, and fresh roasted joe all rolled into one, you don't forget it soon and that was the case with this offering from Great Notion. Slightly roasted, reminiscent of sarsaparilla, and slick like something fresh brewed, this beer was truly one of a kind. Dated11/26/18 near the top of the can with "DRINK NOW" above that, I let this go for a bit but it held up well over the last year and change. Easily worth it's accolades and ratings on here, I loved this beer and am so glad that I was able to get a can of it to review!

Feb 03, 2020

Donald_Loveland

4.67/5  rDev +2.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Canned: 09/06/2019
Poured: 01/16/2020

A: Pitch black, absolutely no light is getting through this one. Pour creates about a quarter to half a finger of light tan head that dissipates relatively quick.

S: Oh man, the second you open this can the immediate area around you is consumed with maple and coffee. This may be the best smelling stout I have ever had. There is a slight bitterness once you really stick your face in for a smell, but for the most part you can tell this is a maple bomb.

T: You are initially hit with a strong roasted coffee flavor that has a nice chocolate malt backbone to it. This evolves into a subtle maple sweetness that compliments the underlying bitterness well. I personally could have done for a tiny bit more maple that aligns closer to what I get on the nose, but you do get a wonderful maple aftertaste though!

F: The beer nicely coats your mouth with a thickness that is pleasant without being too sticky. This is about what I would expect from a stout of this size. I could do with a tad creamier mouthfeel, but perhaps I am just drinking too many barrel aged stouts.

O: I really love this beer. It gives the impression of being just a sugary maple overload, but the coffee and chocolate malt makes it a very well balanced and enjoyable beer. While it is a pretty big beer at 11%, it encapsulates it so well you wouldn't even know. I luckily bought a ton of these bad boys and I couldn't be happier about my decision. If you get a chance, PLEASE try this beer.

Jan 17, 2020

lucius10 from California

4.32/5  rDev -4.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Sweet, chocolate coffee, and pancakes with too much maple syrup nose! Ha! The aromatics dissipate a bit as it warms, unfortunately. Taste follows but only subtly sweet...you're hit with the dark chocolate coffee notes with a hint of maple syrup. The dark chocolate notes get more prominent and bitter as time goes on and overpowers the maple for me. It has decent depth, just a smidgen thin for my palate.

Dec 12, 2019

oldmankoch from Tennessee

4.48/5  rDev -1.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Nothing to say that hasn’t already been said. Maple, Coffee, Batter. Just a touch thin. Noticed during my beer flight that GN loves a more bubbly approach to their beers. All have been a touch thinner, more effervescent, than expected.

Nov 21, 2019

beerloserLI from New York

4.79/5  rDev +5.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

A pitch black pour with virtually no last head. Just a thin ring of brown and off-white foam around the rim of the glass. The nose is intensely floral with a concentrated maple syrup aroma. I love that smell and I can't stop sniffing it. The drinking hits with big waves of lovely chocolate malt upfront. The mouth feel is very noticeable with just a thick, and full bodied feel that really coats the mouth and lingers well after each sip. Despite the nose the main flavor on the drinking is the coffee. Big and roasted coffee grinds that finish nicely bitter. I'm mostly getting the syrup note on the finish but its very pleasant and not nearly as sweet as I had anticipated it to be or what the nose suggests. Additional notes of caramel, brown sugar, smoke, charred oak, burnt toast, vanilla, and molasses. Despite it's feel and abv the brew is super drinkable and I'm starting to feel it.

Overall, WOW, just fucking wow. I love everything about this beer. Its big and brash but yet very refined with some many flavors going on. This is why the nbs bif is so worth it. A borderline 5 for me players. I could drink buckets of this.

Nov 03, 2019

BBThunderbolt from Kiribati

2.65/5  rDev -41.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

16oz can, dated 9/6/19 (I think, the first digit is smudged. Happens when you dat eon the shoulder of the can instead of the bottom) poured into 14oz teku. Poured the expected and typical solid black color, with 1/4 inch of light brown head that had low retention and lacing.

The aroma was all coffee. Full on burnt Folgers. No maple scent, and no beer aromas either.

Pretty similar on the tongue, with the maple showing up at the finish. There was also a noticeable alcohol hotness that lingered on the back of the palate.

The body was well thinner than I anticipated, and thinner than the vast majority of big stouts. The beer did manage only a semi-sweet finish, I was expecting a Grape Lotion dye-a-beeetus inducing amount of sweetness.

Drinkability will depend on your level of coffee tolerance; I can handle it as a supporting flavor, but when it completely dominates the beer, well, I coulda just gone to Starbucks.

Overall, not only is this beer not my jam, I don't think it's good at what it's trying to be. As always, YMMV.

Oct 20, 2019

Benish from Wisconsin

4.3/5  rDev -5.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Appearance: poured pitch black. Appeared slightly thin while pouring and with no presentable head.

Smell: heavy aromas of maple. Almost intoxicating with notes of pancakes. Coffee is kind of hard to pick up, likely due to overpowering maple. There is a slight mocha to the nose. Overall very sweet and robust.

Taste: sweet sticky maple. Just a touch more bitter than I expected. Coffee a little more noticeable with is slight char and roast, yet the maple still dominate. There's also bakers cocoa and notes of caramel throughout, adding a little more complexity.

Mouthfeel: little sticky. Maybe just a touch more thin then their other stouts I have tried.

Overall: an excellent brew, comparing to TG Mornin' Delight, Double Stack is a little less robust and maybe could amp up the coffee or tone down the maple to add balance.

Oct 11, 2019

Sandis from Minnesota

4.5/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 16 oz. can at home. Thanks for the trade Dan! The taste of this follows the aroma with a nice mixture of maple and coffee. Thick. Very enjoyable.

Jun 05, 2019

TooManyGlasses from Canada (AB)

4.49/5  rDev -1.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

16 oz can from Oregon via a friend. Pours a rich thick black with half finger of medium brown head. Aroma on opening can hits with maple syrup evoking a full pancake breakfast - in the glass the aroma remains strongly maple but with definite coffee notes and hints of chocolate.
Taste is sweet maple, vanilla, balanced by coffee/cafe au lait, minimal bitterness, milk chocolate.
Smooth sweet mouthfeel without ever being cloying - creamy with pleasant carbonation. Absolutely fantastic beer.

May 31, 2019

Rristow from Ohio

4.77/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Tasted from can. Pours dark brown with tan head. Lots of maple and coffee on aroma. Taste is sweet with a chewy and sticky mouthfeel. Flavors of maple syrup, molasses, coffee. Awesome breakfast style stout.

May 29, 2019

amano_h from Oregon

4.43/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Every Summer, I make this frustrating mistake of thinking that I’m actually going to spend the entirety of the three four high climate months crushing can after can of refreshing Pale Ales or IPAs. This misconception usually results in me doing something stupid like buying multiple four packs of the same beer thinking that the hot weather will help me power through the beers, and make them feel enjoyable all at the same time, while completely discounting such variables as (1) the fact that the human appetite decreases during warmer seasons; (2) my taste buds seem to get burned out from hops a lot faster in the summer; and, (3) regardless of the season, I’m usually too tired to drink a large quantity of beer after work, so I tend to reach for the higher ABV beers than the lower.

So until those three variables are somehow resolved internally, I usually find myself doing the exact opposite of what I think I would normally be doing in terms of drinking during the Summer months: instead of crushing session IPAs, wheat beers, and bretty saisons, I end up fruitlessly trying to solodome bombers of BA stouts and passing out with over half the beer still left in the glass; or drinking one 12oz bottle of a high ABV stout and trying to start another lower ABV IPA and then passing out with over three-fourth of the beer still left in the glass; or actually finishing two tall boys of an IPA, going to bed at like 12:30 AM and waking up tired and hungover.

My idiosyncratic drinking habits formed from my highly functional alcoholism aside, it seems like a single 16oz can of a moderately high ABV stout is usually right around my happy spot of where I want to be when I’m too tired to do anything productive yet not tired enough to go to sleep—lucky for me my favorite brewery has made the ingenious decision of canning their most famous beer in tall boy format; unlucky for me, it’s so rich it’s almost taken me 5 weeks to finish a four-pack by myself.

When I heard that Mikerphone and Great Notion were brewing beers together, I was kind of hoping that their love child would be a cross between Smells Like Bean Spirit and Double Stack, kind of like what EvilTwin did with Westbrook with Imperial Biscotti Mexican Cake Break, but with less spice and more maple. And much less sticky cloying sweetness toward the back. I think they ended up putting out some strawberry IPA which I didn’t try because well, strawberry and IPA are not two words I ever want to see in the same sentence, as well as an imperial stout with peanut butter and marshmallows because I think the bottles were only put out in Chicago, and it was only briefly on tap if ever.
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If you haven’t gotten the hint by me wasting all this comment space while writing absolutely nothing about the actual beer itself, it’s because there’s nothing really to write about this beer: it’s coffee, maple syrup, pancake batter, and done. For posterity’s sake, I will go on record and point out that the beer also contains minor notes of whole grain pancakes which contains half-assedly molten dark cacao chocolate chips, but maple and coffee definitely are the two incredibly bold takeaways from this beer, and for anyone to miss it they’d have to absolutely no functional smell and taste receptors in their body at all.
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Compared to previous batches however, the body has become a lot more enjoyable, and by that I mean that it feels less like syrup and more like 99% humidity while being 102 outside on your skin/tongue. I’ve either become more accustomed to bold, sweet flavors, or Great Notion has wisely dialed down the pastrystout a little compared to their previous batches, so that even sugar averse sippers like myself can reach the bottom of the can, albeit very very slowly.
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I honestly don’t know how I’m going to finish the last remaining can inside my fridge.

May 12, 2019

miniditka77 from Illinois

3.96/5  rDev -12.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 4

Pours really nice with a relatively thick tan head. Smells wonderful, tons of maple followed by roasty coffee. Taste is underwhelming compared to the smell. Neither the maple nor the coffee is as strong as you would expect from the nose, and the base beer is not tasty enough to back them up. Some bitterness comes through, but it's almost burnt-tasting, not sure if that's from the malts or the coffee. Feel is not great. Not really very thick for an 11% stout, and it's a little over-carbed too. Overall, a fairly good beer, but disappointing. I would probably like it a lot more if I hadn't tasted other far-superior coffee/maple stouts like ISLBS and Imperial Falling Colors.

May 06, 2019

CHickman from New York

4.85/5  rDev +6.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 5

Pours pitch black color with a 2 finger thick foamy tan/light brown colored head that faded slowly and left very nice foamy lacing that did not slip down back into the glass.

Wow, the nose is like a fresh plate of pancakes with a whole bottle of syrup dumped on top of it. Aromas of fresh ground coffee, molasses, brown sugar, burnt coffee grinds, maple syrup, butter, cocoa powder, charred wood and sweet caramel or toffee notes. It teeters on too sweet, but is so rich and like an actual breakfast that it's wonderful to inhale. You can smell the brew in the glass from across the room.

The taste lived up to the hype. It was like dunking a syrup drenched pancake into a stout, then pouring the rest of the glass into the leftover syrup on the plate and tossing some coffee grinds in it. The roasty aspects and slight bitterness of the coffee dial down the sweetness to a reasonable level, but you'd better love maple syrup to drink this. The chocolate, roasted malts, burnt coffee, molasses and buttery notes from the aroma are also present in the flavor. This is craft beer at it's finest, as it's the total opposite of a macro brewed lager and yet made so well that it's delicious while hiding the 11% ABV masterfully. A nice chewy feel to the brew, it's so thick it has a syrup like resemblance. Outstanding overall.

May 02, 2019