Great Notion

Yeah they need to crack down on the parents that just let their kids run everywhere. Went there last Saturday and it was like eating and drinking at a daycare. Not enjoyable at all.

 

I'll just leave this here...

 

That sounds pretty amazing...though one of the worst designs i've seen in a while.

 

as a parent who takes his kids to breweries ( and restaurants in general) I try to be very sensitive to others.

the byproduct of so many breweries and brewpubs being family friendly is that it can start to feel like a daycare. My rule of thumb, treat these places like a movie theatre that is a little bit louder. If my youngest starts to cry or throw a fit, i take her outside and walk around.

Luckily, Ipads and WIFI has made this experience a lot easier.

my advice to Great Notion or any other brewery is to set up a side area for kids and families. pFriem has a cool little area, laurelwood has 2 such areas

 

FTFY.

 

Thanks, clearly what I meant

 

Too cool! Where did you find it???

 

My bad ... Great Notion FB event

 

I thought I saw Great Notion had some games and toys right by the front door? Anyway, I hear your suggestion for a kid area but appreciate if they want to exercise some caution in this area. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate more than a brewery that is kid friendly - pFriem has even bailed me out in the diaper and wipes area more than once.

However, if you start to become known as too "kid friendly" (like Hopworks, Laurelwood) that may end up attracting more chaos and your image just becomes the family brewpub. The families will flock and it can feel out of control for everyone involved.

Now that I have kids, I kinda appreciate the fact that there are places that are just for adults -- the Commons, Gigantic etc. Its hard to be stuck in the middle, like Great Notion seems to be right now.

 

yeaah, its always a delicate balance between family friendly and TOO family friendly. Laurelwood and Hopworks are REALLY family friendly, but at least they have an abundance of space and locations to not make it seem like you are trapped in a 1st grade classroom.

I just think its important for smaller spaces to have a little play-pen area to contain the little rugrats so they arent driving the non-kid having adults crazy.

Also, parents need to have some self awareness. Same with dog owners. Even though I like both kids and dogs, there are plenty that DONT enjoy their energy.

 

As a parent of a 4 yr old, I've learned by now when it's okay and when it's not to bring your child to a taproom. Breweries are a place for adults first and foremost. If your kid is having a bad day there's no reason to drag them along. I've multiple experiences of being on vacation and wanting to visit a brewery where my kid is not behaving. As much as I want to visit a new place and try new things I will end up cancelling a brewery visit. Drinking a beer to me is all about enjoying it in the moment, if there's wild children running around it's very distracting and unpleasant. I think it's important for parents to realize that in these cases it's better to miss a brewery trip then to make other patrons have a bad experience when it could have been avoided. All in all if your kids behaving stay and have a beer or two, if your kids not having it, better luck next time.

 

Great notion has kids toys, it's great, but not needed. Hotd doesn't. belmont doesn't. I like both. Anyone that has been around my me with the kid knows that he's pretty good... But if he has a bad day, we leave. it doesn't happen much. It's not nice to Subject others to that. Just be prepared and bring your own toys etc. Never let kids run wild.

 

Lol, I'm not giving him Jenga. When its nice outside he would prefer the gravel out back anyway.

 

Can we all banish the idea that "hoppier" is descriptive in a meaningful way? It's like calling a salad "vegetabley". Because a squash salad is the same as kale? I guess it tells you that hops or vegetables are involved ... but it's borderline useless. OK, most beers are hoppy in comparison to, say, a scotch ale. But I often hear people describe beers that are heavily hopped with noble hops or english varieties as "not hoppy enough." Drinking Noble King at Jester King I heard that comment. Drinking a highly hopped English IPA at Cellarmaker I heard that criticism. People often seem to mean "not American (or southern hemisphere) hoppy enough" but for some it means lacking in bitterness, for others it means lacking in aromatics or flavor components instead of bitterness. Yep, useless.

I feel the same way about the word "malty." People discussing Trillium or NE IPAs bend themselves into knots to talk about all components of the beers - the hop varieties, the innovative hopping schedules, the yeasts - as constituents of that NE style with the exception of the malt bill. But, you know what? The malt bill is a huge part of what people love about these beers ... the incorporation of flaked oats, flour, rye, triticale, dextrine, destrose. If you look across the battery of Trillium IPAs you'll see a great deal of attention given to the various malt profiles; that's what differentiates the street beers from mettle from the scaled beers, etc. The one that killed me lately was someone saying they liked an old ale but it was a little too malty. WTF? I like this steak but it's a bit too meaty.

Anyway, I'm sure you get this - just using your post as a launching pad for a tirade. But god damn, it's one of my pet peeves.

 

yup, agreed. mostly it's someone who's describing a flavor from a particularly dominant hop, which they cannot identify (and a lot of the time, it's galaxy). but regardless, "hoppy", "so hoppy", "not hoppy enough" are some of the worst beer review comments you can ever write. i reckon i wrote it once or twice over the years....

 

I've certainly seen less good, but I have to admit that it begs the question: what does a IIPA with passion fruit have to do with ruminants? I mean, do they brew it with lactose? Does it smell (or, heaven forbid, taste) especially like manure? Or is somebody having a joke? I get the Kesey reference, but the rest is an "udder" mystery...

 

Bro, bovine blimps and udder nonsense are what will rule the world:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-tillamook-fall-2015-update.341549/

 

Wow. That thread blew my
mind, like a bovine ori-
fice, spewing methane...