Great Notion

I was at Great Notion last night with my two girls. It's the third consecutive time I have taken them there when it's daddy daughter daughter night out (aka mom kicks us out of the house for a variety of reasons). We live in SW PDX and was a 47 minute commute for us and I didn't hesitate to make the trek. It's a great place, they are over the top in a good way nice to us every time we visit. The gals and I dig the food, I dig the beer (especially the 5oz pours) and the vibe is fun. I wouldn't call it a kids place but rather a place that can cater and adapt to those of us that may have kids in tow. I recommend it to many based on hospitality alone. Salt and Straw a coupla blocks away is a plus for a rounded out date.

I haven't visited for Crowler releases. I probably will at some point.

I read the post from @paulypringles as a business person that is interested in the feedback of the customers. It would be hard to read some of these posts and not take it a bit personal and I think the opening comments had a sprinkle of that. In the end it's all good feedback and praise in this thread if one can find the actual, valuable message in commentary. I think GN has the opportunity to be great in this great city of ours. Their beer is unique and delicious. I look forward to seeing and supporting their growth.

My relevant background is beer drinking. I excel. Maybe too much of it given the recent tightness of my work slacks.

 

Once you guys have the new facility up and running, what kind of distribution should we expect to see up here in Seattle?

 

This is the most truest thing ever. No business ever, always pleased all their customers all the time.

Can Not Be Done.

All a business can do, is choose an approach, and withstand the inevitable storms. A lot of us hate the "hype rarity" model, and some of us embrace it. From an outsiders point of view, GN seems to have chosen the Hype model. Fair enough. Not everybody is going to like that decision. Thus the quote I picked resonates. Pick the market segment you want to please, and withstand the verbal barrage.

And, have a beer. Or 17.

 

Businesses striving for good service is mostly the norm everywhere in this country.. that alone is certainly not something that makes the NW unique. Also, the service we received at Great Notion actually did exceed the quality of service we've received almost anywhere else. There isn't another brewery we've visited that so easily accommodates the needs of, for example, my grandmother. Is there a problem with me mentioning/celebrating my positive experience?

Otherwise, thank you for the lesson.. Obviously even when a brewery is loved, feedback surrounding their practices can take a variety of forms. However, when feedback is beginning to take one particularly negative form, I figure it isn't a terrible idea to strike some balance with feedback of the more positive form.

 

Giving out Attaboys is a good thing, and should be done more often. I've got no issue with you giving them a pat on the back for a job well done. Maybe I misread your tone, but it seemed that you were a bit surprised that they were so accommodating. Around here the vast majority of places would have done the same, so I think it's typical behavior around here. Sorry if I misunderstood.

 

I do appreciate you taking the time to provide a response. However, we will have to agree to disagree on the bolded, which is the primary source of my criticism. Yes, your brewers make fantastic beer (I'm assuming the owner skill sets you're referring to) which will undoubtedly lead to some level of success and popularity all on its own. However, the GN strategy seems to be very much in line with the super hyped, long line type of thing that is very prevalent in other areas of the country. Which is completely fine ... totally up to you all on the route you want to go. This strategy certainly seems to work out for many breweries in other parts of the country that seem to be just printing money. However, many folks up here in the NW are not huge fans of this type of thing, hence some criticism. It just seems to me that your limited supply is your largest hurdle at this point ... not the demand for your product. So why keep building the hype/demand when you can't come close to satisfying your current customers? I sort of get it from a business/money-making standpoint (you want the demand to already be in place when the supply does eventually catch up) ... but not from a customer satisfaction point of view.

And yes, it is very apparent that you are building hype/demand for your product on social media platforms (gloating about how quickly crowlers sell out; constantly asking for folks to go vote for GN for this or that award; using all the right 'walezbro' keywords; etc.). Again, your prerogative to do so but note that it will rub some the wrong way.

I totally get this and you all certainly have a lot to be proud of. However, nobody said you shouldn't be proud and happy about your business. You can certainly be proud of your product and also hate to see your customers have to spend their valuable time waiting in a line in order to get that product. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Maybe I'm the only one ... but this just seems confusing, which was my point. Your blog post about your crowler release method mentioned M/W/F and made it seem like you would be doing a release each of these days. As we have come to find out this is not the case (I heard some folks that showed up and stood in line were a bit frustrated at this). You definitely could have clarified that the releases wouldn't happen on every M/W/F. Now it sounds like Mondays are out altogether (a change since the crowler release post). And also it now sounds like you may or may not provide advanced notice of a release. I realize everything is sort of in flux at the moment but this is very confusing for a customer and could have easily been clarified. Folks just want to know what's going on and what they can expect.

Personally, I love the 'silent release' thing. What's the benefit of announcing a release anyways? You and I both know that you will sell all of the crowlers whether you announce the release or not. I doubt you would have to worry about them taking up too much cooler space.

I think this is a great idea. Online ticketing is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to do this sort of thing without wasting everyone's time. Seems like you could always buy a commercial glass door cooler and stick it along one of the walls in the taproom ... I feel like a spot could be found (could definitely be wrong). I'm not sure how many crowlers that would hold but I would imagine quite a bit, especially if you modified the shelves for that particular height. I think the real question would be whether or not you want to spend the time and money on that sort of thing (and potentially re-arrange the taproom) when you will likely only be utilizing it for another few months.

Also, I really hope you're passing on all of the praise in this thread to your taproom staff ... seems like regardless of all other opinions that everyone really enjoys the taproom experience. It can be difficult to cater to such a diverse group of people and based on the feedback in this thread your taproom staff delivers to all different types of folks and regardless of whether or not this is the norm in the area it is still something to be commended.

This is a stupid long post and I apologize for any who read it all the way through. I'm attempting to get all of my thoughts out there so that going forward I will try and keep my opinions on GN to myself. Seems like every time I attempt to provide some constructive criticism the fanboys come out of the woodwork to call me a 'hater', which couldn't be further from the truth when it comes to GN.

 

"However, the GN strategy seems to be very much in line with the super hyped, long line type of thing that is very prevalent in other areas of the country. Which is completely fine ... totally up to you all on the route you want to go. This strategy certainly seems to work out for many breweries in other parts of the country that seem to be just printing money. However, many folks up here in the NW are not huge fans of this type of thing, hence some criticism."

I don't think anyone is a fan of lines, but when a brewery puts out beer on the level they are and people in Portland don't have many other options as far as hazy beers go then they will eventually have lines whether they hype their beers or not. You said why announce a release because they'll sell anyways. Exactly. The consumers are the people who hype the beers to that point, not the brewers.

Something I've notice about the PNW forum compared to other forums is PNWers love to complain. It's as if they'll find a way for any and everything to offend them. Kook's Burritos is a good and recent example.

 

this entire thread is really really stupid.

its just beer for christ's sake

 

That's pretty rich considering how often you come here to complain about us complaining about Grape Lotion.

 

But I really like beer.

 

Umm .... GN said themselves that they are starting to do some silent releases in the hopes that the crowlers last past 5 PM for the working crowd and to try and avoid lines. Yes, the beers will sell regardless, but there is a huge difference between a long line and selling out within 20 minutes and having no lines and having the crowlers last for hours. Do you not see these two completely separate scenarios?

Announce the release = long lines and a quick sell-out.
Don't announce the release = no lines and slower sell-out.

Still a sell-out. The latter just seems like a better experience for the customer. So my question was ... why announce the releases at all? You never once even attempted to answer this question. Thanks for your input though.

 

Just FYI - there's a ton of hazy IPAs in Portland now (some on par or better than GN stuff, most not). I'd be curious what lines would be like if limits were 1pp instead of 2pp and people weren't lining up for trade bait.

With you on the Kook's thing - from what I saw locally there were a lot more people - even in my circle of liberal *********s - who thought the cultural appropriation angle was dumb, but the complainers were a lot more vocal and annoying.

 

I'm going to briefly merge this lovely Great Notion thread with the equally lovely Visiting Tillamook thread. I think we all agree that Great Notion should brew a beer called Grape Lotion. It's also been generally agreed upon that DeGarde should brew a beer and call it Clam
Gun. And, thus, Great Notion and DeGarde must collaborate on a hazy sour and call it Clam Juice Lotion. I want to see how long the line would be for THAT crowler release.

 

Not gonna lie: I would go out of my way to try that beer.

 

Anyone who actually thought this was a big deal, I have a bridge I want to sell you in Brooklyn. Really cheap.

As someone who has recently graduated college, been involved and have friends involved with BLM, Bernie Sanders supporters (overwhelmingly), etc etc etc, I had 2 friends what were "outraged" by this. The vast vast vast majority was apathetic, and the ones who were slightly on the on the "offended" side wanted better info on the how they got stuff from the little old ladies because it sounded like they fucked them. Because that is sadly a very real thing. That's it.

 

I had not heard of the Kooks thing. Read a few articles now on both sides.
They did "steal" sometimes by stealth how the Mexican ladies made their tortilla dough.
Kinda stupid to talk about it..but thats white college priviledge.
Anyway the burrito in the pics i see looks gross.
But yes some Portlanders ( and many outside Portland ) do take such things seriously an I am happy they do...same goes for opinions on beer ownership.

 

Anyone try the new GN beer today?

"Double Dry Hop Hop Dry Double (DDHHDD):

Double Dry Hopped Hopped Dry Double is a verbal assault on your palate. We really pushed the envelope on this imperial session IPA. We quite literally and somewhat figuratively "Dry Hopped the Hops Dry." This beer is the epitome of a friendship. Drink beer and be good to each other."

While I do appreciate the symmetry I will not comment further on the name of the beer. I would be interested in hearing from someone who has tried it though. Also, can someone please explain what an 'imperial session IPA' is? I may just have no idea what I'm talking about, but I always saw 'imperial' and 'session' as mutually exclusive terms in regard to beer (one generally meaning higher ABV, the other generally meaning lower ABV). This beer is listed at 6.5%, which actually seems to be neither. Obviously a brewer can call their beer whatever they want, but this is a new one to me and I was hoping to get some thoughts of others with more experience. What would one expect from an imperial session IPA over just a regular IPA?