Great Notion

Yeah, also agreeing with this, though neither beer comes anywhere near Juice Jr or Juice Box. These adjunct/fruited/candied IPAs they're doing are great once or twice, but I could never see myself regularly returning to them. I have, however, purchased multiple crowlers of Juice Box.

I was at the brewery today and they were sold out of Orange Creamsicle, so I didn't get a pour. Whole Melon was fantastic, as was their kolsch, surprisingly, Baby Bear. They seem to have a knack for nailing the descriptions of their beer, almost too well.

 

Flying up to PDX 8/11, but my flight lands at 9am and I am making my way out to the coast for a few days. On my way back, I am spending a night downtown Portland and will be on the train back to the airport. I am thinking I can leave the hotel Sunday morning, and hop off the rail early and spend some time at GN but I'll have a few bags with me. Is there space to be a tourist and have luggage while hanging out to enjoy some beers?

 

It's fairly roomy in there and it's never actually been too crowded when I've been in there, so I would say you should be good. Especially if you will be arriving around opening (noon) on Sunday. The folks there are nice people so I'm sure you all will be able to figure something out and won't have any issues.

 

I've been there at noon on the weekend and it was basically empty. There's also a lot of outside seating (picnic tables, etc.) so I'm sure you could find a comfortable spot.

 

Yeah after google maping public transit I think it snuck a bus+train option in. I think I am going to just pony up the Uber $ and go the night before rather than on the way to the airport. I've been lucky to beer tour PDX a few times now so I feel free to hit up interesting/new spots rather than the standards (Cascade, HotD, Commons, etc etc). New plan of attack is to hit Apizza Scholls saturday night when they open at 5pm (is this suicide? I hear they are known for waits) and then uber out to GN, then back to downtown. Thanks for the help fellas

 

Awesome, two for the bar w/ pizza is my happy place. Works at Russian river, Pizza Port and pretty much all my favorite spots.

 

Just out of curiosity, I would like to get a feel for which of Great Notion's beers the members here have enjoyed the most. Due to the hype surrounding GN IPAs I was a bit surprised when I first visited the brewery a while back because I didn't really care for their core IPAs all that much (Juice Box, Juice Jr., etc.), but I fell in love with all of the other offerings such as the fruited sours, blended IPAs, and adjunct stouts. The one IPA that I did really enjoy is the Stash, but that is a bit of an outsider when compared to their other IPAs. I really enjoy the blueberry sour, the key lime pie, and the creamsicle IPA. However, hands down my favorite beer that I've had from them has been the Love and Mangos. I know a lot are not huge fans of fruited IPAs, but this is quite different from the standard. Love and Mangos is a blend of 80% Juice Jr. and 20% Zest (their Berliner Weisse) aged on Mango puree and vanilla beans. One of the better beers I have had from any brewery ever.

So, what are some of your favorite GN beers?

 

I really liked the peach punch so far... and the sour passion great cow...

 

Have really enjoyed all their beers, but Juice Box is still my favorite.

 

This is always so intriguing to me! Why I love to ask these kinds of questions.

 

Stash and Merry Dankster have by far been my favorite beers from GN, I'm with you man. Juice Box, Juice Jr, Ripe are great but they all feel like they were missing a little something that would put them over the edge (more body? more bitterness? something to balance out the sweet tropical fruitiness?).

I actually came on here just now to ask if anyone has any info on the hops in Stash or Merry Dankster. I think the dankness in those beers balances the fruit really well. Columbus perhaps? Both of them reminded me more of the last two Trillium beers I've had more than other other GN offering, and I know Trillium uses a lot of Columbus in the boil.

 

I've had Merry Dankster once and have a crowler of Stash coming with my parents early next week. I liked MD a lot, so hopefully Stash works for me.

 

I haven't had the Merry Dankster. I remember seeing some posts about it closer to the time they opened, but I think I came to the party a little late to try that one as they've never had it on any of the times I've been in there these last few months. Maybe more of a holiday themed beer that will show up again closer to Winter. Definitely on my list now though!

 

Flying into PDX this morning and want to hit GN at noon. Can anybody tell me what they have on draft/crowler fill? I checked the website but it said check Facebook for most up to date info and I don't have a Facebook. Much appreciated In advance !

 

Uploaded to their FB page yesterday:



As for which beers they'll be doing crowler fills ... that is typically a day-by-day decision by the brewery based on quantity of each beer. From my experience at least.