Great Notion Brewing turns 10 this year, which in craft beer terms feels less like a milestone and more like surviving an entire weather system made of hops, fruit purée, lactose arguments, and the glorious collapse of the phrase “that’s not beer.” Somewhere along the way, hazy IPA stopped being a curiosity and became the atmosphere itself, and Great Notion stood right in the middle of the storm grinning like someone who’d just replaced your West Coast bitterness with mango clouds and dared you not to love it.
Founded in Portland in 2016 by Paul Reiter, James Dugan, and Andy Miller, Great Notion helped redraw the Pacific Northwest beer map with beers that tasted like blueberry pancakes, orange creamsicles, tropical candy static, and late-night dessert decisions that somehow still carried real brewing precision underneath the chaos. Ripe became an early lighthouse — soft, citrus-soaked, endlessly drinkable — while the rest of the lineup kept mutating outward into culinary sours, pastry stouts, barrel-aged curiosities, and fruit-loaded experiments that behaved less like traditional beer and more like edible fever dreams with excellent label art.
The official anniversary blowout lands June 27 in Portland, but tonighjt at Peaks & Pints feels like the Tacoma transmission ahead of the pilgrimage — Great Notion asked us to host a South Sound celebration for the haze faithful, the stout hunters, the smoothie-sour adventurers, and anyone who remembers the exact moment IPA turned opaque and the whole beer world tilted sideways into something stranger, juicier, and infinitely more fun. Peaks & Pints hosts a Great Notion 10th Anniversary Celebration for the South Sound beginning at 5 p.m. We’ll have the flight beers and others on tap, plus Great Notion Rep Peter will be in the house with swag.
Peaks & Pints Great Notion 10th Anniversary Party Flight
Great Notion Mellifluous #5
6.3% ABV | Smoothie Sour Ale | Portland, Oregon
Fruit punch explodes across the palate in thick tropical waves — pineapple flashing bright and acidic before guava, passion fruit, papaya, and apricot tumble together into something halfway between vacation cocktail, melted popsicle, and beautifully engineered chaos, the body lush and velvety enough to feel almost chewable while the tartness keeps the whole neon carnival from collapsing under its own weight, finishing juicy, sticky, and wildly unconcerned with anyone still trying to define what beer is supposed to be.
Great Notion Double Strawberry Raspberry Cheesecake
8.5% ABV | Smoothie Pastry Sour Ale
A thick rush of strawberry jam and tart raspberry spills across the tongue first, bright and saturated and almost absurdly lush before creamy vanilla and tangy cheesecake notes drift in behind it, the graham cracker crust lingering at the edges like crumbs left on the plate after a dessert nobody intended to share, the body dense and velvety without losing its lively berry spark, finishing rich, playful, and gloriously over-the-top in the exact way modern Great Notion beers seem to treat excess like an art form instead of a warning sign.
Great Notion Labrador
7% ABV | Hazy IPA
A dense tropical glow rolls out first — passion fruit, melon, and ripe citrus wrapped in that unmistakable Strata haze where juicy sweetness collides with a faintly dank, almost herbal edge humming underneath like someone cracked open a fresh bag of very questionable decisions at a backyard concert, the body soft and pillowy without losing momentum, bitterness staying low while the hop saturation stretches wide across the palate, finishing smooth, foggy, and just mischievous enough to make the whole thing feel like a punchline drifting slowly through a cloud of mango static.
Great Notion Jumbo
5.8% ABV | Milk Stout
Soft waves of chocolate and roasted cacao drift in first before peanut butter richness unfurls across the palate like melted candy-shop nostalgia, marshmallow sweetness floating just above the dark malt like smoke from a backyard fire pit where someone absolutely brought dessert before dinner, the body creamy and plush without tipping into syrupy excess, finishing smooth, sweet, and oddly comforting — like a midnight snack that somehow learned how to pour itself from a tap handle.
Great Notion Double Stack
11% ABV | Imperial Breakfast Stout
Dark roast coffee rises first like the smell of a diner waking up at midnight, then maple syrup rolls in thick and amber-rich, coating waves of chocolate malt and toasted sugar with the kind of decadent warmth that feels less like drinking beer and more like accidentally pouring brunch directly into your soul, the body dense and velvety without losing its roasted backbone, finishing sweet, smoky, and gloriously indulgent — the liquid equivalent of pancakes at 2 a.m. with absolutely no intention of making responsible decisions afterward.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
