Born in the humid, hop-stained daydreams of three Portland neighbors — the artist, the scientist, the businessman — Great Notion Brewing exploded onto the scene like a technicolor juice bomb in 2016, unapologetically dragging the staid, old-school Pacific Northwest beer scene into a kaleidoscopic new era. With absurdly creamy IPAs, blueberry-muffin-fueled sours, and stouts so rich they might as well file taxes as luxury desserts, these mad alchemists dared to unbutton the flannel of tradition and get weird—deliciously, deliriously odd. From their humble Alberta Street temple to full-blown fermentation empires in Portland and Seattle, they’ve racked up gold medals, critics’ swoons, and enough hazy worshippers to form a new religion. And through it all, they’ve kept their fermenters funky, their barrels boozy, and their middle fingers politely extended toward the mundane. Today, Peaks & Pints in Tacoma honors the gospel with a five-glass taster flight of Great Notion’s finest — Peaks & Pints Great Notion Beer Flight — because your tongue deserves a pilgrimage.
Peaks & Pints Great Notion Beer Flight
Great Notion Orange Creamsicle Fruit in the Can
6% ABV
Orange Creamsicle Fruit in the Can is what happens when Great Notion grabs your childhood by the sticky fingers and drenches it in tangy bliss and adult mischief. This smoothie-style sour doesn’t just whisper nostalgia—it firehoses your taste buds with Cara Cara orange pulp, dreamy vanilla cream, and the sort of mouth-coating lusciousness that would make a creamsicle weep citrus tears of joy. It’s not beer so much as a dessert séance, a zesty, lactose-laced invocation of every summer day you ever wished lasted forever, now poured thick into your glass and swirling with fermented wonder.
Great Notion Dead End
7% ABV
Dead End IPA is what happens when Great Notion grabs the wheel, floors it toward the hazy unknown, and refuses to ask for directions. A fog-drenched joyride through tangerine sunsets, mango mirages, and peach-laced alleyways, this New England-style IPA is dry-hopped into euphoric oblivion with Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, and Vic Secret — a hop trifecta so juicy, it might just leave teeth marks. But don’t mistake the softness for safety — there’s a sly, piney dankness skulking beneath the haze, whispering, “This dead end? It’s the only road that matters.” Pull over, sip slowly, and let the fog swallow you whole.
Great Notion Concentrated Clouds
7.1% ABV
Concentrated Clouds isn’t so much a beer as it is a psychedelic, lupulin-laced daydream torn from the collective unconscious of Great Notion, Tall Trees Brew Lab, and the mad wizards at Tree House Collective. This haze beast drips with Citra, Nelson Sauvin, and Rakau, then gets lovingly blasted with pure hop kief — because why dry-hop when you can spiritually baptize your IPA in concentrated green sorcery? What rises from this celestial fogbank is a citrus rapture, mango incense, and a creamy mouthfeel so decadent that it should probably come with a velvet chaise lounge and a fog machine. It doesn’t whisper “hazy,” it chants it in tongues, wrapped in strobe lights and the scent of neon peaches.
Great Notion Tiger’s Blood
8% ABV
Tiger’s Blood is what happens when Great Notion turns a carnival snow cone into a psychedelic fever dream, ferments it, and pours it into your glass with a wink and a dare. It’s strawberry and watermelon making out behind the bleachers. At the same time, coconut drips slowly down their sunburned chins — tart, tropical, and pulsing with the kind of summertime lust that should probably be illegal in three states. One sip and you’re barefoot at the state fair, woozy from sun and sugar, chasing that last gasp of childhood innocence laced with adult hedonism.
Great Notion Double Pineapple Mango Shake
9% ABV
Double Pineapple Mango Shake is not so much a beer as it is a decadent island hallucination, a tropical milkshake gone gloriously rogue in a fermenter. Imagine mangoes and pineapples frolicking in a velvet hammock of vanilla cream, sun-soaked and half-drunk on their juice, whispering sweet nothings to your dopamine receptors. It pours thick like lava from a hedonist’s volcano, coating your tongue in sunshine and leaving your inhibitions to melt into the sand.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory