If you’ve ever tasted a hazy IPA, flavored stout, or fruited sour beer from Great Notion Brewing, you know they don’t mess around. The flavors are vivid, clearly defined, and imminently satisfying. There is no halfway with their beers—they go all-in, and yet they do so with a deft hand, finding balance despite the intensity.
Brewers James Dugan and Andy Miller cofounded the business with partner (and neighbor) Paul Reiter in 2016, and set out to make beers they couldn’t readily find locally—the kinds of beers that inspired their homebrewing. Juicy, hazy, fruity, sweet, and culinary-inspired beers have become their hallmark, and their beers have made a mark not just in their corner of Oregon, but on the national beer scene as well (their Mandela IPA was one of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®’s highest rated IPAs of 2017). Dugan and Miller come from different backgrounds, but share a common vision and culinary-inspired language that they apply to their brewing. For this rendition of Pick Six, they split a six pack between them, sharing anecdotes and personal histories that make the beers within meaningful and impactful to their brewing lives.
Trillium Brewing Artaic (now named Cutting Tiles)
(Boston and Canton, Massachusetts)
In 2012, a friend brought over a bottle of Artaic double IPA from Trillium Brewing that helped change how I thought about IPAs. It was brewed exclusively with Mosaic hops, which at time was known as HBC 369 before (thanks to Jason Perrault at Select Botanicals) it became Mosaic—a hop we all know and love. Artaic was brewed with Pilsner malt, white wheat, Mosaic hops, and wildflower honey, and it spurred a serious question in my mind—how could a beer be so simple, yet so complex? Artaic made me realize that my home brew recipes were overly complicated; it really changed my approach to brewing, and directly inspired the first batch of Juice Box DIPA. —James Dugan