Great Notion Brewing

Shelly

This place is just The Best!! From atmosphere to service and even their choice of food trucks. Everything was simply OUTSTANDING. The staff knows their stuff. Had the pleasure of getting to know &Mel, as well as Smish Smash burgers and their delicious The OG burger with fresh French fries. Everything hit the spot.

Tiff Elmore

Portland got us hooked. Favorite beer hands down. The bartenders were friendly and it was an awesome experience as always. Definitely worth a trip. The brews literally never disappoint and nowhere else compares ☺️👌🏼

David Murguia

So excited to finally have great notion out here. Incredible IPAs, great hangout spot, and staff was super friendly. Don’t forget to take some stuff home!

Pedro Vicente

Great all around! Good beer and great atmosphere. The place is really well designed (although small). They do serve almost exclusively IPAs and Sours (they have some limited extra styles)

Yazdi Balsara

Great brewery , great atmosphere, I’m gonna definitely come back. They have some dope sour beers! Give em a try!

Rick Christiansen

We shared the Sf beer week flight and a BA flight. So good. The BA offerings were outstanding

Love the sours. They do everything a little different here! A no brainer when you're waiting for a train! Quiet vibes inside usually

BBA 11PM is redonk. Easily rivals Prarie BOMB. Wonderful job y'all. Opening it w/ that wax(?) required a feat of engineering but once I got it popped all is forgiven. I'll grab some more next week, A+

Very comfortable tap room with very interesting beers. The bartender Katy was a delight and very knowledgeable. I’m going back soon.

Been here a fair bit since opening and never had a negative experience - well-managed, friendly and knowledgeable staff, reasonable hours, open to outside food and regularly hosting food trucks and pop-ups, dog (and cat) friendly... All of that without even mentioning the beer itself! The taps have something for everyone, and the environment and atmosphere are a credit to Berkeley. Cannot recommend enough. A special thanks to Dom, Sam, and Joe for holding down the fort this afternoon.

10/10 great service! Sam made the entire night! Dom was very friendly and service was amazing! Everything I ordered tasted great and served quickly. Would come back for sure. Also had a wall of dog pics by the bathroom which was very cute.

James Johnston

BBA 11PM is redonk. Easily rivals Prarie BOMB. Wonderful job y'all. Opening it w/ that wax(?) required a feat of engineering but once I got it popped all is forgiven. I'll grab some more next week, A+

Dan Killam

Love the sours. They do everything a little different here! A no brainer when you're waiting for a train! Quiet vibes inside usually

Alexis Astling

10/10 great service! Sam made the entire night! Dom was very friendly and service was amazing! Everything I ordered tasted great and served quickly. Would come back for sure. Also had a wall of dog pics by the bathroom which was very cute.

Nicholas Ragsdale

Been here a fair bit since opening and never had a negative experience - well-managed, friendly and knowledgeable staff, reasonable hours, open to outside food and regularly hosting food trucks and pop-ups, dog (and cat) friendly... All of that without even mentioning the beer itself! The taps have something for everyone, and the environment and atmosphere are a credit to Berkeley. Cannot recommend enough. A special thanks to Dom, Sam, and Joe for holding down the fort this afternoon.

Tim

One of my favorite breweries in the bay. They are very innovative and constantly release new beers. I think their sours and hazies are their strong suit, but they make a large variety. Some of their sours can be very artificial tasting though. 15+ taps and a huge selection of 4 packs. Which is nice because if you like something you drank on tap, it's most likely available in cans as well. They run HH specials (Mon-Fri 2-5 pm and all day Sun, $3 off select drafts and $2 off select can pours) and discounted 4 packs sometimes as well. Small taproom, mostly just indoor bar and small table seating. Outdoor area is usually taken up by some food vendor and sometimes there's a food truck. They allow outside food as well. They have TVs for sports. 2 bathrooms. Beer tenders are always nice and let you sample before purchasing. Flights available as well. There's both paid and free (couple blocks away) street parking

If you want the best tasting beer come here. Might be the best ever I’ve had. If there’d be a drop of a dollar off the beer during 5-7 it’d be SRO. Standing room only. Owners may could go to RRB Santa Rosa for illustrations in a vibe where perfection meets the common man. Great Notion is the best beer I’ve been privileged to consume—I’m not certain but I don’t think anyone made me say that.

CBC Brew

If you want the best tasting beer come here. Might be the best ever I’ve had. If there’d be a drop of a dollar off the beer during 5-7 it’d be SRO. Standing room only. Owners may could go to RRB Santa Rosa for illustrations in a vibe where perfection meets the common man. Great Notion is the best beer I’ve been privileged to consume—I’m not certain but I don’t think anyone made me say that.

Cool little bar. Lots of different micro brews definitely like their West Coast style Brew. Hummus is also very good

Always a lovely selection of brews here. Honestly, they don't seem to make good IPAs here, but I do enjoy their fruity and sour beers very much. They had a lot of new brews this visit so ended up getting a sampler to try out the new beers. It's a small location so it can get pretty crowded, especially on the weekends, but well worth it for fruity and sour beers.

Andrew Suh

Always a lovely selection of brews here. Honestly, they don't seem to make good IPAs here, but I do enjoy their fruity and sour beers very much. They had a lot of new brews this visit so ended up getting a sampler to try out the new beers. It's a small location so it can get pretty crowded, especially on the weekends, but well worth it for fruity and sour beers.

Vinny P.

Cool little bar. Lots of different micro brews definitely like their West Coast style Brew. Hummus is also very good

Solid unadulterated No GO.. Rude. Condescending. Unprofessional bat tender...reading below..it's the same behavior Very unhappy I asked for menu and interpreted his convo with other guy behind the bar.. The bar was dirty.. water on bar and sticky..it clinged to my sleeve. I moved to the part by the window..even more sticky.. The vibe..just indifferent..almost snobbish. Parking..freaking problem.. Prices..reasonable. Safety..good. Clients..mostly white Overall... sucks Oh..what was doing there..a friend suggested we meet here. Status of friend.. fired😄😃😀.. need to crawl back up from dodo whole he is in.

Probably the most uncomfortable and worst bar experience I have ever had. I‘ll start off and say that I’m a bartender myself and would never treat guests how the bartender did. My friends and I met this girl who was a local. The next day she suggested we checkout this brewery that’s in her area because we love beer. We arrived. Grabbed a beer. The girl then walked inside, sat down, and we were casually chatting for maybe 2 minutes when the bartender told us that we all had to leave and that we are not welcome. There was maybe one other person in the bar during the daytime so we were confused. Turns out it was some personal issue the bartender had against the girl. Which is none of my business and I shouldn’t be kicked out of a bar after I paid for my drinks, tipped the bartender, and was just sitting there. I literally had to chug my beer and leave. At the minimum, which is still uncomfortable, tell the girl to leave. Not us. Based on the unprofessionalism and rudeness, I would not recommend this bar.

Justin Me

Solid unadulterated No GO.. Rude. Condescending. Unprofessional bat tender...reading below..it's the same behavior Very unhappy I asked for menu and interpreted his convo with other guy behind the bar.. The bar was dirty.. water on bar and sticky..it clinged to my sleeve. I moved to the part by the window..even more sticky.. The vibe..just indifferent..almost snobbish. Parking..freaking problem.. Prices..reasonable. Safety..good. Clients..mostly white Overall... sucks Oh..what was doing there..a friend suggested we meet here. Status of friend.. fired😄😃😀.. need to crawl back up from dodo whole he is in.

Vee

Probably the most uncomfortable and worst bar experience I have ever had. I‘ll start off and say that I’m a bartender myself and would never treat guests how the bartender did. My friends and I met this girl who was a local. The next day she suggested we checkout this brewery that’s in her area because we love beer. We arrived. Grabbed a beer. The girl then walked inside, sat down, and we were casually chatting for maybe 2 minutes when the bartender told us that we all had to leave and that we are not welcome. There was maybe one other person in the bar during the daytime so we were confused. Turns out it was some personal issue the bartender had against the girl. Which is none of my business and I shouldn’t be kicked out of a bar after I paid for my drinks, tipped the bartender, and was just sitting there. I literally had to chug my beer and leave. At the minimum, which is still uncomfortable, tell the girl to leave. Not us. Based on the unprofessionalism and rudeness, I would not recommend this bar.

RACIST establishment. Unless you’re white don’t come here. You can read all the previous 1 star reviews and see it’s all written by POC who were dismissed/ignored like me. That’s not a random coincidence. I came here purely because they have this amazing food truck outside, and while ordered I noticed in the food trucks window they had a menu for this place. I went inside to ask about something on the menu and was completely dismissed. I asked about “underberg” or something similar on their menu because it claimed to aid gut health etc and the workers looked at me like I was stupid! I was ready to sit down and spend money on beers, but with that experience and badgering for an answer about a menu item I was ok. No “How can I help you today” or “Let me know if you have questions.” Unprofessional establishment. You lose out on money not prioritizing customers who come and sit down. Hope the bartenders conversations with each other were life changing while they ignored me!!

If you’re looking for a place in Berkeley where the beer is aggressively fine and the vibes are…confusing, Notion Brewing is your spot. The beers tasted like they were brewed from a powerful concept called “good enough,” then gently watered down with the tears of disappointed hop fans. Each pint was a masterclass in mediocrity: not bad enough to complain, not good enough to remember. But the real highlight was the service. After I ordered one $5 happy hour beer, the bartender with the top knot—whose entire job in that moment was to pull a handle and look vaguely bored—seemed personally wounded that there was no tip for this herculean labor. The comment I got for not tipping on a single discount beer was the kind of you’d expect if I’d walked in and asked if they also served Bud Light on ice. To be clear: I’m all for tipping when someone actually, you know, does something. Make a cocktail, talk me through the menu, give a recommendation, crack a joke, I’m in. But getting guilt-tripped over not tipping on one happy hour pour felt like performance art about late-stage capitalism.

Amber Jamil

RACIST establishment. Unless you’re white don’t come here. You can read all the previous 1 star reviews and see it’s all written by POC who were dismissed/ignored like me. That’s not a random coincidence. I came here purely because they have this amazing food truck outside, and while ordered I noticed in the food trucks window they had a menu for this place. I went inside to ask about something on the menu and was completely dismissed. I asked about “underberg” or something similar on their menu because it claimed to aid gut health etc and the workers looked at me like I was stupid! I was ready to sit down and spend money on beers, but with that experience and badgering for an answer about a menu item I was ok. No “How can I help you today” or “Let me know if you have questions.” Unprofessional establishment. You lose out on money not prioritizing customers who come and sit down. Hope the bartenders conversations with each other were life changing while they ignored me!!

Tommy Hayden

Damn dude well I was stoked to head into this brewery cause of how beautiful it looks as well as the beer options. Beer. 10/10. Sadly the people they hire are not very "friendly" let alone "professional". A girl whom I met the day before told us we'd love it. When she came in 10 minutes after us, the bartender Dom was absolutely embarrassing and aggressive in making her feel unwelcome. The interaction was beyond UNPROFESSIONAL and made myself and my partner VERY uncomfortable. And asked us to leave with her. The interaction didn't have to be that way what so ever. He went out of his way to make a scene. It felt very childish for a lack of better words. Great beer guys.... do better with the youngins you hire. Sadly we won't be back.